Belize
General Information
Area – 22,966 sq. km
Population – 347,369 people
Capital – Belmopan
Official language – English
Official currency – Belize dollar (BZD)
Key Aspects
No treaties for the avoidance of double taxation were signed. A special licence is required to provide banking and insurance services.
Company Type
The most popular company type in Belize is an International Business Company (IBC)
Corporate Legislation
International Business Companies Act 1990
Main Requirements for Company Directors and Shareholders
There should be at least one director and one shareholder in a company. Nominee directors and shareholders are allowed to be used. They may be residents of any country, both natural persons and legal entities.
Authorised Capital
There are no requirements as to the mandatory payment of the company capital. The authorised capital of a company is specified according to a resolution. There is no minimum or maximum authorised capital stipulation. The standard joint-stock capital is USD 50,000 divided into 50,000 shares at par value USD 1.00 each.
Taxation and Reporting
Offshore companies are exempted from paying taxes and pay only the yearly duty.
Companies are freed from the preparation and filing of any financial accounts and conducting audits.
There is no need for maintaining accounting records if a company carries out its economic activity outside Belize. There is no need for the preparation and filing of annual accounts if a company carries out its economic activity outside Belize.
Questions that need to be answered to prepare incorporation documents
- Information about the beneficiary (passport scan; in case a national passport is scanned – its translation into English).
- Utility Bill (confirmation of the registration address translated into English).
- Passport and Utility Bill in the agent’s name if it is not the beneficiary.
- type of the company’s activity (including the region where business is conducted)
- document storage address
Further, depending on the type of activity, the region where business is conducted or beneficiary’s citizenship, the documents can be required as follows: bank’s reference regarding the beneficiary/bank’s reference regarding a company / company’s account statement / beneficiary’s personal account statement / information about the client’s place of work and description of a company’s business (version of confirmation of the origin of funds) / register of shareholders (or another similar document confirming that a company holds shares somewhere – this is the version for holding companies). In this case, the documents may vary; without precise data it is complicated to provide more specific information. Technically, these are the most popular versions.