 |
Why Crescent |
| Crescent Corporate Services Limited (Crescent) |
|
|
| What Makes Us Different |
- Highly dependable, professional, efficient and timely
- Comprehensive and personalized quality service at competitive rates
- Tailored services to suit the individual needs of our clients
- Courteous and caring staff
|
|
|
|
British Virgin Islands Advantages |
- Globally most preferred and highly reputable offshore incorporation jurisdiction, with over 1 million international companies registered
- Sophisticated investors use their BVI companies for legitimate multinational activities and for structuring flexible complex deals
- In some regions ( i.e., south China, Hong Kong) BVI incorporation is more popular for new up-and-coming corporations than even a local registry, and might account for almost half of inward investment into China (Financial Times of London Special Report, March 8, 2007)
- Also highly popular for value-added services and investment business, such as trusts, solvency, mutual fund registration and management, holding companies for multinational corporations, debt issuance vehicles, establishing joint-ventures, legal work and ship registration
- Second most popular jurisdiction after Caymans for establishing hedge funds
- Third largest jurisdiction after Bermuda and Caymans for captive insurance
- No-tax jurisdiction for local and foreign businesses
- Sound commerce, financial services and telecommunications infrastructure
- A politically stable and legally secure British Overseas Territory
- British Virgin Islands Law is based on the British Legal System and the English Common Law, ensuring international confidence, integrity and investor protection
- The court system's final level of appeal is to the Privy Council in the UK
- The British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission maintains a tight regulatory environment
to safeguard the globally-respected integrity of the jurisdiction, and has excellent working relations
with the corresponding US, UK and international enforcement agencies
- British Virgin Islands laws and government practices are considered among the most innovative, competitive and business-friendly of all the reputable offshore financial centers
- New British Virgin Islands Financial legislation does not distinguish between local and foreign-owned corporations, thus ensuring conformity with the OECD offshore "uncooperative tax havens" guidelines
- Major global banks are represented in the British Virgin Islands, including the FirstCaribbean International Bank (a subsidiary of CIBC)
- BVI's local currency is the United States Dollar
|
|
Offshore Jurisdiction Checklist |
Not all offshore jurisdictions have the same laws and business
practices or are reputable enough to incorporate or establish a trust Your choice of jurisdiction will
likely have significant impact on the future and well
being of yourself, your family, your heirs, and your
partners; for many years, and sometimes for the generations to come
Before selecting a jurisdiction to incorporate or to establish a trust, consider the following:
|
| |
| Questions to Ask |
Importance to You |
| Is the jurisdiction of incorporation or trust establishment
a no-tax or low-tax jurisdiction? |
 |
Jurisdictions with higher tax rates might assess your company or
trust on income earned in other countries |
|
Some countries impose
taxes on profits AND on general revenues, worldwide assets and inheritance or gifts |
|
Certain less-reputable offshore jurisdictions might retroactively
impose minimum tax payments |
|
| Does the jurisdiction have double taxation avoidance treaties with
your country of citizenship? |
|
Discuss with your tax adviser whether double taxation avoidance
treaties established by a particular offshore jurisdiction with your country of citizenship affect your tax status at home and abroad
|
|
| Does the jurisdiction treat its own citizens and local corporations the same
way it treats the foreign citizens and foreign-owned corporations? |
|
Governments frequently
view jurisdictions that distinguish between local
and foreign corporations as places to hide or
launder money - hence treating corporations or
trusts from these jurisdictions with suspicion
|
|
| Which offshore jurisdictions are considered more reputable? |
More reputable jurisdictions are the ones with:
|
British Legal System and the English Common Law |
|
Final court appeal to the to the Privy Council (House of Lords) in the UK |
|
Long-term political and economic stability |
|
Proactive government enforcement of international financial laws |
|
Proactive government enforcement of banking confidentiality laws |
|
Good interaction
between the jurisdiction's local government and
the US security enforcement authorities, and a
reputation for strict enforcement of the US-imposed
Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer
(KYC), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) and other business and financial legislation |
|
Comprehensive offshore financial legislation that supports corporate
and personal business interests and wealth creation |
|
World class electric power, telecommunications (voice, Internet) and
professional infrastructures (legal, accounting, audit, management) |
|
Presence of major global banks - a good indication of jurisdictional
respectability (even if the client does not plan on banking with them), as well as the range of banking services |
|
Use of a major international currency (US$ or Euro) rather than
a local currency that would necessitate expensive currency exchange for every transaction
conducted at the jurisdiction |
|
Use of English as a state language |
|
| Why is offshore jurisdiction reputability important to me? |
|
Corporations and trusts are established for the long term and actions
taken in the past will affect the future |
|
Jurisdictional reputability is especially important in inevitable cases of
sudden changes, such as death of a corporate principal (preserving the rights of widows and orphans),
a divorce, or a conflict among business partners
|
|
In some jurisdictions, court decisions can be subverted or outcomes can
by changed by bribing government officials, which will leave you with no means of recourse in the
case of a family or partnership conflict
(For more information see countries
Corruption
Perceptions Index at Transparency International) |
|
Avoid jurisdictions that are in effect under occupation by other countries |
|
| Why should I be concerned with the US security enforcement authorities
monitoring offshore financial centers? |
|
US security enforcement authorities monitor offshore financial centers
to uncover potential terrorist activities and money laundering from the illicit drug trade |
|
Although the US Government is concerned with the tax avoidance of US citizens,
it is typically not interested in legitimate tax reduction schemes conducted abroad by the individuals
from other countries |
|
Nonetheless, it is prudent to avoid jurisdictions that are historically
mistrusted by the US Government. Frequently, the US authorities might give more scrutiny to corporations
from these countries, whether they operate in the US or abroad, and even those companies that
are strictly law-abiding |
|
Alternatively, US authorities are frequently more liberal or even
indifferent to corporations operating in reputable
offshore jurisdictions, knowing that they undertake intensive security reviews |
|
Errors occur and can be corrected. To ensure peace of
mind, it is always advisable to check your own security status at the US's enforcement databases
before incorporation or establishing a trust, which can be provided discreetly by any licensed
Registered Agent and at a nominal cost |
|
| What are the upfront and annual filing fees? |
|
Filing fees may substantially differ, even among reputable jurisdictions |
|
European jurisdictions and European-based British territories are always the most expensive |
|
British overseas territories located in the Caribbean region typically
have more moderate incorporation and trust creation costs |
|
|
|
Our Addresses |
- For assistance with Crescent services, please contact
- Crescent Corporate Services Limited (Crescent)
- Email: crescorp01 (at) crescorpltd.com
- or fill out our Questionnaire
- Web: www.crescorpltd.com
- Fax: 284-494-5924
- Mailing Address
- Crescent Corporate Services Limited (Crescent)
P.O. Box 875
Road Town, Tortola
British Virgin Islands, VG1110
- Courier/Shipping Address
- Crescent Corporate Services Limited (Crescent)
Suite No. 6, Third Floor
Qwomar Trading Building
Road Town, Tortola
British Virgin Islands, VG1110
|
|
Business Hours and Official Holidays |
- Place an online order on the Web, 24 hours - everyday
Email us, 24 hours - everyday
Business Hours
- Mon to Fri: 9 am to 5 pm ECT
- Note that Eastern Caribbean Time (ECT)
is 4 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time
- (UTC/GMT -4), and that ECT does not
incorporate Daylight Savings Time.
| British Virgin Islands Official Holidays |
| Holiday | 2008 | 2009 |
| New Year's Day | Jan 01 | Jan 01 |
| H. Lavity Stoutt's Birthday | Mar 03 | Mar 02 |
| Commonwealth Day - British Virgin Islands | Mar 10 | Mar 09 |
| Good Friday | Mar 23 | Apr 12 |
| Easter Monday | Mar 24 | Apr 13 |
| Whit Monday | May 12 | Jun 01 |
| Sovereign's Birthday - British Virgin Islands | Jun 14 | Jun 13 |
| Territory Day - British Virgin Islands | Jun 30 | Jul 01 |
| August Festival Days - British Virgin Islands | Aug 04-Aug 06 | Aug 04-Aug 06 |
| St Ursula's Day - British Virgin Islands | Oct 20 | Oct 21 |
| Christmas | Dec 25 | Dec 25 |
| Boxing Day | Dec 26 | Dec 26 |
|
|
Significant Business Dates |
- Please update your business calendar with the following critical dates
|
|
Delivery |
- Please review all delivery address information before you submit an order, as incomplete address information or phone numbers might delay delivery
|
|
Delivery Times |
- All orders that require surface delivery will be delivered within five (5) business days of their receipt
- If special considerations are required for surface delivery on
weekends, please notify us and our staff will make every effort to accommodate you
|
|
Hardware and Software |
Crescent's overriding objective
is to enable efficient and cost effective corporate
governance services for all our clients -
Crescent's open-standard programmable
technology platform supports transactional delivery
of corporate governance services and periodic reporting
within and outside the organization
-
Written in XML, Perl, SQL, and integrated
with email, workflow agents and advanced AI expert-system
technologies, our corporate support system consists
of several hundred thousand lines of code and is powerful
enough to enable efficient and cost effective corporate
governance services
-
Crescent intranet/Extranet-based
services support sophisticated interactive forms, multi-field
intelligent inputs, in-context instructions and other
transactions, feedback and exception-management tools
compelled by their demanding functionality
-
Our customers can access the service
through most commonly used Web browsers and email client
software
-
Even though an Internet-based technology
platform always requires constant improvements and updates,
our main technology strategy is to upgrade as we go
and implement new competitive features with advances
in Internet and evolvement in customer preferences
|
|
Security Requirements |
If the system resides on open Internet, transactional
security can be enhanced by the use of Secure Socket Layer, Version 3
(SLL3) and 128 bits encryption keys, or even more powerful PKI solutions Browsers that default to the 40 bits International standard
will be able to service clients outside the US, UK, Canada and other
countries that have lawful access to higher bit encryption Many organizations ban the use of applets on local browsers
or strip them from the Web pages using a firewall or a proxy server.
Our technology platform does not overburden client organizations with
the need to change their security policies
|
|
Recommended Configuration |
|
Free Online Web Page Translation |
- Use free online translation engines to familiarize yourself with our services in your native language
- Use translation engines listed below at your own risk. Crescent
is not responsible for the quality of translation conducted by such
online engines
- Crescent can help you with selecting a certified translator
and obtaining a notarized translation copy of any document
|
|