This section includes articles on when offshore companies and offshore trusts can be used to reduce your UK income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax liabilities.

If you're planning on using an offshore, non resident company to reduce your UK taxes, there are some tremendous opportunities available. However, it's not all plain sailing and you definitely need to consider some of the anti avoidance rules that HMRC have at their disposal to challenge your entitlement to these tax benefits.

Nevertheless, as you'll see from our articles and Q&A database there are still lots of occasions when you can still use an offshore company to reduce UK tax liabilities.

Offshore Companies - Online Tax Tools Offshore Trust Tax Tool Determining when and how UK tax is charged on a distribution from an offshore trust can be complex. There are a number of overlapping avoidance rules that need to be considered. By answering a series of questions, this tax tool will explain the tax treatment of your receipts from an offshore trust. Available for Gold Members Only. . . . keep reading Tax Planning With Offshore Companies Tool Use this handy online tool to immediately guide you through the offshore company tax rules and find out if you can use an offshore company to avoid or reduce UK taxes. Available for Gold Members Only. . . . keep reading Offshore Company Tool This unique online tool provides suggested jurisdictions for offshore companies based on your specific circumstances. Available for Gold members only. . . . keep reading

Tax Planning For Offshore Companies Top Tax Planning Uses For Offshore Trusts 02/01/2012 In this article we'll provide a summary of some of the top tax planning opportunities for offshore trusts. There are now numerous anti avoidance provisions that can apply, however for the well advised there are still options available to use these tax efficiently. . . . keep reading Using a Jersey company for UK residents - USERNAME: Jigsawstu Tax Question : I have a client who is in the process of opening a new company domiciled in Jersey due to its well respected financial services operations. They will be bring non regulated capital opportunities back to work with a small and very exclusive club of private investors based in the UK. So they are not overly worried about marketing etc as this will be a very much closed door relationship and one I am not looking to create advice around. My question is He and his co owners are all UK domiciled and currently have no offshore intentions in the short to medium term. They are however looking to either leave the money created from this entity offshore or bring back to the UK in the most effective manner. I have a very limited knowledge of offshore tax and wondered if anyone has any thoughts about offshore ownership for UK individuals, is it worth the effort if they intended to bring back the funds to the UK or does a offshore trust / company in an appropriately structured haven make the expense worthwhile. We are talking about £500,000 per individual per year. Thanks for your thoughts . . . keep reading Best practice guidelines to establish company as non resident 21/10/2011 Ensuring that the central management and control of an offshore company is overseas is essential to establish the company as non UK resident. In this article we look at some of the best practice guidelines that you should adhere to in order to establish your offshore company as non resident . . . keep reading How the new CFC rules will apply from 2012 28/09/2011 New rules for controlled foreign companies (CFCs) are to be introduced in the 2012 Finance Bill. These include significant changes in the CFC regime and a move to a risk based approach. This article looks at how the new CFC regime will operate including the CFC exemptions available . . . keep reading Using an offshore structure to trade tax efficiently 06/06/2011 International traders will be concerned with the effective rate of tax on their profits. When profits are significant even slight reductions can lead to sizeable increases in net profits. This article looks at one tax efficient offshore structure. . . . keep reading When UK residents can use an offshore company for good business planning 30/05/2011 The main income tax anti avoidance rules relating to UK residents using offshore companies are contained in the transfer of asset provisions.These rules are very wide in scope but there is an exemption where there is a sound business reason for the use of the company. In this article we look at how this exemption operates . . . keep reading Overcoming problems with offshore companies for UK residents 22/04/2011 One of our longstanding members has submitted a question which we think would be of interest to many other members considering using offshore companies. In this article we look at potential problems with using an offshore company. . . . keep reading Latest cases on company residence and ordinary residence 13/04/2011 In this article we look at the appeals against the Laerstate and Tucza decisions. The first related to corporate residence and the second ordinary residence status. The latter appeal in particular will have significant implications for anyone coming to the UK to work . . . keep reading Future changes to the offshore company/trust anti avoidance rules? 09/03/2011 The anti avoidance rules that apply to UK residents using offshore companies, trusts and other entities are known to be extremely complex. However, following recent EU proposals we may be seeing some changes in the operation of these rules. This article looks in detail at these anti avoidance provisions and the nature of the EU challenges . . . keep reading Why companies are still migrating overseas 01/12/2010 Although the UK government is keen to make the UK more attractive to international businesses there are still some big name companies transferring their operations overseas. In this article we look at the form of company migrations and the driving forces behind the move overseas . . . keep reading Latest on the reform to the CFC rules and why it's important to UK traders 11/10/2010 There's currently an ongoing consultation on the UK tax treatment of the foreign profits of UK companies. As part of this there are to be changes to the "controlled foreign companies" (CFC) rules which essentially look to tax the profits of overseas subsidiaries of UK companies. In this article we look at exactly why the changes are important and the status of the changes to date. . . . keep reading Court of Appeal decision in Smallwood and Company Residence 20/08/2010 The Smallwood decision is a useful reminder of the issues in establishing central and management control overseas in the context of an offshore company. In particular the confirmation that you need to look at (1) whether there has been a usurping of the Directors powers, and if not (ii) whether there is an external party that dictates decisions to the Directors is useful. This article looks at the facts and decision of the Smallwood case. . . . keep reading Using an offshore company for a UK property purchase and UK shadow directors 18/08/2010 We're often asked about the UK tax implications of purchasing a UK property via an offshore company. It's well known that non doms have an advantage as this takes the value of the property out of the UK estate for UK inheritance tax purposes, however what are the other tax implications of using an offshore company for UK property? . . . keep reading Review of HMRC draft guidance on company non residence 09/08/2010 One of the key issues in using an offshore company is ensuring it is classed as non UK resident for tax purposes. This will be determined by where the central management and control of the business is carried out. Establishing where the management and control is carried out can be difficult to ascertain. HMRC have recently published some draft guidance on when they will and won't argue an offshore company is UK resident. In this article we provide a brief overview of the impact of this guidance. . . . keep reading Recommended procedures to establish central management and control overseas 24/08/2009 If you're looking to establish an offshore company as non UK resident it's essential that you can show the central management and control as being based overseas. In this article we look at some of the recommended methods and procedures to assist in demonstrating that the management and control is abroad . . . keep reading Reporting income of an offshore company on a UK tax return 08/4/2009 Offshore companies can provide significant UK tax advantages providing they're established as non UK resident. The two main problems for a UK resident looking to use an offshore company to avoid UK taxes are firstly Company residence and secondly the Transfer of assets abroad legislation. In this article we look at disclosure of income of an offshore company on a UK tax return . . . keep reading Tax planning for an offshore company with shareholders coming to the UK 30/03/2009 Many overseas individuals (usually non doms) come to the UK to live and work. A large number of them may be shareholders in an offshore company formed before they were UK resident which holds UK and overseas investments. This article looks at the UK tax impact of the UK resident director/shareholder and tax planning options . . . keep reading What level of central management & control needs to be carried out overseas? 20/03/2009 Establishing a company as non resident is now mainly applicable to offshore companies that can establish their management and control overseas.However actually achieving this is less straightforward. It's essentially a question of fact so HMRC / the Commissioners will look at where in actual fact the company is controlled from (where the 'real heart' of the company is). However when they refer to 'management and control' exactly what level of control do they mean? . . . keep reading Transferring a trade to an offshore company & UK tax 16/03/2009 If you carry out a trade via a UK company this will automatically be UK resident and as such subject to corporation tax on its worldwide income and gains. You can't 'migrate' the company to transfer it overseas. The only way you could achieve this result would be by establishing treaty residence overseas. However there is another option - transfer the trade to an offshore company. This article looks in detail at the UK tax implications and planning opportunities from transferring a trade to an offshore company . . . keep reading