How to Set up an Offshore Company

Setting up an offshore company is advantageous from a tax stand point and there are many countries where you can set up a tax free organization. Popular choices include Hong Kong, British Virgin Islands (BVI), the Cayman Islands, Samoa, Singapore, Bahamas, Panama, Seychelles and Mauritius and the Marshall Islands (between Hawaii and Australia).

For residents of Thailand, normally it’s best to set up an offshore company in Hong Kong. It is tax-free (except on income derived from sources in Hong Kong), fairly simple and cheap to set up as well as having the advantage of being near to Thailand.

To set up an offshore company in Hong Kong, no presence is required – you can set it up without leaving Thailand.

To set up an offshore corporate bank account, you can set it up without leaving Thailand if you have a UK/US/European/Australian/overseas address. If you only have an address in Thailand, your presence will be required in Hong Kong.

For information on setting up an offshore company

Prices/Costs for Setting up an Offshore Company in Hong Kong

Offshore Corporate Banking Set Up Only US$550
Offshore Company Set Up Only US$1,650
Offshore Company Set up + First Year Fees & Corporate Bank Account Set Up US$2,150

Includes:

  • Offshore corporate bank account set up with HSBC
  • We accompany you to see the bank officer in Thailand and fill out all the necessary forms and documentation that needs to be completed beforehand.
  • Incorporation official filing fee
  • Business registration fee for the first year
  • Complete company kit
  • Provision of first year company secretary
  • Provision of first year registered office
  • Incorporation service charge
  • All courier fees to/from Hong Kong

Does not include:

  • 1000 baht fee payable directly to HSBC officer for certification of proof of address. This is only 300 baht if you are already an HSBC Premier customer.

Also remember there will be annual ongoing fees for your company. Typically, they will be around:

$2,250+ per year to cover:

  • Monthly accounting fees
  • Auditing fee
  • Employer’s return filing fee
  • Corporate profits tax return
  • Business registration fee
  • Provision of company secretary
  • Provision of registered office

For a free consultation with a financial advisor and lawyer, please fill out this form or click here to email .

Please note the following:

  1. You are required to pay an additional capital duty on 0.1% of the excess capital if the capital of your proposed company exceeds HK$10000;
  2. The above quotation only applies to the use of our standard memorandum and articles of association;
  3. The delivery fee of pre-incorporation and post-incorporation documents for your signing before the incorporation and the company kit to you after incorporation has not been covered in the above quotation. Please let us know where the company kit will be sent to so that we can quote you for the courier charge

To go ahead with the registration of a private limited company in Hong Kong, the client needs to provide us the following information and documents

  1. A photocopy of the passport of each director and shareholder of the proposed company;
  2. A photocopy of the residential address with proof of each director and shareholder of the proposed company;
  3. A Photocopy of the passport and residential address proof of the beneficial owner; in case of nominee director and shareholder
  4. The authorized share capital. If no otherwise provided by the client, we will apply for our standard authorized share capital. That is HK$10,000 divided into 10,000 shares of HK$1each;
  5. The issued and paid up share capital. If no otherwise provided by the client, we will apply for the minimum issued and paid up capital;
  6. The shareholding amongst each shareholder if there is more than one shareholder;
  7. The name and address of any third party of 18 years old or above who will witness the shareholders’ signatures in the Memorandum and Articles of Association (M&A). Please be advised that the third party is also need to sign in the M&A;
  8. The business nature of the proposed company.
  9. 3 proposed company names in priority.

Note:

  1. The particulars of the director(s) and shareholder(s) of a Hong Kong private limited are available for the inspection of the general public.
  2. If you would like to conceal the information of the director(s) and the shareholder(s). You may consider setting up an offshore company like BVI or Belize to act as the director and shareholder of the proposed Hong Kong company.
  3. We are also providing Corporate Nominee director and shareholder services, we will provide you the details upon request.

Please note that the residential address with proof can be bank statements, utility bills or telephone bills issued within the last 3 months.

Time Frame for Setting up a Company in Hong Kong

Tailor-made company 6-7 working days. The documents delivery time has not been covered.
Readymade company 3-4 working days. The documents delivery time has not been covered.

Setting up a Corporate Bank Account in Hong Kong with HSBC

We mainly work with HSBC, the SME center at our office for the establishment of the corporate bank account for our clients. Our services fee to assist you to set up a BusinessDirect account in HSBC Hong Kong is US$550. We can assist you to set up a BusinessDirect Account in HSBC HK with or without your physical presentation in HSBC HK. BusinessDirect Account is a multi-currencies which include the most common foreign currencies. You can apply for ATM card and/or Internet Banking Services. HSBC has superior Internet Banking Services, which allow you to do wire transfer online. Our services covers:

  1. informing you of the requirements of HSBC Hong Kong;
  2. making a prior appointment for you with our bank officer. By the way, we will accompany you for the bank meeting;
  3. collecting the ATM card for you if you do apply for an ATM card;
  4. sending the ATM card and internet banking PIN number and security device to you after their issue;
  5. For those director(s), shareholder(s) and bank account signer(s) who will not visit HK in person for the bank account opening to verify their signatures and certify their passport and residential address with proof in HSBC overseas branches.

Documents for Setting Up a Corporate Bank Account in Hong Kong

Regarding the establishment of a corporate bank account, the bank basically requests the following documents from the client:

  1. a set of certified true copy of the full set of corporate documents certified by CPA. We will do this for you if you will engage us for the bank account opening;
  2. The certified passport and recent residential address proof of each director, each shareholder and each ultimate beneficial owner who owns 10% or more interest in the proposed Hong Kong company and each bank account signer. The passport and recent residential address proof can be certified by CPA, lawyer or HSBC officer.

By the way, the bank requests a minimum initial deposit of HK$5,290 for its Business Direct Account . Please note that the bank would deduct HK$190/- as the setting up fee. Also the bank would deduct HK$100 as the company search fee (altogether US$38).

The account can be approved in 2-5 days. Issuance of an ATM card, internet banking, PIN number and security device takes around 2 – 3 weeks for the bank to issue our clients the materials.

Book keeping, Auditing and Tax Filing

We do provide bookkeeping, tax filing and arranging the annual auditing services. Please be informed that our services fee for the accounting and auditing quite depends on the total volume of transactions and total turnover. Our hour rate to update the books of accounts for your company is around US$40-50. By the way, there is another fee for the annual audit and tax file. Please advise us your expectation on the annual turnover so as to enable us to provide you our rough quotations for the annual audit for your reference and budgeting. We always look for building long term relationships with our clients, therefore, we always try to provide best services at most reasonable price.

You need to provide us all the source documents such as sales and purchase contracts, invoices, official receipts and other expense bill and all other documents which show the flow of the fund of the company for our accounting and auditing purpose. We suggest you to update the books of accounts at least once a month. If the source documents are not too much, you can send them to us by scanned

Hong Kong Tax Rule

In general, there is one type of taxes for corporation. It is profits tax.

Please be informed that Hong Kong adopts a territorial source principle of taxation. Only profits which have a source in Hong Kong are taxable here. Profits sourced elsewhere are not subject to Hong Kong Profits Tax.

Please browse the following website for details of the sourcing rules in Hong Kong:

Official Government site for Hong Kong tax guidelines

Payment Term

We request full payment in advance. We will provide our invoice and bank account details for your settlement upon the confirmation of your order. We don’t accept credit cards.

We shall be grateful if you can let us have your further instructions. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us about strong>offshore company registration