Liberia

Officially the Republic of Liberia is relatively small country in Africa. The country is rich of quite diverse ethnic groups. Home to almost 4 million people and with one of the fastest population growing rates for the region. The climate of the county is quite harsh, as almost half of the year the area is blessed with heavy rainfall and the Hartman winds blowing hard for the rest of the year.

Economy

The economic state of Liberia seems quite bad compared to other countries. Being one of the worlds poorest countries and having one of the lowest employment rates worldwide. Having it’s own currency - the Liberian dollar. Most of the population survives by gathering their own food - mostly fish. Due to this the GDP per capita is also one of the lowest in the world. The country is popular for flag of convenience - registering ships under a foreign jurisdiction in order to reduce the upkeep and maintenance cost of the ship. Another popular occurrence in this country is the direct investment, in the last ten years as more that 16 billion of US dollars have already been invested.

Incorporation

The type of the company that usually gets incorporated in Liberia for offshore use is Non Resident. For this type of company the minimum number of directors and shareholders are one. There is no requirement for the director to be local. Only a local office with a local agent must be held and a local secretary must be employed. The time of the company registration varies for one to couple of days.

Restrictions

Several restrictions are in place in Liberia, first of all the restrictions on business sectors such as trading with Liberia, banking or insurance. The company may not own any real estate in Liberia. Second there are name restrictions of the company. The name of the company may be in any language, as long as the language uses Latin alphabet. If the given company name is not in English, the Registrar may require a translation, to insure that the company name is on par with any restrictions. The name of the company may not be similar or identical to an already existing company. Names such as Bank, chartered and insurance may not be used. Also a suffix must be added to the company title, that indicates that the company is not a natural person.

Language

The official language of the Republic of Liberia is English, but there are more than thirty indigenous languages that are mostly used for verbal communication.

Taxation

Any non-resident company that gains all of its income from abroad the country is free of tax, as for the rest of the companies the standard tax rate of 24% is applied. There are couple of double taxation agreements available, most notable and greatly used are with Switzerland and Germany.

Company upkeep

The only yearly requirement to keep a company registered in Liberia is the annual payment of the license fee of 150$, there are no requirements to file annual return or submit accounts.

Education and health.

Liberia is in a quite poor state regarding the level of education. Only a bit more of the population being literate - 60.8 percent. The life expectancy is way below the world average - only 57 years, ten years bellow of the world average of 67 years.