The incorporation and operation of offshore companies is governed by the BVI Business Companies Act 2004, which is a modern piece of legislation that contains some of the most attractive features of other tax-haven jurisdictions. The new Act represents a further development in the already outstanding BVI offshore corporate legislation. The new law successfully addresses the challenges faced by the offshore financial industry in the 21st century, in particular the pressures against 'illegal discrimination' between domestic and offshore companies. Thus the new BVI Business Companies Act removes any former distinction between a local company (operating in the domestic market) and an offshore company (restricted only to international business). The differences between the new BVI Business Companies (“BVI BC’s”) and the International Business Companies (“IBC’s”) can be found by looking at the comparison chart.
Currently there are more than 800,000 BVI Companies registered in BVI.
Under the 2004 Business Companies Act, several different types of companies can be incorporated including:
- Companies limited by shares. Likely to remain the most popular form of BVI company.
- Companies limited by guarantee not authorised to issue shares.
- Companies limited by guarantee authorised to issue shares.
- Unlimited companies authorised to issue shares.
- Unlimited companies not authorised to issue shares.