The BVI Business Companies Act (No 16 of 2004) is a statute of the British Virgin Islands relating to the formation of all companies in the British Virgin Islands, both offshore companies and local companies. It replaced the extremely popular and highly successful International Business Companies Act.
The decision to replace the International Business Companies Act was driven by two things. Firstly, there was a general perception that the older legislation was becoming a bit dated, and needed modernising. Secondly, the OECD and other multinational organisations had expressed concerns about ring-fenced tax regimes in tax havens, such as that under the older legislation and were putting jurisdictions under pressure to repeal them. The British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission dealt with both issues in a single legislative swoop.
The BVI Business Companies Act is actually based upon a New Zealand statute (as opposed to the International Business Companies Act, which was based on Delaware corporation law). Conscious of how widely the earlier legislation had been copied by other tax havens, the BVI Business Companies Act was drafted with a large number of forms and procedures which specifically tied it into the Territory's regulatory structure, thereby making it much harder to simply copy and enact.
Read more about BVI Business Companies Act: Name, Features, Transitional Arrangements, Amendments, Replications
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