Economic Substance in the Seychelles

In the recent years, intergovernmental organizations have stepped up on their effort against the so-called shell companies, those legal entities which have no actual business to back up their existence on paper. To comply with the new regulatory standards, banks all over the world are now expected to scrutinize overseas entities in terms of their physical localization: whether a given company has a real office and employees anywhere. This is referred to as economic substance, and the normal expectation is that your company must be substantiated in the country of incorporation.

Having removed the prohibition for international business companies to have any operation within its territory, the Seychelles created a unique opportunity to set up a company with economic substance and still enjoy the benefits of an offshore jurisdiction. As a Seychelles-present legal firm, we possess the necessary skill and experience to guide you through the whole process of creating economic substance and offer solutions for every aspect of it.

Correspondence Processing

We are glad to offer a comprehensive correspondence processing package which includes the following services and facilities:

• Your own postal address to match the registered address of the company. We would not object if you make it publicly known as your post address, as well;
• Receiving and processing your incoming correspondence. We will notify you of all incoming mail within the first three workdays of each month;
• Scanning your mail for your preview, up to five pages a month;
• One monthly shipment of your correspondence to any address you will provide for this purpose.

Our fee is 572 USD a year. Please note that any extra shipments are charged separately, and additional scanning will cost you 9 USD per one page.

Dedicated Phone Line

If you need to stay in more direct contact with your partners, we would be able to install a dedicated phone line in the Seychelles for your company. Our services will include:

• Setting up an individual phone line with an exclusive Seychelles number for you. The fee is 495 USD;
• Annual maintenance of the line, 1 350 USD;
• Forwarding incoming calls to any phone number you provide, in any country. This will be charged per minute, and you will have our invoices monthly. There is also an option of paying in advance for a quarter or a year by making a deposit with us. The minimal deposit amount is 225 USD.

Office Rent at the Registered Address

If all your employees work remotely and you do not really need a fully-furnished physical office, it would be economical and convenient to sub-rent a small part of our own Seychelles office at the registered address of your company. Please note that, unlike the standard registered office option, this will include an actual rental contract for your office space. Our fee is 405 USD per month.

Renting a Custom Office

A still more advanced option is to rent a custom office at a distinct address. This would involve a research of the local market, comparison of prices and option, and should you need it, inspection of properties on offer as well. Our local presence puts us in a very confident position in this respect, and we would be able to take on both the search and all the interaction with landlords, leaving to you only the final choice and signing of the contract. A normal rental fee for a small office would be between 1 000 and 1 700 USD a month. Our own one-off fee will fall between 0.5 and 1 rate of the rent.

Staff Recruitment and Employment

As a local employer, we know how to choose and attract the best local talent – and where you do not have specific requirements, are able to provide our own employees for a part-time job with you.

A minimal salary in the Seychelles is 5 250 SCR or roughly 360 USD per month. Please note that 3% of the salary shall be withheld monthly for the Social Security Fund. As an employer, you will also have a duty to withhold for the state budget your employees’ income tax at the following rates:

Amount Earned	Income Tax Rate
Below 8 555.5 SCR	0%
8 555.51 – 10 000 SCR	15% on the amount exceeding 8 555.5 SCR
10 000.01 – 83 000 SCR	a fixed sum of 216,68 SCR + 20% on the amount exceeding 10 000 SCR

To be able to pay these taxes, your company would need a Seychelles Tax Identification Number. Our fee for obtaining it is 198 USD. We will also be able to take on your salary tax paperwork for 158 USD per month for each employee.

Should you opt for a part-time contract with our employee, the fee would be 405 USD for you.

We will also be able to find a local professional to meet your specific qualification requirements. This will include searching for the right candidacies, providing you with their CVs for assessment, arranging for up to 3 job interviews, and drafting an employment agreement. Our one-off fees will be:

• For non-managerial staff, a single monthly salary;
• For management-level staff, two monthly salaries.

Fees for basic services

Service Name	Fee (in USD)
Incorporation and annual maintenance
Turnkey incorporation (including a compliance fee, original corporate documents, apostilled copies of the corporate documents, and a company seal)	1 251
Annual maintenance (starting from the second year), compliance fees excluded	990
Compliance fee to be paid upon: ·         Annual reneweal; ·         Liquidation; ·         Transfer to another provider; ·         Issuing of a new POA for a new attorney; ·         Change of director, shareholder, beneficial owner	225 (basic, including one individual)   + 45 for each new individual or company in the structure, if the company is administered by ITA   + 90 for each new company in the structure if it is not under the ITA administration   315 (for High Risk companies)
Economic Substance
Postal service, per year	572
Individual pone line with 24/7 international call forwarding	495 to set up From 1 350 a year to maintain
Office sub-rent at the registered office
Office sublease, at the registered address	405 a month
Office rent, custom	0.5 – 1 monthly rent as our fee + rent fee
Staff Recruitment
Local employee   Searching for, testing, and recruiting personnel to meet your custom requirements	From 405 a month   One monthly salary for non-managers Two monthly salaries for managers
Preparing and filing salary reports for income tax (for each employee)	158 a month
Consultation on compliance to your bank’s economic substance policies	180 per hour
Contacting your bank to specify their economic substance requirements	180 per hour