In the past, locations in the Caribbean or certain parts of Africa like Mauritius were considered as ideal destinations for offshore company formation. This was mainly due to the ease of registering a foreign owned company in these countries and also more importantly the taxation laws for offshore businesses. Some would say the taxation laws were the only reason for several business owners from Europe and the United States to setup a presence in those countries. However, over time, most of these locations got the reputation of being tax havens and home to businesses that participate in some kind of illegal activities. For those foreign business owners who had a legitimate need of an offshore company, it became quite tough as they would be looked upon suspiciously as well if they went ahead with offshore company setup in those so called tax havens.
This was of course in the past when there weren't too many good alternate locations to the nations in the Caribbean or Africa. Today, legitimate businesses who want to setup an offshore company look no further than Singapore. The tiny country located in the heart of Asia is also one of the most developed nations in the world. Singapore's economy is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and the World Bank ranks Singapore as the easiest place to do business. One of the advantages of going to a traditional offshore company location was the business setup laws which have been trumped by Singapore today. A foreign business owner could complete their Singapore offshore company formation within a day or so without even visiting the country even once. Foreign business owners are allowed 100 per cent ownership in a company based in Singapore and they are allowed to manage the business from overseas.
Singapore also while having one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world of only 17 per cent, is certainly not known for being a tax haven and there is a lot more credibility in doing business in Singapore than the other traditional offshore locations. Singapore has a vibrant economy of its own and is one of the Asian tigers with an economy which could easily withstand the global economic recession. Singapore is one of the few places where there are still job opportunities for high skilled professionals and it has an infrastructure that is second to none. Singapore also does not tax foreign sourced income not remitted to the country and hence offshore companies can have the possibility of zero tax liabilities no matter how high their profit.
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