Owner's notes on running an international company

Registering a company abroad takes days. Keeping it in good standing, paying the right tax at home and keeping a bank account open takes years of small, dated obligations. These notes collect the three areas where owners of offshore and foreign companies most often get caught out, with the rules, deadlines and penalties stated by the sources they come from.

The notes are prepared from the public knowledge base of Offshora, a company formation and maintenance provider working with jurisdictions from the BVI, Panama and Nevis to the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UAE and US states.

The three notes

1. Annual obligations by jurisdiction. What each registry expects every year, including from a company with zero revenue, and what a missed date costs.
2. CFC rules: the owner's side of the tax. Why a zero-tax company does not mean zero tax for its owner, with thresholds and deadlines in the EU, Russia, Canada and Ukraine.
3. Passing the bank review. Seven steps a company goes through before a bank or EMI opens an account, and the package worth preparing before registration.

Three rules that run through all of them

• Inactivity cancels nothing. Fees, returns and beneficial ownership updates are due whether or not the account moved.
• The owner's country decides the owner's tax. The law of the company's country does not change the CFC thresholds or notification deadlines where the owner lives.
• Registration and banking are separate procedures. A certificate of incorporation does not come with an account, so the bank's questions are worth answering before choosing a country.

For a country-by-country starting point, see the Offshora list of offshore and international jurisdictions.