Hong Kong Company Formation Services
Opening accounts in jurisdictions such as Singapore and Hong Kong is certainly possible but typically more of a hassle than doing so with some of the more well-known tax havens or by contrast more of a hassle than opening an account in a European jurisdiction where Gibraltar companies are more common.Incorporating in GibraltarWhen actually forming a company in Gibraltar be prepared for a fairly rigorous process, this is not like opening a company in say Delaware or Anguilla where essentially just providing the name of the company and owners is good enough. In order to safeguard their reputation that Gibraltar agents will require details about the nature of the business comparable to what's required to open a bank account and may decline applications based on certain types of business, which might negatively impact the reputation of the jurisdiction. If you're aware of this in advance and have prepared the process can be relatively smooth but expect some hassles as compared with more traditional offshore jurisdictions. The end result if you're not prepared is incorporations can drag on months rather than the optimal two week formation time if you are organized and prepared.When forming the company be sure to clarify you are forming a non-resident company (unless for some reason you want the company to be resident locally). Forming a local company certainly isn't the end of the world, while they will be subject to a 10% tax and audited financial statement requirements when the sales volume exceeds a certain threshold there is a quasi-territorial tax system in place that means depending on how operations of the business are structured the net effective tax rate might be quite low.All companies in Gibraltar are "limited".Management and ControlFor a Gibraltar company to qualify as non-resident it must have foreign management and control. What's the problem with this? It might not be a problem, it might mean the company can have essentially stateless tax residency much like how Apple Inc. has applied with a couple of their Irish subsidiaries in their tax strategy. However, for a lot of the world's jurisdictions, which determine corporate residency on the basis of management and control it could create issues. For example, I'd never recommend a Canadian company or individual form a Gibraltar company unless management and control were exercised somewhere else since Gibraltar doesn't qualify for Canada's favorable tax regimes and it also taxes based on management and control, meaning the non-resident Gibraltar company would end up fully taxable in Canada.
In other words whether to incorporate in Gibraltar becomes based on a variety of other facts and circumstances aside from the merits of the jurisdiction itself.Bottom line if you're going to form a company in Gibraltar and not have it be resident there be sure the foreign management and control won't make the company taxable somewhere else, perhaps somewhere more onerous.Asset Protection & ConfidentialityConfidentiality rules in Gibraltar are mediocre at best. While there are definite limitations on information sharing, which might come about as a result of tax information exchange agreements, FATCA, EU Savings Directive, and multi-lateral exchange agreements, Gibraltar does definitely participate in exchange sharing initiatives and is rated as largely compliant by the OECD.
