Five Regional Perspectives Of Constructing An Offshore Corporate Structure

The offshore company, the emblem of the tax haven jurisdictions, is owned by non-residents and it conducts activities outside the island of incorporation in order to benefit from tax advantages. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a comparative analysis on the trends of constructing the offshore corporate structures at the level of five regions where tax havens have been identified: The Caribbean Sea and Central America; Europe; Asia; The Indian Ocean and The Pacific Ocean. Based on the tax and corporate legislations the analysis is focused on the main tax advantages offered by these entities, the incorporation and administration procedures as well as the costs involved. The results have shown that pure offshore corporate legislation is to be found at the level of only three geographic areas: The Caribbean Sea and Central America; The Indian Ocean and The Pacific Ocean and the offshore law is predominantly international, with only fine regional differences.