Key Takeaways
- A French resident can incorporate and own a Bermuda company without travelling, since the process runs through a licensed corporate service provider acting as local agent.
- Documents prepared in France can be signed, notarised, and apostilled locally, so the incorporation itself is rarely the hardest part of the setup.
- France's treatment of the foreign company matters most, including controlled-foreign-company rules, the France–Bermuda treaty position, and reporting the company, accounts, and your role.
- Owners should weigh economic substance in Bermuda, the exit-tax point, and how profits are brought back to France before committing to the structure.
Setting up a Bermuda company from France
Registering a Bermuda company from France is a route taken mostly by investors, fund managers, insurance and reinsurance operators, and holding-structure owners who want a stable, English-law jurisdiction with no corporate income tax at the entity level. The work is doable from France without travelling, because Bermuda incorporations run through a licensed corporate service provider who acts as your local agent and files with the Registrar of Companies on your behalf.
What makes it workable remotely is that Bermuda does not require you to appear in person; documents prepared in France can be signed, notarised, and apostilled locally and sent abroad. The harder part is rarely the incorporation itself. It is what France does with your foreign company once it exists, which is why your French tax position should drive the decision as much as anything in Bermuda.
This article walks through the entity choices, the remote filing process, the document and apostille steps in France, banking, and the French tax rules that bear directly on a resident owner. For the French side of the analysis, the French tax authority is the primary reference you and your adviser will return to throughout.
Why founders in France look to Bermuda
The draw is a jurisdiction with no tax on corporate profits, dividends, or capital gains at the company level, combined with a credible legal system based on English common law. For reinsurance, captive insurance, and investment-fund structures in particular, Bermuda has deep regulatory experience and a regulator the international market recognises.
For a France resident, the appeal is narrower than the headline suggests. France taxes its residents on worldwide income and runs anti-deferral rules that can pull a low-taxed foreign company's profits back into the French net, so the offshore tax saving is often neutralised. The honest position: a Bermuda entity earns its place where there is genuine non-French business, real substance, or a regulated activity, not where the only goal is to park French-source profit offshore.
Company Incorporation in Bermuda
Set up your company in Bermuda with Expanship handling registration end to end.
Company types available to non-residents
A non-resident owner almost always uses the exempted company, which is the standard vehicle for business carried on outside the jurisdiction and is fully ownable by foreigners. Other forms exist for specialised needs.
- Exempted company limited by shares — the workhorse for foreign owners; profits, ownership, and operations sit outside the local economy.
- Exempted limited partnership — common for investment funds and joint ventures, with a general partner and limited partners.
- Segregated accounts company — used in insurance and fund structures to ring-fence assets and liabilities between cells.
- Limited liability company (LLC) — a member-managed form modelled on the US LLC, available for those who prefer that structure.
For most France-based founders building a holding, fund, or insurance vehicle, the exempted company limited by shares is the default.
Who can incorporate: eligibility for France residents
A French resident, individual or corporate, can own up to 100% of a Bermuda exempted company. There is no requirement to be present, and no nationality bar on the shareholders or directors.
Two practical points apply. You must work through a licensed local corporate service provider, who runs the due-diligence and know-your-customer checks before filing, and certain regulated activities (insurance, fund management, banking) require separate licensing from the Bermuda Monetary Authority before the business can operate.
Ongoing Compliance in Bermuda
Keep your Bermuda entity compliant with filings, returns, and statutory obligations.
How to register a Bermuda company from France
- Engage a licensed corporate service provider who will act as registered agent and complete due diligence on you and any other beneficial owners.
- Reserve the company name and confirm the activity, share structure, and director and officer appointments.
- Provide certified identity and address documents for all beneficial owners, directors, and officers (see the document list below).
- The agent files the incorporation with the Registrar of Companies and, where the activity is regulated, secures consent from the Monetary Authority.
- On incorporation, you receive the certificate of incorporation, memorandum, and bye-laws, and the company can then open bank accounts and begin operating.
The entire sequence is handled by correspondence and courier; no travel to the jurisdiction is needed.
Documents you need from France
Expect each personal document to be certified, and in most cases apostilled, before it leaves France. France is party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so a French notary or the relevant authority can apostille documents for use abroad without further legalisation.
| Document | Form required |
|---|---|
| Passport copy (each owner, director, officer) | Notarised / certified copy |
| Proof of residential address (utility bill, bank statement) | Recent, certified |
| Bank or professional reference | Original, sometimes required |
| Source-of-funds / source-of-wealth evidence | As requested by the agent |
| Corporate documents (if a French company is the shareholder) | Certified and apostilled |
Arrange notarisation and apostille of your French documents at the start; this step, not the filing, is usually what sets the real timeline.
Bermuda Incorporation Pricing
See transparent pricing to incorporate and maintain a company in Bermuda.
Costs to set up and maintain
Costs fall into government charges and private fees. The government levies a fee on incorporation and an annual government fee thereafter, the amount of which is scaled by the company's authorised share capital; confirm the current figure with your agent or the Registrar before you commit, as the band you fall into changes the number.
Private costs recur every year and typically include:
- Registered agent and registered office fees.
- Corporate secretarial and annual compliance support.
- Optional director or officer services if you do not appoint your own.
- Accounting, audit (where required), and economic-substance filing support.
Set-up is a one-time spend; the registered agent, registered office, and annual government fee are ongoing and should be budgeted as a recurring cost, not a launch cost.
How long it takes
Once your due-diligence documents are complete and apostilled, a straightforward exempted company can usually be incorporated within a few business days to about two weeks. Regulated activities requiring Monetary Authority consent take materially longer.
In practice the limiting factor is your side: gathering certified documents in France and clearing know-your-customer review. Bank account opening is a separate process that often runs several weeks beyond incorporation.
Banking and moving money between Bermuda and France
France does not impose exchange controls, so a French resident can move money in and out of the country freely. The friction sits on the banking and reporting side, not on permission to transfer.
Opening a bank account for an offshore company has become the hardest single step. Banks apply heavy scrutiny to entities with no local presence, and many will want to understand the real business, the beneficial owners, and the source of funds before they open anything; a local Bermuda account is not guaranteed, and many owners bank the company elsewhere, including in Europe, where the relationship is easier.
Two French obligations attach the moment money and accounts exist abroad. A French tax resident must declare any foreign bank account held, opened, or closed during the year on the relevant annexe to the income tax return, and the same declaration duty extends to certain foreign life-insurance and digital-asset accounts. Failure to declare a foreign account carries fixed penalties per undeclared account, and the omission can also extend the period during which the tax authority may reassess you.
A foreign bank account linked to your company is reportable on your French return whether or not it produces income; non-declaration is penalised independently of any tax due.
When profits come back to France, the transfer itself is unrestricted, but the receipt is taxable in your hands. Treat the banking design and the French declarations as part of the same plan, not as an afterthought once the company is running.
Tax considerations for a France resident owner
This is where the decision is usually made or unmade. The entity may pay no tax in Bermuda, but France taxes you on your worldwide position, and several rules can bring the company's profits home.
France's controlled-foreign-company rules
France operates anti-deferral rules aimed squarely at residents who hold low-taxed or untaxed foreign entities. In broad terms, where a French resident controls or holds a significant interest in a foreign company that is subject to a privileged tax regime, meaning its tax burden is far below what French tax would have been, France can tax the company's profits in the resident's hands as they arise, even if nothing is distributed.
Because Bermuda imposes no corporate income tax, an exempted company is the textbook case these rules are built to catch. There are carve-outs, most importantly where the foreign company carries on genuine economic activity, but you cannot assume the carve-out applies; the analysis is fact-specific and should be run with a French adviser before incorporation, not after.
The France–Bermuda treaty position
There is no comprehensive double-tax treaty between France and Bermuda. That absence matters: there is no treaty relief to reduce or eliminate double taxation, no reduced withholding entitlement, and no mutual-agreement procedure to fall back on.
What does exist is a tax information exchange arrangement, so the absence of a full treaty does not mean financial privacy from the French authorities. Information flows; treaty protection does not.
Reporting your foreign company, accounts, and role
A French resident who owns or controls a foreign company faces layered reporting. Beyond the foreign-account declaration already noted, holding an interest in a foreign entity, particularly one in a low-tax jurisdiction, can trigger reporting of the participation itself and bring the anti-deferral regime into play on your personal return.
A French resident acting as a director or officer of the foreign company should also expect that role to be relevant to where the company is considered managed. If key decisions are taken from France, the tax authority may argue the company is effectively managed in France and therefore taxable there, regardless of its Bermuda registration.
Bringing profits back to France
Money returned as a dividend is taxable in France in the shareholder's hands; for an individual this generally falls under the flat tax on investment income, combined of income tax and social levies, unless you elect for the progressive scale. Salary or director's fees paid to you are taxed as employment or management income at your marginal rates.
With no treaty, there is no foreign tax credit mechanism to lean on for Bermuda, though in practice Bermuda levies no tax on the distribution to credit. Confirm the applicable flat-tax components with your adviser, as the social-levy and income-tax split can change.
Economic substance in Bermuda
Bermuda applies economic-substance requirements to companies carrying on certain defined activities, such as holding, financing, fund management, and intellectual-property business. Affected entities must demonstrate adequate local activity, management, expenditure, and people proportionate to the activity, and file an annual economic-substance declaration.
These rules cut both ways for a France resident. Meeting Bermuda substance can help support the genuine-activity carve-out under French anti-deferral rules; failing to meet it, or running the company from a desk in France, undermines the structure on both sides at once.
The exit-tax point
If you become a Bermuda company shareholder while resident in France and later leave France, France's exit tax can apply to unrealised gains on substantial shareholdings on departure. This is a France-side consequence to factor in if relocation is part of your longer plan.
Common mistakes France-based owners make
The recurring errors are French, not Bermudian. They turn a clean structure into a tax and compliance problem after the fact.
- Assuming zero tax in Bermuda means zero tax in France; the anti-deferral rules often tax undistributed profit in your hands.
- Managing the company from France, which risks the entity being treated as French-resident for tax and erasing the offshore benefit.
- Forgetting to declare the foreign bank account on the French return, which carries penalties independent of any tax owed.
- Treating economic substance as optional, then failing both the Bermuda filing and the French genuine-activity test.
- Building the structure for a purely French-source business, where the offshore layer adds cost and reporting without a defensible commercial reason.
Get the French analysis done first, then incorporate. Reversing that order is the single most expensive mistake here.
Conclusion
For a France resident, a Bermuda company is a specialist tool, not a general tax saving. It earns its place where there is real non-French activity, regulated insurance or fund business, or genuine substance abroad; used to shelter French-source profit, it is likely to be caught by France's anti-deferral rules and may simply add cost.
The one thing to confirm before anything else is your personal French exposure: have an adviser run the controlled-foreign-company analysis and your reporting duties against your specific facts, because that answer, not the Bermuda incorporation, decides whether this works.
How Expanship Can Help You Incorporate in Bermuda
Expanship sets up and runs Bermuda companies for owners based in France, handling the filing, the licensed local agent role, and the document flow so the process completes remotely from start to finish. Beyond incorporation, we support the wider needs of a foreign-owned entity, from substance filings to ongoing compliance.
- Forming your exempted company and filing with the Registrar
- Acting as registered agent and providing the registered office
- Supporting economic-substance and tax registration requirements
- Managing annual compliance and statutory filings
- Handling accounting and bookkeeping for the entity
- Introducing banking options for the company
To start or to weigh whether this structure fits your French position, contact Expanship Bermuda.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. The incorporation runs entirely through a licensed local agent, with your documents signed, notarised, and apostilled in France and couriered abroad, so no trip is required.
Yes. There is no nationality or residency restriction on shareholders of an exempted company, and a French individual or company can hold the entire share capital. Regulated activities such as insurance or fund management need separate licensing first.
Very likely, yes. France taxes residents on worldwide income and applies anti-deferral rules that can tax a low-taxed foreign company's profits in your hands even before distribution, so the absence of Bermuda tax rarely means no French tax. Run the analysis with a French adviser before you incorporate.
No comprehensive double-tax treaty exists between the two. There is a tax information exchange arrangement, which means information is shared but no treaty relief or reduced withholding is available.
Yes, if you are a French tax resident. Any foreign bank account you hold, open, or close must be declared on your French return, and non-declaration is penalised per account regardless of whether the account earned income.
Once your certified and apostilled documents are ready, a standard incorporation typically completes within a few business days to about two weeks. Bank account opening is separate and usually adds several more weeks, and regulated activities take longer.
Legal Disclaimer
The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or professional advice. While we strive to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the content, laws and regulations are subject to change, and the application of laws can vary widely based on specific facts and circumstances.
Readers should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel tailored to their individual situation. Expanship and its authors disclaim any liability for actions taken or not taken based on the content of this article.
For specific advice regarding your business setup, compliance requirements, or any legal matters, please consult with qualified legal and tax professionals in the relevant jurisdiction.
