As you may know St Vincent & The Grenadines (“SVG”) recently passed regulations to bring to life their previously legislated VASP Act.
In short any SVG Company doing Cryptocurrency related business are now required by law to apply for a VASP License or face substantial fines/legal penalties.
BUT there is an alternative.
If you don’t have the cash or the wherewithal to apply for a VASP License what you could do is you could redomicile (ie migrate) your SVG Company to an alternative “Offshore” jurisdiction.
The last remaining jurisdictions which do not have VASP laws are:
- Panama -Check this link for info: https://offshoreincorporate.com/panama-offshore-companies/ &
- Samoa – Check this link for info: https://offshoreincorporate.com/samoa-international-business-companies/
Given:
(a) The legal certainty that Panama offers (the Panama legislature previously passed a VASP bill which the Panama courts declared invalid); +
(b) That Panama offers superior economic stability; +
(c) That Panama has much more infrastructure (including International banks, Muti national Law/Accounting firms etc)
the most popular choice of jurisdiction for OCI clients to migrate to, historically has been Panama.
How To Redomicile a Foreign Company to Panama
Law Decree Number 16 of 1958 regulates the re-domiciliation of foreign corporations.
In order for a foreign corporation to re-domicile in Panama they must be authorized to do so by the laws of the country in which it was originally registered.
The foreign corporation must also submit the following documents:
● Copy of the Articles of Incorporation and all the modifications made to the articles of incorporation (if any) and in general copies of all corporate documents;
● Certificate of incumbency with Apostille or legalized via the General Consulate of Panama in that country, which contains the full names of the persons that integrate the Board of Directors and of the Officers or Officers of the corporation.
● Resolution that authorizes the transfer of the domicile to the Republic of Panama (we will draft this document);
● Submission of KYC just like for a regular incorporation.
All the documents issued abroad must be legalized by the Apostille or by the General Consulate of Panama and translated to Spanish by a Panamanian licensed translator.
Foreign companies that re-domicile to Panama can continue to be subject to the laws of the country of origin in regards to their statutes or articles of incorporation, but they are subject to every law of public order of the Republic of Panama.
Said corporations can start operating in or from Panama only when they comply with all the requirements established in the Panamanian law.
After the re-domiciliation is duly registered in the Public Registry we provide a certificate of existence with the Apostille. This document certifies that the company is registered in the Panamanian public registry and all the pertinent data, such as directors, social capital, etc.
For the registration of a foreign company in Panama our fees are the same as for the formation of a new company, plus the costs of the translation of documents to Spanish.
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.
