Offshore Company – Going Global

An offshore company is registered or incorporated outside the country where it has its main offices and operations, or where its principal investors reside. The term “offshore” can refer to any country, but it is mostly associated with certain countries, or jurisdictions, where the local laws offer asset protection, business flexibility, tax minimization and privacy protection. Forming an offshore company begins with choosing a business structure and jurisdiction. Then, the business owners must appoint a registered agent or trustee, incorporate the company and fulfill all financial reporting responsibilities.

Characteristics of offshore companies:

Offshore companies differ depending upon the corporate law in the relevant jurisdiction. All offshore companies have certain characteristics:

They are broadly not subject to taxation in their home jurisdiction.

The corporate regime will be designed to promote business flexibility.

Regulation of corporate activities will normally be lighter than in a developed country.

The absence of taxation or regulation in the home jurisdiction does not exempt the relevant company from taxation or regulation abroad.

Another common characteristic of offshore companies is the limited amount of information available to the public. This varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Most jurisdictions have laws which permit law enforcement authorities (either locally or from overseas) to have access to relevant information, and in some cases, private individuals.

Most offshore jurisdictions normally remove corporate restraints such as thin capitalisation rules, financial assistance rules, and limitations on corporate capacity and corporate benefit. Many have removed rules relating to maintenance of capital or restrictions on payment of dividends. A number of jurisdictions have also enacted special corporate provisions to attract business through offering corporate mechanisms that allow complex business transactions or reorganisations.

Uses of offshore companies:

There are frequent allegations that offshore companies are used for money laundering, tax evasion, fraud, and other forms of white collar crime. Offshore companies are also used in a wide variety of commercial transactions from holding companies, to joint ventures and listing vehicles. Offshore companies are also used widely in connection with private wealth for tax mitigation and privacy. The use of offshore companies, particularly in tax planning, has become controversial in recent years, and a number of high-profile companies have ceased using offshore entities in their group structure as a result of public campaigns for such companies to pay their “fair share” of Government taxes.

Tax Haven:

A tax haven is a jurisdiction that offers favorable tax or other conditions to its taxpayers as relative to other jurisdictions. Particular taxes, such as an inheritance tax or income tax, are levied at a low rate or not at all. Maintains a system of financial secrecy, which enables foreign individuals to hide assets or income to avoid or reduce taxes in the home jurisdiction.

The following jurisdictions are considered the major destinations:

(1.) Bermuda:

Bermuda earned the dubious distinction of ranking No.1 on Oxfam’s 2016 list of the world’s worst corporate tax havens. Bermuda features a zero percent corporate tax rate, as well as no personal income tax rate. Due to the lack of corporate taxes, multinational companies have raked in huge amounts of money in Bermuda.

(2.) Netherlands:

The most popular tax haven among the Fortune 500 is the Netherlands, with more than half of the Fortune 500 reporting at least one subsidiary there. Oxfam’s list of the worst corporate tax havens placed this Benelux country at No.3.

National governments often use tax incentives to lure businesses to invest in their country. However, far too often tax incentives have been found to be ineffective, inefficient and costly, according to Oxfam.

(3.) Luxembourg:

This tiny EU member state remains a center of relaxed fiscal regulation through which multinationals are helped to avoid paying taxes. It’s the leading banking center in the Euro zone, with 143 banks that manage assets of around 800 billion dollars.

Pros: In Luxembourg, disclosure of professional secrecy may be punished with imprisonment. Asides from that, many international corporations choose Luxembourg as location for their headquarters and logistics centers, due to low taxes and excellent European location.

Cons: Tax exemptions on intellectual property rights may come up to 80% in Luxembourg, which is why many companies choose to manage their IP rights from here. However, it’s important to note that the tax exemption applies only to intellectual property rights instituted after December 31 2007.

(4.) Cayman Islands:

Assets of 1.4 trillion dollars are managed through the banks in this country right now. Being a British territory, which has 200 banks and more than 95,000 companies registered, the Cayman Islands is the world leader in hosting investment funds and the second country in the world where captive insurance companies are registered (designed to ensure the assets of a parent company having another object of activity). Over half of GDP is provided by the Cayman Islands financial services sector.

Pros: The Cayman Islands is one of the few countries or territories in which the law allows companies to be formed and manage assets without paying tax. This is considered legal and it’s not seen as a strategy to avoid taxes.

Cons: The tax benefits for incorporating in the Cayman Islands exists mainly for companies who are doing business in several countries, in order to avoid the hassle of dealing with various taxation systems.

(5.) Singapore:

Strategically located, the Republic of Singapore has a reputation as a financial center that’s really attractive to “offshore” funds of Asian companies and entrepreneurs.

Pros: Legislation on the confidentiality of banking information entered into force in 2001 and since then, the electrifying city-state is recognized by the strictness with which it implements that law. And Singapore does not waive these rules, in spite of pressure from foreign governments.

Cons: Singapore is not a country used by wealthy individuals seeking important tax benefits, as most countries from this region offer a relaxed tax regime.

(6.) Channel Islands:

Located between England and France, the Channel Islands host hundreds of international corporate subsidiaries.

The Channel Islands consist of two British Crown dependencies:

  • The Bailiwick of Jersey, consisting of Jersey
  • The Bailiwick of Guernsey, consisting of three separate jurisdictions: Guernsey, Alderney and Sark

Crown dependencies are not part of the United Kingdom, but are instead self-governing territories.

There is no inheritance tax, capital gains tax or standard corporate tax. This has made Jersey a popular tax haven, and the island now houses $5 billion worth of assets per square mile. Maybe you should add the Channel Islands to your list when you look for cheap places to retire.

(7.) Isle of Man:

The Isle of Man is considered somewhat of a financial center for low taxes. This tiny island, located between England and Ireland has a very low income tax, of maximum 20% and no more than 120,000 pounds.

Pros: Low tax rates are not the only advantages offered by this small island. Their pension plan is also really great, which is way many companies choose to have their employee pension plans held in accounts in this country. It’s possible to benefit from these pension plans starting from the age of 50 and onwards.

Cons: Establishing companies in the Isle of Man may be costly, especially for non – commercial activities and the registration process can be quite complex.

(8.) Ireland:

Ireland is often referred to as a tax haven, despite Irish officials asserting that is not the case. However, a Congressional Research Service report found that American multinational companies collectively reported 43 percent of their foreign earnings in five small tax haven countries: Bermuda, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Ireland.

(9.) Mauritius:

Located in the Indian Ocean, near Madagascar, Mauritius is another island that attracts many foreign investments. A large number of international corporations have subsidiaries established in Mauritius.

Pros: The corporate tax levied in Mauritius is really low, compared with other jurisdictions, of only 15%. Capital gains and interest are not taxed in Mauritius and residents can also benefit from various tax exemptions, due to double tax treaties.

Cons: Mauritius was used as a location for investments, especially for those directed towards India, but in May 2016, a new protocol amending the double taxation treaty between India and Mauritius was signed. This gives India a source based right to tax capital gains, which arise from alienation of shares of Indian resident companies acquired by Mauritius residents.

(10.) Monaco:

This tiny state has only 36,000 residents, but it attracts many entrepreneurs and companies willing to invest in this small country. Why? Because the income tax for residents hasn’t changed since 1869.

Pros: Once a person has become a Monaco resident, they are allowed to keep all the income they make, without any limitations. It’s no wonder that most of the world’s millionaires are residents of Monaco. Corporate taxes are also really low, which makes Monaco a great location to start a company.

Cons: In order to become a Monaco resident, a person needs to be a citizen of an EU – member state or have a long-term French visa. It’s also necessary to deposit at least 100,000 Euro in a bank in Monaco, to have private health insurance and to buy a property in Monaco.

(11.) Switzerland:

Switzerland has in its banks right now the equivalent of 6.5 trillion dollars of assets under management, and 51% of that comes from abroad, so it’s not really a surprise the country is also a global leader in asset management, with a market share of 28%.

Under international pressure, Switzerland has relaxed slightly in recent years its laws on fiscal secrecy, but the lobby for keeping these regulations remains strong as evidenced by the aggressive policy of the country against pressures for disclosure of information in this sector.

Pros: Combining low taxes with a top – notch banking system, it’s no wonder that Switzerland is one of the most popular tax havens in Europe. Opening a Swiss company is a relatively fast process, compared with the legal hurdles of other European states.

Cons: Although any individual or legal entity is allowed to register a company in Switzerland, one of the conditions required by Swiss law is to have at least one Swiss company director. To solve the Swiss directorship issue and tackle company formation Switzerland you should talk to experts.

(12.) Bahamas:

Pros: In the Bahamas, the personal income tax rate is zero. It can’t get any lower than that, right? There is also no wealth tax, no capital gains tax, no withholding tax and various other tax benefits both for individuals and for companies.

Cons: Not everyone can take advantage of a tax exemption on personal income, just those who are also residents of the Bahamas. Obtaining the residence here requires, in particular, the realization of an investment in a local property of a minimum value of $500, 000 (or a minimum of $1,5 million for the accelerated procedure).

The Bahamas doesn’t levy direct taxes, so there are no double tax treaties with other countries, but this tiny country has signed tax information agreements with 29 other countries, including USA, UK and Canada. However, information disclosure is limited to criminal matters.

(13.) Hong Kong:

Hong Kong is one of the emerging tax havens, as here assets of 2.1 trillion dollars are managed right now. It has the second largest stock market in Asia, after Tokyo, and shows the highest density of people with fortunes of more than 100 million dollars. Just under half of foreign investment in China went to Hong Kong in 2012 for example.

Pros: Companies incorporated in Hong Kong pay tax only on profits sourced in Hong Kong and the tax rate is currently at 16.5%. There is no withholding tax on dividends paid to foreign shareholders and no tax on capital gain.

Cons: China’s control over Hong Kong hinder initiatives to increase transparency and further enables the holders of bearer securities – instruments for some of the most harmful criminal activity – to remain unidentified. This damages somewhat the credibility and the reputation of companies registered in Hong Kong.

(14.) Malta:

Malta makes it on the top of the list of the countries with the lowest taxes in the world in 2016, which is why is one of the best tax havens in 2017. Living on the small Mediterranean island makes it possible to gain the status of resident and to be thus taxed only on income from local sources.

Pros: One of the best tax advantages for individuals and companies is that there is no tax levied in Malta for revenues obtained abroad.

Cons: Maltese nationality can also be obtained through a citizenship by investment program, for those who want a faster process. However, in order to obtain Maltese citizenship, it is necessary to make investments in Malta worth about 1 million Euros.

(15.) Panama, which is a significant international maritime centre. Although Panama (with Bermuda) was one of the earliest offshore corporate domiciles, Panama lost significance in the early 1990s. Panama is now second only to the British Virgin Islands in volumes of incorporations.

(16.) New Zealand, the remotest jurisdiction, has the advantage of being a true primary jurisdiction but with a tough but practical regulatory regime. It is well positioned for the Asian market but retains close ties to Europe.

(17.) Nevis: the offshore companies located in this Caribbean island of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis are exempt from all local taxes, including income, withholding, capital gain taxes, stamp duties and other fees or taxes based upon income or assets originating outside of Nevis or in connection with other activities outside of Nevis.

Why Should You Hire Offshore Mobile Application Developers?

According to a recent market research survey, it has been estimated that there will be about 2 billion smart phone users by the end of 2015. As a result, mobile application development cannot be overlooked anymore. In the recent times, offshore mobile application developers are on a rage. With the inception of utilitarian applications, the mobile industry is slowly reducing the gap between business and personal life. With the passage of time, mobile phone apps have offered an opportunity to relate our social and emotional life. For a long lasting identity, Corporations have elevated this opportunity to increase revenue streams.

The inclination of mobile application development extends beyond all geographical boundaries. With the introduction of app stores, users now have the liberty to craft their innovative ideas in the form of an app or a game. Such attractive applications are now being made available to everyone. With some additional coding efforts, businesses can exploit several capabilities, enhancing the cross platform apps development for handheld devices.

All those who wish to become successful mobile application developers, must understand the importance of specialization. Working with different kinds of products and leaving your users with a series of choices, is one of the best ways to acquire fame and increase your sales. Obviously, a good product would reach billions, eventually getting you some good exposure within a short span of time. For better profits, mobile application developers must consider offshore services.

In the times of technological advancements, there is a need for a cost effective and a proficient service. This is when offshore development comes into play. Such a way, you just have to delegate a task to an individual or a professional organization, which possesses the right equipments and the expertise to perform a specific task. Businesses can access world-class capabilities while leveraging a global knowledge base.

What are the benefits?

Flexibility

Flexibility is one of the core benefits attached to hiring offshore mobile application developers. Regardless of where you are located, you can access professional help from all across the world. According to the latest market research surveys in 2011, about 65% of companies in the US preferred offshore services. Even during economic slowdown, companies still outsourced IT services to cut down costs. As a result, offshore mobile application development is a convenient and an affordable solution for developing apps and mobile games.

No Infrastructure

Another benefit of off shoring is to reduce maintenance cost and infrastructure. The offshore mobile developers have the required set-up to perform simple and complicated tasks. Apart from the work plan and the requirement, clients are not required to offer any kind of infrastructure. A few business organizations will allow developers to access internal resources and engage them into complicated tasks within the organization.

Outsourcing Transcription to Offshore Providers – Key to Reducing Healthcare Costs?

Outsourcing medical transcription work to offshore service providers has proven extremely effective in reducing overall transcription costs of individual health practitioners, clinics and hospitals. Organizations who outsource their work to offshore transcription providers save anywhere from 40 to 70 percent of the cost compared to doing the transcription in-house, or utilizing U.S.-based medical transcriptionists.

The other important advantage is that aside from the cost savings, there is the important aspect of a significant increase in quality of transcribed work because of the multiple editing and quality assurance steps built into the processes of offshore transcription providers, unlike U.S.-based individual transcriptionists which are primarily one-person operations. With outsourced transcription, you have an entire transcription organization servicing your needs: transcriptionists, editors, quality assurance specialists, efficient organizational processes.

The cost savings are possible because of the availability of highly-skilled, low cost medical graduates in prominent outsourcing destinations such as India and the Philippines. Based on a salary survey report for medical transcriptionists conducted by Payscale, the median salary for hospital-based medical transcriptionists is around $31,287 per annum, or approximately $2,600 per month.   In contrast, the average salary of a medical transcripionist in the Philippines, based on an online salary survey conducted by Jobstreet, the leading online job portal of the Philippines, is a maximum of $280 per month! This is 89 percent cheaper compared to the salaries of their U.S. counterparts. Even if you factor in the supporting quality check personnel, Philippine-based service providers still offer significant savings compared to U.S.-based transcriptionists. To illustrate:

  • A Philippine-based transcriptionist earns $280 per month
  • The support costs (salaries of editors, quality assurance specialists, admin, office costs, utilities) are more or less equivalent to effectively $300 per transcriptionist
  • Assume that the medical transcription service organization marks up by around 30%, therefore, you add another $174 per transcriptionist per month representing profits of the service organization.
  • Combine the three items and you get a figure of $754 per transcriptionist per month cost, significantly lower versus U.S.-based costs.
  • Compare this $754 per transcriptionist per month cost for outsourced transcription with the $2,600 per month salary of U.S.-based medical transcriptionists, and you get savings of $1,846 per transcriptionist per month, or 71 percent in potential savings!

The forecast U.S. medical transcription spending in 2010 is around $16.8 billion. Currently, only 40 percent of U.S. transcription work is outsourced to offshore providers. Outsourcing the remaining 60 percent transcription work to offshore providers represents a significant cost savings opportunity. Outsourcing this remaining 60 percent of the work to offshore providers, therefore, represent possible savings equivalent to $6.2 billion per year ($16.8 billion x balance 60% outsourced x 60% cost saving). Outsourcing transcription work, therefore, is a significant opportunity for reducing U.S. healthcare costs.

When to Consider Offshore Software Development

There are many notions floating around on what types of projects, what sizes and what kinds of projects can be offshore. There are as many myths surrounding them as real true stories. How to sift the wheat from the chaff?

For example, many small to medium-sized businesses believe that offshore software development is really meant for bigger companies. They think that hiring a small team of engineers will be enough. Will it really be enough?

The fact is, offshore software development works well across the spectrum of enterprises, both small and large and irrespective of their industry segments or customer base.

The reason for this is, offshore software development is not a vertical, standalone offering. It is an enabler. In fact, the software itself is an enabler – an enabler which leads to better business processes, cost efficiency, and faster turnaround times.

There are several companies which offer offshore software solutions and they work on the model of knowledge. They understand the client’s business and offer solutions which are customized to address specific needs. Whether it is SharePoint migration, a content management portal, an eCommerce platform or a multi-device software, these companies have made a business of understanding the pain areas and the solutions for specific domains and their knowledge, backed by technical expertise can help to produce faster and smarter solutions.

Whether the company is a small to medium-sized business or a larger conglomerate it can only stand to benefit from offshore software development. Take for example a commercial school bus fleet which provides tracking, safety, and optimization. The company believes in ensuring safe and efficient school bus-riding experience for children and parent. The company wanted a mobile app to track buses and thereby help schools to manage their fleet, at an affordable cost. The app would also be useful for parents to know bus arrival timings. The app, if it had to be developed in-house would require the company to move its focus from its core business, i.e. providing safe and secure school bus-riding to developing a technology solution. The shift in focus can have repercussions on its existing business along with cost implications and delayed releases. The company contracted an offshore software development firm to develop a customized app, with back-end server functionalities. The app was developed within stipulated time frames and went on to become a business model for other companies to follow. Its competitive advantage of floating the solution before its time ensured that it has gained a considerable advantage over its competitors. The client experiences business growth with minimal operational constraints. It has also expanded its business to cover other geographical locations.

This case study is only a small example of how a company benefited from offshore software development. Across the spectrum, many companies are trying to make their portals device agnostic. However, their web sites may exist in one language making mobile presence difficult. An offshore development company which has a strong team of engineers who can work on cross-platform applications will be able to create mobile presences for such companies without causing any worries.

In a similar case, many companies which have worked in an offline model, envisage a software solution to enhance their presence, improve processes, offer business efficiency and all at lowered costs. However, all these very reasons can be negated if the company decides to hire its own team of engineers. With constraints such as cost and time, the whole process from recruitment to testing will be a living nightmare and can, in the long run, prove to be over expensive, not exactly what was required or even be redundant.

To summarize, offshore software development is an option for companies irrespective of their businesses, industry or size. It is one of the best ways to make technology work for your advantage. In that sense, technology becomes an enabler and its advantages are important for companies to preserve their competitive advantage. To maximize the benefits of custom software, companies must prepare a comprehensive requirements list. The list should not outline what `they think’ is important. It should focus on end-customer benefits. These companies need not `talk’ technology. They should talk pain points. It is up to the service provider to convert these pain points into solutions using technology. It can’t get simpler than this, can it?

Offshore PHP ASP Net Developer Available for Hiring

Basically Pre Processor Hypertext i.e PHP is a extensively – used general-purpose scripting language that especially go for Web development and can be implant into HTML. It supports all the database like Oracle, MySQL, Sybase and operating systems like Linux, Windows, Mac OS and hence all these database and operating system attribute made PHP a most popular language among other languages. With the help of PHP programming language, Highly skilled professional programmers and developers design websites which are customer oriented and eye catchy in itself with attracting templates and best themes. Also the best dynamic pages, business pages which can be small or large according to business holders or client’s need.

PHP Developers:

Developers built business web pages for business holders and personal web pages according to the client’s needs. This is an open source programming language by which they can provide cost-effective complete programming solutions. Highly skilled professional developers can create enormous websites with all the above facilitates.

Also, the beyond compare programming services provided by PHP programmers and developers:-

• PHP web development

• Create MVC framework

• CakePHP

• Templating engines such as Smarty

• E-commerce solution for PHP

• Caching techniques to optimize system performance

• DBMS platforms such as MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, etc.

• Custom PHP application development

• PHP Zend

Today, in this cyber world, web portal development service has been using universaly by all buiseness holders. Web portals can be created as per the demands and concern of the customers. The best design can be bring into exsistence B2B, B2C portal and several other portals for small industry as well as large enterprises. They can also provide open source development to architect online shopping stores, channels, advertisements all that promote e-commerce solutions.

Advantages of hiring PHP developers and offshore developer:

• Available at cost-effective rate

• Assurance of quality work

• Delivery on time

• Client support

• Reliable

• High qualification with best skills

• Advanced technology

• Support and maintenance

Benefits of hiring dedicated developers are enormous. We provide best developers in the industry as per clients project requirements and who can manage our dedicated programmer as a virtual offshore PHP developer employee to handle any sort of challenging jobs.

This advanced growing scripting language moves the business beyond your expectation level in this highly competitive market. They are providing a huge range of solutions to the world for various needs.

Offshore PHP Developer

Hiring dedicated offshore developer from offshore outsourcing companies have become a great appeal in today’s web development market. The offshore outsourcing IT companies provides services of dedicated PHP developers. Client can hire dedicated programmer or staff as per their project requirements and manage our dedicated programmer as a virtual offshore employee. Our offshore developer dedicated development team will customized your business needs and its works like an in-house staff with optimal results and control in software development process.

Take Your Business to a New Level Through Offshore Development Services

Offshore web development is on its way of becoming an essential part of any business. Since, every business looks forward to expand their business activities, they would be looking for ways to reduce their operational expenses. This is where companies consider outsourcing works in IT and other software development areas, to experts who are skilled as well knowledgeable.

Offshore software development has become one of the most preferred as well as quickest ways to fulfill your IT infrastructure needs. Moreover, you will have your job done at a much lesser price as compared hiring your own staff or local personnel’s. Whether you choose to hire a single person or an entire firm to accomplish your tasks, hiring the services of an offshore software development firm would allow you to concentrate on other core activities of your business while saving large amount of time as well as money.

Software development has not just become an important activity but also an expensive affair for business organizations. Businesses are therefore routing their work to offshore software development firms that offer plethora of services that include website development, web designing, graphic designing, website maintenance, internet marketing, E commerce and multimedia solutions, and Open source software and other application development.

Usually, professionals from developing nations like India, Pakistan, and Ukraine etc offer offshore software development services. Since, the cost of infrastructure as well as manpower is significantly less in these nations, offshore clients preferably hire the services of these firms located in these nations.

These offshore development service providers have personnel who have experience as well as knowledge in diverse range of domains in the whole industry. These professional besides offering their dedicated services also ensure timely completion of the projects. Moreover, these service providers also provide with great after delivery support besides offering 24/7 real time assistance to their clients.

If you are thinking of automating your business operations, you should consider hiring the services of an offshore company instead of hiring an in-house development team. Besides meeting your current and future development needs, these companies provide you an edge over your competitors as they provide better IT support, competent software developers, time management, cost-effective development solutions besides having direct communication channels.

Outsourcing your business requirements to an offshore developer can be a smart and lucrative business move. However, by anticipating potential problems before they crop up will make the move even more rewarding.

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