Monday 22 September 2014

Vanuatu

The country consists of more that 80 small islands and officially is called the Republic of Vanuatu. Located in the South Pacific Ocean more than two thousand km away from Australia and around 800 km west of the island of Fiji. The island was inhabited by the Melanesian population when is was discovered by an Portuguese navigator. The island was claimed as a property of Spain and named Espiritu Santo. Later the islands were claimed by the British and the country only started is independence movement in the 70’s.

Economy

The economy of Vanuatu mostly consists of the export of locally made goods. Copra is one of the largest export for goods in Vanuatu, followed by beef, cocoa, timber, coffee, cotton, and fish. Since the 70’s when Vanuatu became on of the worlds offshore financial center a part of the economy consists of the offshore sector. The offshore sector includes telecommunications, banking, accounting, legal and other financial and commercial services. In the last couple years tourism sector has greatly evolved.

Incorporation

The usual time to register a company with the company registrar is around usually takes around two to three business days. Two types of companies usually get incorporated in the Vanuatu -  Offshore exempt company and international company. The minimum amount of directors for a company is one. The minimum number of shareholders differs depending on the company type. For an international company the minimum number is one and for a tax exempt company the minimum number of directors are two.

Company name

The name of the company must have the denotation that denotes limited liability of the company. A tax exempt company must have “Limited” in the title, an international company may have any phrase of words that denote limited liability. The name of the company may be in any language accompanied with a translation to English. The name may not be offensive on suggest any activity that is not legal, the name may not be similar or on par with a name of already registered company.

Taxation

Vanuatu is another great location regarding taxation. As the corporate taxation in Vanuatu is zero. Since the zero taxation, there are no double taxation treaties available.

Company upkeep

The minimum annual license fee is 300 USD this fee is higher for an exempt company, also the fee may higher for companies with larger share capital. There are no requirements to file any documents or to keep copies of them

Banking

Vanuatu used to be blacklisted by the International Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The laws and the structure of the offshore banking in Vanuatu has changed drastically and the country has been removed from the blacklist.


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