New low fees for re-domiciliation
Ever growing professional and commercial infrastructure
Chinese characters allowed in company names
Introduction
Samoa, which changed its
name from Western Samoa in July 1997, is a group
of 9 islands situated in the South Pacific, east
of the International Date Line. At various stages,
it has been administered by Britain, Germany and
New Zealand. Samoa, where English is the language
of government and commerce, became independent in
1962 and retains a parliamentary form of government.
Since independence, it has developed into a politically
stable nation.
Law
And Taxation
Samoa's offshore corporate
legislation was originally introduced in the late
1980s and was based on Cook Islands legislation
but now includes numerous enhancements, making it
more user-friendly to suit the requirements of the
Asian market. Of particular note are the following:-
(i) Chinese character names (and other foreign languages)
are permitted, in addition to English names on the
Certificates of Incorporation, in a properly supervised
manner;
(ii) Documents may be filed in any language. We
have developed a Chinese language M&A to make
Samoan companies even more appealing to Chinese
language jurisdictions;
(iii) Companies may pay their licence fees for 5,
10 or 20 years in advance and substantial discounts
are offered to companies that have elected to take
up this offer;
(iv) In order to attract business from more expensive
jurisdictions in difficult economic times,Samoa
has, in August 1998, introduced a new legislation
that enables the easy migration of companies in
a convenient and effective manner. The government
fee for re-domiciling is USD100. Samoa has also
reduced the annual licence fees for these companies
(no matter what the authorised capital is) and announced
a special offer for re-domiciled companies at only
USD100.
Provision has been made to allow the filing of documents
and maintenance of accounts by electronic means.
Corporate
Requirements
Chinese names are permitted
and can be included on a company's Certificate of
Incorporation.
All companies must have a minimum of one director,
one shareholder and a secretary. Corporate directors
are permitted and bearer shares are also allowed.
All companies must have a Registered Office and
a Resident Agent in Samoa which must be a licenced
trust company. There are requirements for Samoan
companies to prepare Registers of Directors, Secretaries
and Members and for these to be kept at the Registered
Office. The shareholders may waive the requirements
for audited accounts.
Local
Infrastructure
The local infrastructure
in Samoa is presently very sound and improving continually.
A number of leading accounting firms have offices
in Samoa and there are numerous legal practices.
At present there are three retail banks in Samoa.
Another important feature is the presence of a Chinese
Embassy which is particularly helpful when legalising
or apostilling documents required for transactions
and business in mainland China.
Our
Services
We have a large stock of
companies with English names, English and Chinese
names, and the M&A in English and Chinese characters,
which are immediately available for purchase. We
can incorporate a company with your choice of name
and can also confirm the availability of names in
advance. All companies are provided with a complete
company kit, including share certificates, 5 copies
of the M&A plus an electronic copy on CD-ROM,
statutory registers, common seal, company chop and
a certificate of guarantee of quality. In addition,
we can assist clients in obtaining certificates
of good standing, resident agent certificates and
other certificates of corporate existence. We do
not provide corporate management services but would
be pleased to introduce you to other professional
firms which do.
Through our Group's licenced trust company in the
Samoa, we provide the necessary ongoing services
as Registered Office and Resident Agent for all
companies that we incorporate. We would also be
pleased to provide such services to other Samoan
incorporated companies.
