A Nevis LLC allows you to shield your assets from lawsuits, agencies, and financial creditors – owners are shielded from legal liability and can manage the company without becoming liable for company financial obligations or legal liabilities.

 

One major benefit is that a Nevis LLC has members rather than shareholders. Therefore, there are not any shares that can be seized by a court of law. Moreover, members are not legally responsible for company obligations.

 

ADDITIONAL NEVIS LLC ADVANTAGES:

 

• A manager can have 100% control of the company.
• The manager of the LLC does not need to have any ownership and yet can control the entire company and all of its assets.
• The company can have as many members (ie shareholders) as one desires.
• Any person or company can own the entity.
• Nevis does not impose corporate tax, income tax, withholding tax, stamp tax, asset tax, exchange controls or other fees or taxes on assets or income originating outside of Nevis.
• Members of Nevis LLCs may be individuals or business entities of any nationality or domicile.
• Members of Nevis LLCs may amend the Company’s Articles of Organization, merge, or consolidate with other domestic or foreign LLCs or other business entities.
• Members may assign their interests to other parties unless restricted otherwise. Nevis permits single member LLCs.
• Management of a Nevis LLC may be by the members or by managers designated by the members.
• There are no stock limitations – a Nevis LLC can issue preferred interests analogous to preferred stock of corporations.
• A Nevis LLC is an excellent vehicle if used by a group of investors for a joint venture investment. In this respect it functions as if it was a Limited Partnership, but with all the added liability protection features and advantages of a corporation.
• A Nevis LLC can be set up within 24 hours and has low initial cost and low annual fees.
• Any law suit attacking the transfer of assets to a Nevis LLC must be brought within 2 years otherwise it is statute barred
• If you are a member of  Nevis LLC and somebody (ie a Creditor) is wanting to attack your membership units, before the Vulture can proceed with a law suit, he/she/it must first post a security bond of $100,000 with a Financial Institution in Nevis.

 

LLC vs. Corporation:

 

The primary distinction between an LLC and a “normal” company such as a “C” corporation (USA) or a PLC (United Kingdom), is that an LLC is a tax-neutral vehicle because it is taxed as a partnership, rather than as a corporation. Thus, using an LLC can eliminate tax at the corporate level. In this regard, it is somewhat like a U.S. “S” corporation or a German GmbH but without all the restrictions and disadvantages. So if the LLC itself has no tax payment obligation – then who does? The obligation for any taxes that would otherwise be owed by the company bypasses the company itself and attaches directly to the members. Members are to LLCs what shareholders are to corporations. Other companies, as well as individuals and trusts, can be members of an LLC. There are no limits on the number of members or the classes of members that an LLC may have and  each member is responsible for his, her or its own pro-rata share of any overall tax obligation, if any:- The LLC itself has no tax obligations.

 

An LLC as an alternative to or in addition to a Trust

 

Because of the flexibility available in LLC management structuring, and because of the favorable way in which the laws of Nevis are drafted, this type of entity can also be used as alternatives to or in addition to an asset protection trust. The manager of an LLC is somewhat akin to the trustee of a trust and the members are akin to the beneficiaries of a trust. OffshoreCorporation.com can act as a nominee manager of an LLC on behalf of a client who desires to take advantage of our corporate management services.

 

Substituting an LLC for a trust can change the reporting requirements of taxpayers in onshore jurisdictions. The income or capital gain of an LLC is not reportable as trust income or gain or as corporate income or gain but is treated as personal income (as in the US or UK) or gain or is non-taxable, depending upon the jurisdiction in which the owners reside.

 

Multi-National Joint Ventures:

 

LLCs are excellent vehicles for structuring joint venture arrangements between project participants from different countries. This is so because the venture can enjoy all of the benefits of incorporation, but each member is liable for his own taxation in his own country. Moreover, the membership flexibility allows different joint ventures to have different levels of ownership and reward based upon the value that each constituent member brings to the project.

 

Tax Free:

 

All Nevis LLCs are free from all forms of Nevisian taxation. There are no Nevisian taxes on dividends, income, capital distribution, or wages whatsoever. Moreover, unlike many onshore jurisdictions, Nevis does not tax an LLC for accumulated (but undistributed) earnings.

 

Privacy:

 

All of the affairs of a Nevis LLC are private and cannot be disclosed except under truly exceptional circumstances such as links to international terrorism. The only document that needs to be filed with the government is the annual corporate license and this contains minimal information. There is no annual report or annual financial return that needs to be made to the government. There is no public inspection of your LLCs’ records. Confidentiality is further enhanced if the LLC appoints a Nominee as manager (in which case we, as Nominee, perform the minimal corporate duties required under Nevisian law).

 

Enhanced Confidentiality:

 

Nevisian LLC laws contain many requirements related to confidentiality including financial secrecy laws. Strict legal requirements, known as fiduciary duties, also govern the behaviour of offshoreincorporate.com as a manager of an LLC. These fiduciary duties are imposed on managers by both the equivalent of the LLCs bylaws and by the proper law of the LLC (usually the law of the country where the manager is located).

 

Many of these fiduciary requirements relate to secrecy and accounting obligations by which the manager must abide. Nevisian LLC law prevents us from discussing your business with anyone to which you have not instructed us to speak.

 

Others cannot force us to discuss your business with anyone unless they obtain a court order in Nevis against you or us or both ordering a disclosure to be made. But a court order from their respective jurisdiction is useless in Nevis. In accordance with strong Nevisian law, a judgement from outside of Nevis will not be recognized by Nevisian courts. This means an onshore judgement creditor who won a lawsuit against you or your LLC onshore (eg in the U.S, UK, Canada or EU etc) cannot take that foreign judgement and require a Nevisian court to enforce it.

 

In addition to not recognizing the judgements of other countries, Nevisian law and Nevisian courts do not favor the granting of court orders against LLCs except under truly exceptional circumstances: Nevisian law favors upholding the independence and application of its own law over the enforcement of foreign, onshore laws.

 

For clients (in particular JVs involving partners from different countries) the Nevis LLC offers outstanding asset protection and tax planning possibilities. Hopefully the above summary explains how and why.