• Individual
• Offshore-based Limited Liability Company (LLC)
• Offshore-based International Business Corporation (IBC) combined with an offshore-based Trust
• Offshore-based IBC combined with an offshore-based Trust and Professional Third Party Management.

This will be a function of the following parameters:

• Firstly, your country of residence: Depending on your country of residence, you may need to set up an offshore-based legal entity in order to be able to take advantage of certain services. For instance, if you are a citizen or resident of the U.S.A. you need to set up an offshore-based LLC or an IBC before you can open a term deposit or other investment account with Sovereign Chartered. Many offshore mutual funds and other investments are often made not available to U.S. citizens and residents, so if you plan on diversifying your investments this will be a must. A cash management/current account and some of the other basic services, such as credit cards, are not considered an investment because the funds are available on demand and only a very modest interest rate is paid. If you are a resident of other countries however, you don't have to set up an offshore-based LLC or an IBC before you can take advantage of our investment opportunities, although there will be significant advantages for you to do so.
• Secondly, the level of asset protection you want: You may want to set up an offshore legal entity even if you don't need to in order to get greater protection in terms of privacy, asset protection, and taxes. (To see why offshore protection is important, click here Why Offshore)

To facilitate your choice of the best legal entity for you needs, the following information is presented:

• Legal Entities and Levels of Protection
  
  
• What We Recommend Regardless of Your Country of Residence / Special Offer

Legal Entities and Levels of Protection

The following table presents a bird's eye view of the four ways you may use to do business with Sovereign Chartered. Then, each is analysed in detail.

Individual

DEFINITION: You do business under your own name.

PRIVACY:  Moderate

• Sovereign Chartered does not provide account information to any government agencies and does not report interest payments to any governmental authorities in any country.
• No government agencies can have access to your account.
• Accounts can be, at your option, numbered accounts only, with no name.
• For business and investment purposes it is not possible to create any type of separation between yourself and your account.

ASSET PROTECTION: Low

For instance, if you ever have a court judgement entered into against you, that court can compel you to repatriate the funds if the existence of your account has been somehow discovered. (Most of the time this is because the defendant has told "friends" and/or family members about the account). If you refuse to repatriate the funds, you may go to jail for contempt of court.

TAX ADVANTAGES: None

Since Sovereign Chartered does no report to any authority, you are responsible for your own taxes according to the jurisdiction of your residence. Sovereign Chartered highly recommends that you comply fully with the tax laws of your jurisdiction and seek legal ways to reduce or avoid taxes.

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Limited Liability Company (LLC).

DEFINITION:

You do business with Sovereign Chartered using a Nevis based Limited Liability Company, which we will help you set up. Of course members are free to utilise their own structures that they may have already set up, as long as they are in good standing. If your primary goal is not legal tax efficiency but rather access to a low cost way of sheltering assets and providing privacy, a standalone Nevis Limited Liability Company is ideal.

Sovereign Chartered sets up LLCs for members through Commonwealth Financial Group Ltd, a subsidiary, Nevis, West Indies based financial services company. The general advantages of LLCs are enhanced by the jurisdictional advantage of Nevis, the first offshore financial centre anywhere to enact a Limited Liability Ordinance

PRIVACY: High

• Sovereign Chartered does not provide account information to any government agencies and does not report interest payments to any tax authorities in any country.
• Government authorities have no access to your account.
• Accounts can be, at your option, numbered accounts only, with no name.
• Since the beneficial owners and/or managers are not registered anywhere an LLC provides complete anonymity.
• Nevis has strict privacy oriented laws that forbid any registering, recording, or disclosure of directors and shareholders of exempt companies incorporated there. This means that no annual or other reports by members need to be filed in the public records of Nevis; therefore, there is complete anonymity and their identities are not accessible by any outside party.
• The company's records may be located anywhere in the world.

ASSET PROTECTION: High

• A Nevis LLC enables you to protect your assets and funds from government agencies, creditors, and lawsuits.
• As an owner you are not exposed to personal liability.
• As an owner you can participate in management without becoming personally liable for the company's debts.
• A Nevis LLC is particularly advantageous for asset protection purposes since there are no shares that can be attached by a court of law.
• Members are not liable for obligations of the company.

TAX ADVANTAGES: Low

Depending on your jurisdiction of residence there may be significant tax advantages but in many cases there may not be since many tax authorities (U.S., Canada, etc.) look at the ownership and tax the owner(s) accordingly. Competent advice from a lawyer would be advised in order to determine the issues surrounding taxation involving foreign companies.

OTHER LLC BENEFITS: LLCs provide these additional advantages:

• LLCs provide a mechanism by which managers can limit the authority of non-managing members.
• LLCs have no limitation on the number of members.
• There are no limitations on ownership of an LLC.
• No corporate tax, income tax, withholding tax, stamp tax, asset tax, exchange controls or other fees or taxes are levied in Nevis on assets or income originating outside of Nevis.
• Members of Nevis LLCs may be individuals or business entities of any nationality or domicile.
• Nevis LLCs may amend their Articles of Organisation, merge, or consolidate with other domestic or foreign LLCs or other business entities.
• Members of Nevis LLCs may assign their interests to other parties unless restricted otherwise.
• Nevis permits sole member LLCs.
• Management of LLCs may be accomplished by the members or by managers designated by the members.
• Nevis LLCs face no stock limitations and 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 were a Limited Partnership, but with all the added features and advantages mentioned above of an LLC that Limited Partnerships for the most part do not have.
• A Nevis LLC can be set up within 24 hours and has low initial cost and low annual fees.

For more information on Nevis LLCs and on how to set it up, please click here Offshore Services.

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International Business Corporation (IBC) Combined With an Offshore-Based Trust

DEFINITION:

You do business with Sovereign Chartered using a Nevis based International Business Corporation (IBC) in combination with an offshore-based trust. (Sovereign Chartered will help you set up both of these structures.) IBCs provide much of the same features and advantages as LLCs except that you deal with the more familiar and traditional corporate structure and the issuance of shares.

However, if in addition to sheltering assets and having complete privacy you also want legal tax efficiency, a Nevis IBC in combination with an offshore-based trust is ideal. In essence, a trust is put in place that acts as a Shareholder of the IBC. Ownership thereby is divested to another legal entity.

Sovereign Chartered sets up IBCs and trusts for members through Commonwealth Financial Group Ltd, a subsidiary, Nevis, West Indies based financial services company. Although many jurisdictions offer comparable characteristics for IBC domiciliation, we feel that Nevis offers a slight edge over other comparable jurisdictions because of the requirement of their judicial system for a $25,000 bond to be put up before a plaintiff can get a suit filed. This is a significant disincentive along with the difficulty of obtaining a civil judgment in the court system unless clear malintent can be proven.

The shareholder trust is set up as a charitable trust with a charitable beneficiary. This is important because if you are the named beneficiary an aggressive tax authority could show that the setting up of the trust was in actuality an elaborate tax evasion scheme. The trail must lead away from you to another beneficiary party if you are to maximise the benefits of this strategy. Nobody ever questions legitimate charities as a beneficiary of a trust. Setting up offshore trusts whose primary aim appears to be philanthropic is a savvy and indeed "politically correct" way to organise one's offshore assets. Ultimately there is no compulsion for anything to have to go to that charity but we would strongly advise at least some sort of payment(s).

PRIVACY: High

• The privacy benefits offered through an IBC / Trust combination are similar to the ones presented earlier under the analogous Nevis LLC section. In addition:
• There is not only strict confidentiality of beneficial ownership but the privacy of your affairs no longer only have to hinge on confidentiality, since you are not a beneficiary in any way of your assets.
• No annual reports of financial returns need to be filed since you have surrendered ownership of your assets to a trust.
• The Trust is located in a different jurisdiction rather then Nevis - that of Belize which has a proven record of privacy. This makes it that much harder for a plaintiff to go after any assets since they would have to start all over again once it had been determined who really owns the assets of the corporation. In addition long before that could have been determined the IBC could have been re-domiciled to another jurisdiction frustrating any would be suitor or creditor.
• The trust is not registered or recorded any way - it is a private contract protected as such under the English common law right of contract which Belize's laws follow as a former British Colony (known as British Honduras until 1983).
• As before, the principal office and records may be located anywhere in the world.

ASSET PROTECTION: High

The asset-protection benefits offered through this option are similar to the ones presented earlier under the analogous Nevis LLC section.

TAX ADVANTAGES: High

An IBC / Trust combination will provide you with complete tax exemption and freedom from exchange controls. For residents of most western (high tax) countries such combinations are needed in order to achieve legal tax optimization. A big issue for any many individuals (especially residents of the UK, USA, Canada etc.) is the proper use of an offshore IBC - so that any tax advantages are not deemed as "tax evasion." By using the IBC / Trust combination offered through Sovereign Chartered, you can be assured that you get maximum tax efficiency within a legally acceptable framework. To put it simply, you save on taxes and it's legal.

• OTHER IBC BENEFITS: Nevis IBCs provide these additional advantages:
• Flexibility of ownership and management structure.
• There are no residency requirements for Directors, Shareholders or Officers.
• Corporate or Trust entities may act as Director, Secretary or Shareholder.
• Re-domiciliation of other foreign companies into and out of Nevis.
• There are no limitations on corporate ownership.
• No corporate tax, income tax, withholding tax, stamp tax, asset tax, exchange controls or other fees or taxes are levied in Nevis on assets or income originating outside of Nevis.
• Nevis permits sole director IBCs

For more technical information on Nevis IBCs and offshore Trusts and how to set them up, please click here Offshore Services.

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IBC Combined With an Offshore-Based Trust and Professional Management

DEFINITION:

In addition to using an IBC / Trust combination, you can appoint a professional management firm that will manage your offshore-based, trust-owned corporation. They appoint themselves as directors of the corporation so that you do not have to even be a director of the IBC in order to ensure the safety and security of the corporate assets. This may be important because even if you are clearly not a shareholder, the mere fact of being an officer may offer the appearance that you in reality still control the assets and thereby still retain a beneficial interest in them. A court could theoretically still compel you to repatriate the assets since you still control them. The onus would be on you to then prove to the court why you are not able to comply - not a pleasant prospect to consider.

We can help provide such management options through a very reputable law firm in Cyprus. Such firms specialise in offshore management services and are regulated in a similar fashion as banks are by their governments.

Furthermore, we can provide a unique system of checks and balances in conjunction with your account at Sovereign Chartered that will absolutely prevent any professional manager absconding with any assets. Although this eventuality is practically nil, it is a fear that lurks in the minds of those who desire to have their offshore arrangements at total arms length from them, but want a way to prevent a worst case scenario of theft.

BENEFITS:

This option provides you with the maximum protection on all fronts. In addition to the benefits offered by the previous option, you get true arms length management of your structures, including the company bank account. This will:

• Help you avoid foreign account reporting requirements that many countries now have (such as the USA and Germany). Because of the privacy surrounding the account, it is unlikely unless you are careless that such information will ever reach the authorities but it is also wise to know that many government tax authorities now provide for severe penalties for not reporting signature authority on a foreign bank account.
• Provide you with the needed extra element of removal from your assets, so that your official legal capacity is one of advisor only. You neither own nor "control" the assets in any function. Also, you are not named as a beneficiary in any way.

For more information on the professional management option and how to have it set up, please click here Offshore Services.

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What we Recommend Regardless of Your Country of Residence / Special Offer

The option you choose will of course depend on your particular needs. What we recommend, however, is that you do business with Sovereign Chartered using an IBC / Trust combination that is managed by a third party professional firm. Taking advantage of this option will give the maximum protection possible in terms of privacy and asset protection and enable you to legally maximise your tax advantage.

To facilitate this choice, we are currently making available to you a special offer. For more information, click here Special Offer.