Effective from Jan 2019, BVI Economic Substance Act (ESA) has set out reporting requirement for entities which fall under the scope of the legislation. The ESA reporting regime was built on Beneficial Ownership Secure Search System Act 2017 (the BOSS Act). Section 16 of the Act imposed further reporting obligations by way of amending the BOSS Act. In June 2019, the BVI changed the effective date of this section to 1 Oct 2019 by releasing a Notice (SI No.41 of 2019) under BVI Economic Substance.
So, what information must be provided by a BVI entity?
The type of information you must report to your registered agent depends on your business activities and tax residency status. Below we boil down to three specific cases with corresponding reporting information.
– If your BVI entity carries on relevant activities and is not a non-resident company or non-resident limited partnership, then for each relevant activities during a financial period after 31 Dec 2018, the declared information must include:
- Total income by the relevant activity in BVI;
- Total operating expenses by the relevant activity in BVI;
- Number of qualified employees engaging in relevant activity in BVI;
- Address of premises in BVI in relation to the relevant activity;
- Details of equipment in BVI for uses in connection to the relevant activity;
- Details of individuals responsible for direction and management of the relevant activity, and whether they are resident in BVI.
If the core income-generating activities are outsourced to another entity, information regarding the name of the outsourcing entity and details of resources deployed is also required.
For IP holding business, ESA requires entities to declare whether they are high-risk IP legal entity and whether they wish to contest the rebuttable presumption in the Act, if so, the facts and matters relied upon.
– If your BVI entity conducts relevant activities and is a non-resident company or non-resident limited partnership, you must declare the jurisdiction in which your BVI entity is tax resident together with supporting evidence. Please note that this evidence is not described in the Act.
– Finally, if your BVI entity does not carry on any relevant activity specified in the Act, you just have to notify your registered agent without the need to provide supporting documents.
No further details on the filing process and submission period are given by the Act.
Our relationship manager will contact you as soon as we receive new guidance regarding these reporting requirements.
Should you have any question about reporting obligations under BVI economic substance, please contact your direct account manager or drop us a message through service@bbcincorp.com.
Here is an article to help you get a hold of BVI economic substance reporting.
