May
21
Offshore terms: Offshore financial centre
Filed Under Uncategorized Tags: financial centre, Offshore, offshore financial centres —
offshore financial centre is usually a low-tax, less regulated jurisdiction which specializes in providing the corporate and financial infrastructure to facilitate the use of that jurisdiction for the formation of offshore companies and for the investment of offshore funds. Offshore financial centres are often current or former British Colonies or Crown Dependencies, and often refer to themselves as offshore jurisdictions.
offshore financial centre is used to be called a tax haven, a jurisdiction may provide specific facilities for offshore financial centres without being in any general sense a tax haven.”
Reputable offshore financial centre play a legitimate and integral role in international finance and trade, offering huge advantages in financial situations for both corporations and individuals, allowing legitimate risk management and financial planning.
offshore financial centre recently attracted a great deal more attention than in the past, and international initiatives spearheaded by the OECD, the FATF and the IMF have had a significant effect on the offshore finance industry. Although most offshore financial centres originally rose to prominence by minimize tax. Although most offshore financial centres still charge little or no tax.
International joint ventures are often structured as companies in an offshore jurisdiction when neither joint venture party wishes to form the company in the other party’s home jurisdiction, but both parties wish to ensure that the company’s jurisdiction of incorporation will not attract unwanted tax consequences.
Most offshore financial centres now promote themselves on the basis of “light but effective” regulation, seek to regulate high-risk financial business, such as banking, insurance and mutual funds.
The International Monitory Fund considers the following to be characteristics of an offshore financial centre:
* Jurisdictions that have relatively large numbers of financial institutions engaged primarily in business with non residential people or business entity;
* Financial infastructured with external assets and liabilities out of proportion to domestic financial intermediation designed to finance domestic economies; and
* Centres which provide low or zero taxation; moderate or light financial regulation; banking secrecy and anonymity.
