|
Questions:
1.
What is the Hague Convention for the Legalization
of Public Documents?
2. Which countries are members
of the Hague Convention of Legalization for
Foreign Public Documents ?
3. What
is an Apostille?
4. Do all jurisdictions have status searches?
5. Where in the world do UCC searches and filings
exist?
6. Do all jurisdictions provide certified copies
of all documents on file?
7. Do all jurisdictions provide good standings?
8. What
is a tax haven?
9. Which countries are tax havens?
10. Where is the best place to incorporate?
11. Why are International orders more expensive?
12. Why is the International process more time-consuming?
Answers:
1
.What is the Hague Convention for the Legalization
of Public Documents?
The Hague Convention,
originally ratified in 1961, is an agreement
among countries to abolish the requirement of
legalization of public documents. An apostille
is used to certify the documents for use in
the countries party to the agreement.
2. Which countries are
members of the Hague Convention of Legalization
for Foreign Public Documents ?
If you have a document
that you want legalized for use in another Convention
country, the Convention certification called
an "apostille" must be affixed to
the document by a competent authority. The apostille
is a pre-printed form prescribed by the Convention.
Only those nations party to the Hague Treaty
will recognize the apostille certification.
Click
here to verify which countries are parties to
the Hague Convention.
3. What
is an Apostille?
An apostille is a certification
of the document by a convention country.
4.
Do all jurisdictions have status searches?
No. Status search is
a term of art that is used primarily in the
United States. Many jurisdictions have company
searches, which would provide the same type
of information. However, tax information on
companies is generally only publicly available
in English common law jurisdictions.
It is also important to
note that many countries file this information
locally rather than at a Companies Registry.
Therefore company information can only be obtained
with a street address.
5.
Where in the world do UCC searches and filings
exist?
The Uniform Commercial
Code exists only in the United States. The United
States Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam and
the Northern Marianas have also adopted the
UCC legislation as territories and commonwealth
of the United States.
Canada has adopted the
PPSA (Personal Property Security Act) by province
and territory, which is analogous and based
on the UCC.
6.
Do all jurisdictions provide certified copies
of all documents on file?
Many jurisdictions will
certify all documents, however the tax havens
have either limited access or discretionary
access to documents. Due to the fact that tax
havens are for the most part high privacy jurisdictions
they do not require that many documents be filed
and they limit the amount of information on
the public record.
7.
Do all jurisdictions provide good standings?
No, the term good standing
is used for the most part by English common
law jurisdictions, which would include the United
States, Canada, the tax havens and the United
Kingdom. In Civil law countries for example
most European countries, a certified extract
of the commercial registry could be used as
a good standing.
8. What
is a tax haven?
Many jurisdictions, including
many Caribbean countries have enacted statutes,
which make it possible to incorporate an entity
in a jurisdiction and not be taxed by that jurisdiction.
In general there are two types of entities:
International Business Companies and Exempt
Companies. It is important to note that the
company cannot do business in the jurisdiction,
in order to maintain its tax-exempt status.
The jurisdictions that have enacted these statutes
are called tax havens or offshore.
9.
Which countries are tax havens?
The countries with International
Business Company statutes are: Antigua, Bahamas,
Barbados, Belize and British Virgin Islands.
The countries with exempt statutes include:
Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey,
Isle of Man, Jersey, Nevis and the U.S. Virgin
Islands.
10.
Where is the best place to incorporate?
The best place is generally
where you want to do business. In the offshore
area the best place is where you want to be
located.
11.
Why are International orders more costly?
In order to provide the
best service possible we use law firms and service
companies around the world. These costs are
included in our fees in order to provide you
with great customer service.
12.
Why is the International process more time-consuming?
There are many variables
when processing international work. There are
different time zones, different corporate cultures,
and different governments. We have made efforts
to decrease process length by working with service
companies and law firms who understand our need
for great customer service.
|
