Nevis International Business Company Incorporation (IBC)

No. Shareholders, directors and officers of a Nevis business corporation may be of any nationality and live anywhere, and nothing has to be signed in Charlestown. We gather the identity papers by email, prepare the Articles of Incorporation and the by-laws, and coordinate the filing on your behalf. Meetings are not needed either, since shareholders and directors may decide by unanimous written consent from wherever they are. The corporate kit is couriered to you anywhere in the world.

Everything the corporation needs to exist and to run through its first year. The government fees are inside the price, including the first year's flat renewal fee, along with the registered agent and registered office, the name checks, the Articles of Incorporation and by-laws, the registers of directors, shareholders and beneficial owners, share papers, courier delivery, an Airwallex account and the digital Certificate of Incorporation. Basic is US$1,149 and Premium US$2,099, which adds the physical original, a seal, incumbency and good standing papers and full authentication.

Yes. Every package carries free account opening with Airwallex, a multi-currency business account, subject to the provider's own checks. For a bank account in the Caribbean or elsewhere, we advise on which institutions accept a company with your activity and ownership, prepare the application and the supporting papers, and handle the bank's questions alongside you. Banks make their own decisions on their own timetable, so an account is never something we can promise.

Very little by the standards of most jurisdictions. There is no annual return, no accounts to file, no audit and no substance test. Two dates matter: the flat renewal fee on the anniversary of registration, and the simplified tax return by 15 April, which declares where the corporation is managed and attaches no accounts. Twelve duties in all follow the corporation, and eleven sit inside your annual engagement with us at US$999 a year. The twelfth is your own accounting records, kept five years.

Both. Moving one to us is a change of registered agent, at US$350, and then US$999 a year for the compliance package. The corporation goes on under the same registration, its record unbroken. A company formed elsewhere can also continue onto the island as the same legal person, which we advise on and manage. If you would rather close it, we prepare the resolutions and the closing paperwork, settle outstanding fees and manage the dissolution on your behalf until the file is closed.

No. Nevis law requires every business corporation to have a registered agent on the island at all times, and nothing can be filed without one, so there is no form you can send in yourself. What we add is advice on whether a corporation suits your plan at all, preparation of the Articles, by-laws and registers, management of the whole process on your behalf, and a team that stays with the corporation once it is incorporated.

One director and one shareholder, and they may be the same person. There is no maximum for either. Both may be of any nationality and live anywhere in the world, and the law asks for no local director, no staffed office and no meeting on the island. Alternate directors may be named to stand in a director's place. The Register of Directors and the Register of Members are held by the registered agent and reach no public file.

Yes to both. A company may serve as a director and a company may hold the shares, which is how a group parent or a family holding company usually sits above it. A corporate secretary is allowed too, where the by-laws provide for one. Whatever sits in the chain, the law asks who ultimately owns or controls the corporation, tested by control rather than a fixed percentage, and looks through every holding company until a person is reached. That record stays with the registered agent.

A great deal. There is no minimum capital and no minimum paid-up amount. Shares may be denominated in any recognised currency, issued with or without par value, and divided into as many classes as the Articles of Incorporation provide for, each carrying the rights written for it. Bearer shares are not allowed. The yearly government fee is flat and does not rise with the size of the authorised capital, so a Nevis IBC can be capitalised for a whole group without the cost moving.

Neither. The law leaves the offices to the by-laws rather than fixing a list, so a secretary is appointed only if you want one, and it may itself be a company. People often call it a St Kitts and Nevis IBC, but the corporation belongs to Nevis: the only address it must have is a registered office on the island of Nevis, not on St Kitts, and in practice that is the office of the registered agent, included in every package. You lease nothing and staff nothing, and records may be kept anywhere in the world provided they stay readily accessible to the agent.

For keeping a corporation's affairs off any public file. Shareholders, directors and beneficial owners of the corporation sit with the registered agent, there is no public search, and the record is produced to the authorities only on request. That is privacy, not secrecy: account balances still leave under CRS and FATCA. Two further features matter. A company formed elsewhere may continue onto Nevis as the same legal person, and the corporation may later continue out, so the structure is never locked in.