BVI
BC · Business Company
✓The most widely used offshore company in the world✓No corporate tax, and the US dollar is the official currency✓Filed through a registered agent in one to three business days
Everyone recognises these names. That cuts both ways.
A Business Company in the BVI or an IBC in the Bahamas is among the fastest and cheapest companies you can register anywhere. It is also a name every compliance officer knows by heart, and your file has to answer for that before it answers anything else. Half of this list is not offshore at all - Barbados, Curaçao, Aruba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are ordinary economies with ordinary rates, free zones and treaty networks, and for a business that has to bank and invoice they are often the better answer.
18
Caribbean jurisdictions
6,000+
companies registered
70+
banking relationships
Updated
Where we register
Twelve that cover both halves of the region
Cayman Islands
Exempted Company
✓No direct taxes of any kind - there is nothing to be exempt from✓The Exempted Company institutional investors sign without questions✓A government-issued tax-exemption certificate, filed in three to five days
Bahamas
IBC · International Business Company
✓IBC at 0% - no corporate tax, no capital gains, no withholding✓A US-dollar-pegged currency under English common law✓Live within three to five business days through a registered agent
Nevis
LLC · Nevis LLC Ordinance
✓LLC under the Nevis LLC Ordinance - the asset-protection benchmark✓Foreign judgments are not recognised; a charging order is the only remedy✓Formed in one to two business days, remotely
Anguilla
IBC · Business Company
✓0% corporate tax and no capital gains tax✓No public register of shareholders, no minimum capital✓Filed on the island's electronic registry in one to three business days
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
BC · LLC
✓Business Company or LLC in one to two business days✓Territorial - 0% on foreign income, private registers✓SVG registers companies; it does not license forex
Turks and Caicos Islands
Exempted company
✓A British Overseas Territory where no income or corporate tax exists✓The official currency is the US dollar, not a peg to it✓Exempted company filed fully online in two to five business days
Barbados (IBC)
Ltd · Companies Act company
✓9% corporate tax, 5.5% for small companies - a real rate on a real filing✓40+ tax treaties, including Canada, the UK and China✓Banks onboard it the way they onboard a European company
Curacao (NV - BV)
BV · Limited Liability Company
✓Foreign-source profit outside the tax base since the 2020 reform✓The 0% Investment Company for holdings, the SPF for private wealth✓Dutch-Kingdom BV, signed by power of attorney in one to two weeks
Aruba
VBA · Limited Liability Company
✓22% profit tax, 2% in the free zone for qualifying trade and services✓A whitelisted Kingdom of the Netherlands jurisdiction, florin pegged to the dollar✓VBA incorporated by power of attorney in one to two weeks
Dominican Republic
SRL via Mercantile Registry
✓The largest economy in the Caribbean, two hours from Miami✓27% standard rate - and free zones at a genuine 0%✓SRL registered by power of attorney in one to two weeks
Puerto Rico
LLC / Corp - Delaware-style
✓4% by Act 60 decree on export services; standard rates run to 37.5%✓US soil, US dollars, US banks, federal courts, Delaware-style company law✓Company in one to two weeks; the decree itself takes three to six months
The part that ends badly
A famous island plus an empty company is the file that fails
These islands are the first thing the international compliance system was built to look at, and that work is finished. What is left is a set of rules. Substance tests on the island, de-risked correspondent banking off it, reporting where you live. That a company with nothing behind it cannot get through.
✓Economic substance legislation now applies across most of these territories✓Correspondent-banking de-risking hit this region hardest. A local account is not automatically a usable dollar account✓The registry name alone raises the level of enquiry before anyone reads your business plan✓Effective management and CFC rules where you live are untouched by a 0% certificate
None of that makes a Caribbean company wrong. It means the company has to be able to explain itself, and whether it can is decided before you file, not after.
Ask what would actually work →When it does work
The cases where a Caribbean company is the right answer
Most of what we register here is ordinary and dull. When the structure matches a real reason, the recognition starts working for you instead of against you. These are documents every bank, exchange and counterparty has read before.
✓Holding an asset. A yacht, a ship, intellectual property, a share portfolio✓A fund, SPV or joint venture where investors expect Cayman or BVI papers and will not sign anything else✓Asset protection under the Nevis LLC Ordinance, where foreign judgments are not recognised✓A genuine operating business in the region. Barbados, Curaçao, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic. With people, premises and treaties behind it
Each of those points at a different island, and usually at a different half of this page. Making that choice properly is the whole content of the opinion.
Get a free legal opinion →What registration covers
What we do, and what you get at the end
Incorporation is the easy part. The work is choosing correctly, satisfying the registrar and getting a bank account opened afterwards.
These include:
✓Choice of jurisdiction and legal form against your real activity✓Name check, incorporation and the full corporate document set✓Registered office and registered agent for the first year✓Beneficial ownership filings where the jurisdiction requires them✓Apostille and legalisation of documents for use abroad
Additionally, where it is needed:
✓Bank or EMI account opening, with 70+ relationships behind the application✓Nominee or resident director where the law requires one✓Substance. Office, staff and local presence✓Accounting, annual returns and tax registration✓Licences, permits and sector approvals
Several of these jurisdictions now require annual filings and substance reports that did not exist five years ago. We keep them filed.
| What | Typical time | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| Name approval | Same day to 3 days | Reserved company name |
| Incorporation | 1 day to 8 weeks | Certificate, charter, register of members |
| Corporate documents | With incorporation | Resolutions, share certificates, POA |
| Apostille set | 3-10 business days | Legalised documents for the bank |
| Tax and social registration | 1-3 weeks | Tax number, VAT where applicable |
| Bank account | 2-8 weeks | IBAN and access to the account |
The bank is the slow step everywhere, and it is the one that decides whether the structure was worth building. We start it in parallel, not after.
Comparison of jurisdictions
All 18, with the real rate and the real timeline
Two different products share this table. One is the classic zero-tax island company. Days to register, nothing to pay, a name recognised on sight. The other is a normal economy with a normal corporate rate, free zones and treaties. Read the rate column knowing which one you are looking at.
01
Fastest
Nevis and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines file in one to two business days. Anguilla, Antigua, the BVI, Dominica, Grenada and Saint Lucia take one to three. Speed has never been the hard part in this region.
02
Best known
The BVI has hundreds of thousands of active companies behind it; Cayman sits under most of the world's hedge funds and institutional SPVs; the Bahamas is one of the oldest financial centres there is. That familiarity is an asset and a trigger at the same time.
03
A real rate, on purpose
Barbados at 9%, and 5.5% for small companies. Curaçao and Aruba at 22%, with a 2% Aruban free-zone rate. Jamaica at 25% and roughly 7.75% in a special economic zone. The Dominican Republic at 27% with free zones at 0%. Puerto Rico at 4% under an Act 60 decree.
04
Priced in US dollars
The BVI and Turks and Caicos use the US dollar as their official currency. The Bahamian dollar and the Aruban florin are pegged to it. For a business that earns in dollars this removes a whole category of argument with a bank.
| Jurisdiction | Legal form | Time to set up | Corporate tax | Remote |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AnguillaMore details → | IBC · Business Company | 1-3 business days | 0% | Yes - via registered agent |
| AntiguaMore details → | IBC · International Business Corporation | 1-3 business days | 0% | Yes - via licensed agent |
| ArubaMore details → | VBA · Limited Liability Company | 1-2 weeks | 22% · free zone 2% | Yes - by power of attorney |
| BahamasMore details → | IBC · International Business Company | 3-5 business days | 0% | Yes - via registered agent |
| Barbados (IBC)More details → | Ltd · Companies Act company | 1-2 weeks | 9% · small business 5.5% | Yes - via local agent |
| BVIMore details → | BC · Business Company | 1-3 business days | 0% | Yes - via registered agent |
| Cayman IslandsMore details → | Exempted Company | 3-5 business days | 0% - no direct taxes at all | Yes - via registered office |
| Curacao (NV - BV)More details → | BV · Limited Liability Company | 1-2 weeks | 22% | Yes - by power of attorney |
| DominicaMore details → | IBC · International Business Company | 1-3 business days | 0% | Yes - via registered agent |
| GrenadaMore details → | IBC · International Business Company | 1-3 business days | 0% | Yes - via registered agent |
| NevisMore details → | LLC · Nevis LLC Ordinance | 1-2 business days | 0% | Yes - via registered agent |
| Saint LuciaMore details → | IBC · International Business Company | 1-3 business days | 0% - territorial | Yes - via registered agent |
| Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesMore details → | BC · LLC | 1-2 business days | 0% - territorial | Yes - via registered agent |
| Turks and Caicos IslandsMore details → | Exempted company | 2-5 business days | 0% - none exist | Yes - fully online |
| CubaMore details → | Law 118 - state-approved JV / 100% | Months, not weeks | 15% JV · Mariel 0%→12% | Assessment yes |
| Dominican RepublicMore details → | SRL via Mercantile Registry | 1-2 weeks | 27% · free zones 0% | Yes - by POA |
| JamaicaMore details → | Ltd via COJ | 1-2 weeks | 25% · SEZ ≈7.75% | Yes - by POA |
| Puerto RicoMore details → | LLC / Corp - Delaware-style | 1-2 weeks · decree 3-6 months | 4% by decree · standard to 37.5% | - |
Important: A 0% in this column means two different things. The Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos have no direct taxes at all. There is nothing to be exempt from. Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Nevis and Curaçao are territorial: foreign income sits outside the charge and income earned on the island does not. If you intend to trade locally, that distinction is the entire answer.
Nothing in this table is a recommendation on its own. The right line depends on your activity, your residence and which bank will take the file, and in this region the bank decides more often than the rate does.
Before you register
What every registered agent and every bank will want
The filing itself is short; an agent can do it in days. The part that takes time is proving who you are and where the money came from, and on these islands it is asked more sharply than almost anywhere else.
01
Passport and proof of address, certified For every shareholder, director and beneficial owner, and recent. An address document more than a few months old comes back. The agents on these islands are licensed and personally answerable for the file they submit, so they check.
02
A business activity the agent can actually file Not "trading" or "consulting". What you sell, to whom and from where. Agents reject wording that hints at a regulated activity they are not permitted to register, and the registrar rejects it again after them.
03
Source of funds, and source of wealth Documented, not asserted. Contracts, statements, a sale agreement, a tax return. More Caribbean files die here than at any registry, and the bank asks the question again, in more detail, after the company exists.
04
Beneficial ownership disclosure Every jurisdiction on this page keeps a beneficial ownership register now, closed or open. No public register of shareholders is not the same as no register. The agent holds the data and produces it when asked.
05
A registered agent and a registered office Mandatory on every island here and renewed annually. It is the agent, not you, who files with the registry, and the agent is entitled to decline you.
06
An economic substance return Required across most of these territories. Holding, financing, shipping, headquarters and intellectual property activity is what the tests bite on, and your answer has to match the one you gave the bank.
07
Annual return, and accounts in a growing number of places Miss them and the company is struck off. Restoring it costs several times the annual fee, and the bank usually closes the account long before the registry gets round to acting.
08
A bank that will take a Caribbean file Chosen before incorporation, not after. Correspondent-banking de-risking left this region with far fewer usable options than its company law suggests.
09
A licence, where the activity needs one Registering a company is not permission to run a regulated business. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines registers companies; it does not license forex, and you hear that from us before you pay rather than afterwards.
10
Your own country's reporting CFC filings, foreign-company disclosures and personal declarations do not vanish because the company sits on an island. We tell you what they are before you commit.
Note: If your answer on source of funds is thin, fix that before you choose between islands. Everything else on this list is administrative by comparison.
On the ground
Seventeen offices, our own people
Prague
Czech Republic
Vlkova 532/8, Žižkov
Berlin
Germany
Rankestraße 26
Singapore
Singapore
3 Church Street, #29-68 Samsung Hub
Bangkok
Thailand
Unit P01, Penthouse, VASU1, 1 Sukhumvit 25 Alley
Foshan
China
A-Tower, Yuneng Digital Plaza, 46 Lishui Avenue South
Bishkek
Kyrgyzstan
32 Razzakov Street
How it works
Five stages from first call to a working account
STEP 01
The opinion
Where you live, where you work, where you will bank and what the company will do. Out of that comes a jurisdiction, a legal form and a written reason. Free.
STEP 02
Documents and name
Certified passports, proof of address, the activity description and a name the registrar will accept. Translations and legalisation where they are required.
STEP 03
Incorporation
Filed by us or by our local partner. You receive the certificate, the constitutional documents and the registers.
STEP 04
Legalisation and the bank
Apostille where the bank needs it, then the account application. Started in parallel with the incorporation, not after it.
STEP 05
Keeping it alive
Registered agent, annual return, accounting and the substance filings. The part people forget until the company is struck off.
Why Prifinance
Why this is worth paying a lawyer for
Anyone can sell you an IBC in two days. The value is in the choice made before it and the account opened after it.
01
6,000+ companies, so the awkward cases are familiar
An agent who wants the activity rewritten before he will file it, a compliance officer who has decided what your island means, a substance return nobody warned the client about. We have answered all of it before.
02
The bank is chosen before the island is
70+ banking relationships, and we know which of them still look at a Caribbean file and which stopped years ago. In this region that is the constraint that actually picks the jurisdiction.
03
We send clients onshore when that is the answer
Barbados at 9% with 40+ treaties, or a Curaçao BV with foreign profit outside the base, will do more for a business that has to invoice than a 0% IBC ever will.
04
We say no, including to whole jurisdictions
Cuba is months of state approval under Law 118, not a company formation. Puerto Rico only pays off if you have the right to live in the US. You hear that before you pay.
05
Year two is where these companies are lost
Registered agent, annual return, substance filing, accounting. All of it from the same team that incorporated the company, because a struck-off IBC is a much more expensive problem than a maintained one.
Your team
The people who will run your file
Dmitri Mihhailov
General Partner
Leads Prifinance's corporate practice and oversees client engagements, with senior expertise in international company structuring and bank-account setup.
Eugeniu Bevziuc
Corporate services advisor
Corporate services and compliance: documents, legalisation, annual filings and the bank's questions.
Alex Danila
Company formation specialist
Your day-to-day contact - coordinates incorporation, documents and the bank introduction, from the first call through to launch.
Follow Prifinance
Active across our channels.
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Watch: how a Caribbean jurisdiction is chosen, and when we send the client onshore instead
Good to know
Four things about tax that change the answer
The rate in the table is where the conversation starts, not where it ends.
No tax and 0% are not the same thing
The Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos have no direct taxes at all. A territorial island exempts foreign income and taxes what is earned locally. Trade inside it and the 0% stops applying to you.
Substance is the price of the zero rate
The islands themselves now test holding, financing, shipping, headquarters and IP activity, with penalties and, eventually, strike-off. A company with no people and no premises is the exact shape those rules were written for.
Effective management and CFC rules follow you home
If the decisions are taken where you live, that is usually where the company is taxed, whatever the certificate says, and CFC regimes tax undistributed profit in your own hands.
Treaties belong to the onshore half
A zero-tax IBC has no treaty network to claim. Barbados has 40+, including Canada, the UK and China, and using one needs a tax residence certificate. Issued only where there is real presence to justify it.
Important: This is the argument for choosing the onshore option deliberately. Nine per cent in Barbados, or 22% in Curaçao on domestic profit and nothing on foreign profit, buys a company that banks, invoices and can survive a treaty claim. Nothing at all on an island with no substance buys a company that does none of those things.
Client notes
Google4.7★★★★★
Founders who wanted it done right.
Google4.7★★★★★
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Google
“I had their assistance in company registration and I would recommend them. They were answering all my clarification during the process and offering all their supportThank you Daniel and Irinia”
Google
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Google
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Google
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FAQ
What people ask before choosing an island
Which of these will a bank accept most easily?+
The onshore half. Barbados, Curaçao and Aruba have real rates, real filings and a whitelisted profile, and onboarding looks much like a European company. Cayman is the exception among the zero-tax islands - institutional investors and their banks read Exempted Company documents every day.
Which is the fastest?+
Nevis and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines file in one to two business days. Anguilla, Antigua, the BVI, Dominica, Grenada and Saint Lucia take one to three. None of that helps if the account then takes months.
Which of these is genuinely 0%, and which is only territorial?+
The Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos have no direct taxes in existence. Anguilla, the Bahamas and the BVI charge no corporate tax. Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Nevis and Curaçao are territorial - foreign income is outside the charge, local income is not.
Why would I pay 9% in Barbados when Anguilla charges nothing?+
Because 9% buys what nothing does not: an account a correspondent bank will keep open, invoices customers accept without a second look, 40+ treaties including Canada, the UK and China, and a filing history that answers the substance question simply by existing. If you have to trade and get paid, that is usually the cheaper company.
Is a BVI or Bahamas company a liability now?+
No, but it is recognised, and recognition means the questions come first and harder. The BVI still has hundreds of thousands of active companies behind it for good reasons - US dollars, English common law, final appeal to the Privy Council, documents nobody has to explain. What changed is that the company must be able to say what it does.
Are the shareholders on a public register?+
Not in Anguilla, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia or Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Turks and Caicos registers are closed. That is privacy from the public, not from anyone who matters - beneficial ownership registers, CRS reporting and the agent's own file all exist. Anyone promising secrecy is selling you a future problem.
What is economic substance, and does it apply to me?+
It is a requirement to have real activity in the jurisdiction - people, premises, expenditure, decisions taken there. It applies across most of these territories to holding, financing, shipping, headquarters and IP activity. If you cannot meet it, that on its own points you to the onshore half of this page.
Will a zero-tax company mean I pay no tax?+
Not by itself. Where the company is managed and where you are resident usually decide that, through effective management and CFC rules. Even the Cayman tax-exemption certificate says something about Cayman and nothing about your position at home.
Can I run a forex brokerage on a Saint Vincent company?+
No. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines registers companies; it does not license forex. Anyone telling you the company is the licence is describing a structure that collapses the first time a regulator or a payment provider looks at it. If you need a licence, we will tell you where one is actually issued.
What if the right answer is not a Caribbean company?+
Then that is what the opinion says, and we say it before you pay rather than after the second bank has declined you. Usually the reason is banking; sometimes it is that the rules where you live undo the whole point of the exercise.
Free consultation
Tell us what the company is for
Your activity, where you live, where your customers are and where you need to bank. You get a written recommendation with a jurisdiction, a legal form, a total cost and the reasoning - including the case for the onshore option where that is the better one. Free of charge.
Written assessment within 2-5 business days