Samoa Samoa 
A Samoa international company is cost-effective and well regarded abroad, and everything about it can be run from a distance. We manage the setup and the ongoing upkeep, from renewals and accounts to secretarial work and records, entirely on your behalf.
Expanship is a privately owned company. We are not a government agency, department, registry or regulator, and we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for the Government of Samoa or the Samoa International Finance Authority. We advise you, prepare and coordinate your paperwork, and act on your behalf; whether a company or document is approved, and when, is decided by those authorities alone.
The Jurisdiction
Company matters run on English common law inherited from Samoa's constitutional history, under an International Companies Act in force since 1988 and amended through it. The Court of Appeal in Apia is the final court; there is no appeal beyond Samoa.
The tala is the local currency, but the company transacts and holds funds in whatever currency it chooses. There are no exchange controls, no capital restrictions and no repatriation approval to obtain before money leaves.
The Register of Members and the beneficial ownership record are kept by your trustee company under the Trustee Companies Act 2017, available to competent authorities and to nobody else. No public filing carries the names of the people behind the company.
Samoa is administered rather than self-administered: a trustee company holds the registers, keeps the records and is the point of contact for the authorities. There is no resident director requirement and no local staff, but the trustee company is not optional.
A single renewal fee each 30 November. Accounting records are made up for every financial year and kept for seven years with your trustee company, not filed anywhere. There is no annual return, no accounts filing and no economic substance declaration.
Our services
Four kinds of work for a Samoa company, from formation to the single renewal each year. Each branch leads to its own page.
The company
Formed once through a trustee company, whichever structure you choose, then maintained by us through each 30 November renewal.
Overview
The entity
Existing company
After incorporation
Pricing
On the ground
On the board
On the share register
Our assessment of Samoa on twenty measures across five categories, each scored out of ten, alongside what the international bodies that review the country currently record.
Privacy & Confidentiality
Average 7.4
Banking & Financial
Average 6.9
Regulatory & Compliance
Average 8.5
Business Environment
Average 8.6
International Recognition
Average 6.0
Samoa scores 7.5 overall
Samoa
What the beneficial ownership register holds, who is allowed to see it, and what leaves the jurisdiction automatically each year.
How readily international banks open and hold accounts for entities formed here, and how freely money moves once they do.
The governing law, the bodies that supervise it, and where the jurisdiction sits on the international tax and transparency regimes.
What it takes to form and run an entity here: how fast, what it is taxed, and how stable the law behind it has proved.
How the jurisdiction is regarded outside its own borders, and how far its treaty and trade arrangements actually reach.
Start your company
A single fee covers the formation. The International Companies Act adds two appointments that last the life of the company, and your structure may call for two more.
One legal structure in Samoa, and every piece of work between your enquiry and the day the company exists.
Samoa International Companies Act 1988
Already have a Samoa company with another trustee company? Bring it to us for US$350, one time, and the annual package starts from the day it moves. About transferring your company
The package price includes the government fees, which are set by the Samoa authorities and passed on at cost. The rest is our fee for advising you, preparing and coordinating your paperwork, and handling the incorporation on your behalf; whether the company is approved, and when, is decided by those authorities alone.
A Samoa international company acts through a trustee company and keeps a registered office in Apia for as long as it exists. Both are covered for the first year and renew annually after that.
Appointment A
A Samoa international company is administered rather than self-administered: it acts at all times through a trustee company. We arrange that appointment, and everything the authorities send reaches you through it.
About registered agentsAppointment B
An address in Apia that stands on the record as your company’s address. Your statutory registers are held there by the trustee company and your correspondence is forwarded on.
About the registered officeA decision made at formation, not an addition later. Two distinct arrangements, each recorded in writing before a share is issued.
On the board
On the share register
An account is opened once the company exists, so it stands outside the incorporation itself. Help opening a multi-currency account is included in every package, and any other bank is arranged on its own.
Commonly opened in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, or with a digital provider. There is no requirement to bank in Samoa, and no exchange controls either way.
Ongoing compliance
A Samoa company is incorporated once and maintained for as long as you own it. Samoa asks less of it than almost anywhere, which is exactly why the little it does ask is so easy to miss. We hold that work under a single annual package.
The one service with no filing date attached to it, because nothing here is ever filed. The Act asks that the records be made up for each financial year and kept for seven years, so they are kept month by month and the figures already exist on the day anyone asks for them.
Accounting and bookkeeping Transactions recorded, accounts reconciled and financial statements kept current, with the records held where the law expects to find them and retained for the full seven years.Why Expanship
A Samoa company needs one renewal a year and its records kept straight. The team that set it up handles both, with the books and the local address, under one price you knew before anything began.
What every engagement includes
The setup, the local presence and the renewal work in one figure. Nothing added mid-way.
One person who knows your file and answers for it, not a ticket queue.
What we need from you, and what happens next, set out before the work starts.
The annual renewal, ownership updates, books and records, by the people who set it up.
Onboarding to signing, all online. No trip to the islands unless the law demands one.
Strict security protocols and professional confidentiality throughout the process.
FAQ
What Samoa offers, what little it asks each year, and how we handle it.
English common law inherited through Samoa's constitutional history, under an international companies statute in force since 1988 and amended since. The Court of Appeal in Apia is the final court. There is no appeal beyond Samoa.
No tax is charged in Samoa on income earned outside it, and there is no capital gains or withholding tax. The company pays an annual government fee each 30 November. Tax may still be due where the company is managed or its owners live.
Samoa came off the EU's Annex I list at the February 2026 review and is now on neither list. There is no FATF increased monitoring, and the OECD Global Forum's rating is Largely Compliant.
No. The record of members and the beneficial ownership record are kept by the trustee company under the Trustee Companies Act 2017, available to the authorities and to nobody else. No public filing carries the names of the people behind the company.
Yes. All of the shares can be held by people or companies outside Samoa, and the board can sit anywhere. The trustee company in Apia is the only local role the law requires.
Only the trustee company and the registered office in Apia, both of which we arrange. The trustee company holds the records and is the point of contact for the authorities. There is no resident director requirement and no local staff.
Usually abroad, in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia or New Zealand, or with a digital provider. There is no requirement to bank in Samoa and no exchange controls. We prepare the application and the bank makes the decision.
Formation starts from US$875 and the annual package from US$799 a year. The formation figure includes the government fee, the first year of the trustee company and registered office, and the company documents. Government fees are itemised separately on the pricing page.
No. Expanship is a privately owned company. We are not a government agency, department, registry or regulator, and we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for the Government of Samoa or the Samoa International Finance Authority. We advise you, prepare and coordinate your paperwork, and act on your behalf. Whether a company or document is approved, and when, is decided by those authorities alone.
Our own work: advice on the right structure and the right service, due diligence on every member, preparing and coordinating your paperwork, and handling your incorporation, annual compliance and company changes on your behalf. Where a package includes government fees, they are set by the Samoa authorities, not by us, and are passed on at cost; where it does not, they are quoted separately before you commit.
Contact Us
Setting up from a distance, moving an existing company, or renewing one each year. Describe your situation and a Samoa advisor will reply.
Expanship is a private company, not a government agency. Submitting this form requests a consultation with our advisors; it does not place an order, start an incorporation, or create a professional relationship, and nothing we reply with is legal, tax, or financial advice.
