Offshore Company - Importance of Choosing A Legitimate Jurisdiction

Importance of Choosing A Legitimate Jurisdiction

Many offshore jurisdictions are regarded by banks, the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) and other bodies in the finance industry as being regulated either as effectively as or better than their onshore counterparts whilst others are known to be areas of dubious legitimacy.

Unfortunately gone are the days (if ever they existed) where the distinction between onshore and offshore equated to legitimate or illegitimate. The current position is that there is no correlation between legitimacy of jurisdiction and tax status. For example Nigeria would not be regarded as offshore but perpetrates much of the world's advance fee fraud whereas Switzerland would be regarded as a highly respectable jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, some locations are still seen as being somewhat in between offshore jurisdictions and financial centres. The offshore regime in Cyprus for instance, although still maintaining low corporate tax and other benefits has successfully reformed all its financial sector legislation in line with international best practice, fully compliant with European Union directives, the OECD, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and Financial Stability Forum (FSF); since EU accession. Following these measure, Cyprus was excluded from the OECD's harmful tax haven blacklist and was placed on the OECD white list of territories which have substantially implemented the internationally agreed standard in tax transparency.

It is no longer possible for illegitimate jurisdiction to operate in light of the OECD and the FATF as well as current and pending US legislation (13/06/09). It is very much in the interest of most offshore jurisdictions to ensure their house is in good order as this failure to comply and subsequent sanctions could lead to the total economic collapse of a country dependent upon its international reputation.