Reasons Why You Should Consider Registering an LLC in Belize

Citizens of any country of the world have a chance to register a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in Belize. Below we discuss the costs involved in maintaining a Belizean company and the benefits that it can bring to you if you are interested in this opportunity. Let us start by indicating what you as a foreign person have to do in order to set up an LLC in Belize and what you’d have to pay for when establishing and maintaining a company in Belize. After that, we will pass on to describing the business opportunities that you can obtain by registering an LLC in this small Central American country.

First, you have to collect a package of application documents before filing an application for company formation in Belize. You have to suggest a name for your prospective company, or better still, several alternative names as some names may have already been taken. Please bear in mind that your Belizean company name shall have the LLC suffix: Company Name, LLC. Then you have to supply copies of your personal identification documents such as your ID card, passport, etc. Besides, you have to supply proof of your residential address in your country of citizenship/ residence. Normally, recent utility bills will do the job. In addition to that, you have to provide your contacts – your telephone number and your email address where you can be easily reached (that’s for the courier).

You also have to fill out the application form when establishing an LLC in Belize. Then the most challenging part of the preparation process begins: you have to pass through the due diligence procedures. Yes, things are not the way they used to be any longer. Previously, the security checks were not so tough in Belize but today the country is under pressure from various international organizations that are forcing it to comply with the security requirements applied globally. Agencies on both sides of the Atlantic are doing their best to fight money laundering and to counter terrorism financing. The US authorities are particularly unhappy with Belize, as they believe that criminals use the country for money-laundering purposes. You are welcome to contact the experts of International Wealth portal and ask for their assistance in preparing the documents package for registering a company in Belize.

It is true that the due diligence checks can be a pain in the back but the good news is that the company can be registered remotely, without visiting Belize. Let us suppose that you have successfully passed through the security scanning. What other requirements do you have to meet to have a Limited Liability Company in Belize? Unlike before, now your company has to have some economic substance in the country. Economic substance in Belize includes an office there, which might be a sort of a problem because the country is rather small. Second, you will have to have a registered address where letters from official organizations can be sent. Besides, you will have to have a local agent to act as your company representative on site. This means that you will have to pay him or her a small salary.

Your Belizean-based company is going to be exempt from all taxes but only if you do not do any business in the country and all your profits come from business operations that you perform abroad. Similarly, you cannot derive any profits from Belizean citizens or legal residents as this would also be considered ‘doing business in Belize’. That is to say, your LLC in Belize will be allowed to engage in business on the territory of the country but in this case, you will become liable to all the taxes payable by local companies. Under international pressure, the Belizean authorities have had to raise the taxes to the levels found in well-developed national states, so you don’t want to be taxed in Belize.

If you comply with this requirement and make money in foreign countries exclusively, you are not taxable in Belize. At the same time, the local administration has to incur some minor costs involved in keeping your LLC in the company register. To compensate for these costs, they are going to charge you a modest registration renewal fee that you will have to pay every year. So these are the minimal company maintenance costs that you are going to have if you register an LLC in Belize: the office, the registered address, the agent, and the annual registration renewal fee. Unlike in some other national states that allow foreigners to register companies there, Belize does not require that you should hire a company Secretary. In addition to that, remote company registration is going to cost you a few thousand dollars or euros.

What do you get in return? In addition to the tax exemption, you will have a very powerful instrument of protecting your assets. A Belizean LLC is nearly as secure as a trust: it can be sued only in Belize as the local courts of law disregard court decisions made in other countries. And suing a Belizean-based company is a demanding and costly enterprise. For this reason, even the most experienced international lawyers are reluctant to take Belizean companies to court. Besides, if you derive profits only from outside of Belize, there are no accounting reports to submit and not even a tax identification number to apply for. A wide diversity of company organization structures are available to those foreigners who register companies in Belize. If your company in the country has several founders and a Board of Directors, you can hold the annual meetings wherever you want. The company financial records and other documents can also be kept in any country of the world, not necessarily in Belize.