The OCI team has been assisting clients to form/manage Offshore Companies for over 25 years. We’ve seen many cases where a/the client’s Offshore Company is deployed to acquire a residency for the client without anybody learning that the client actually founded or is secretly is behind the Offshore Company. Here’s how that typically pans out:
(a) You would form a tax free Offshore Company (ideally in a location where the Company owners details are not publicly accessible information)
(b) You would identify a /the home you wish to purchase
(c) The offer to buy the property would come from “Offshore” ie it would be submitted via email or over the web by your Offshore Company (“OC”)
(d) The OC would need to deploy an Offshore (ie nil tax jurisdiction based) “Nominee” Director – and the Nominee Director would need to sign all the paperwork including the sale/purchase contract and the transfer documents (+ the real estate agent’s appointments docs – see below)
(e) The OC would then hire a Property Manager/Real Estate Agent to find a tenant/someone to rent the property
(f) The Property Manager/Real Estate Agent would advertise the property for rent at fair market value (which of course could be at the lower/lowest end of the scale)
(g) You would apply to rent the property
(h) The OC would instruct the Property Manager/Real Estate Agent to accept your application
(i) You would pay rent to the Property Manager/Real Estate Agent who would then deduct a commission (anywhere from say 5% to 10%) and pay the nett rent to the OC. You are in effect paying rent to yourself (less a small commission)!
The secret is commercial reality ie it needs to look and smell like an ordinary/typical arms’ length property acquisition (& rental) deal… (and discretion is key – ideally you wouldn’t want the selling agent or the property manager to know that it’s actually an Offshore Company formed by you that is buying/renting the property).
AND if you live in a more sophisticated jurisdiction, if you want to have the option of potentially avoiding or limiting CGT/rent taxes/etc, (and /or to avoid being classified at law as the “beneficial owner” of the Company - which could trigger local reporting requirements) you’d need to also set up a Private Foundation ie to act as shareholder of the Company
Would you like to know more? Then please Contact Us:
info@offshorecompaniesinternational.com
DISCLAIMER: OCI is a Company/Trust/LLC/LP/Foundation Formation Agency. We are not tax advisers or legal advisers. You are advised to seek local legal/tax/financial advice in regards to your local reporting/tax requirements before committing to set up or use an Offshore Company or other entity.
