Company registration and maintenance
- Official formation fee
Current capital-based government incorporation amount not independently verified. Confirm the operative tariff with the Registrar; agent charges are separate.
- Annual state fee
Capital-based annual government fee; current numeric tariff not independently verified. No agent quote has been substituted for a government fee.
- Share capital
Assessable capital influences charges; exact funding and memorandum requirements must be checked for the proposed business.
- Directors
One or more directors; an exempted company needs a director, secretary or resident representative ordinarily resident in Bermuda.
- Shareholders
One shareholder can suffice. Exempted status removes the ordinary 60% Bermudian-ownership requirement, subject to the Act.
- Office / registered agent
Bermuda registered office required; PO box alone is insufficient. Local professional administration and KYC must be arranged.
- Published timing
Official guide says non-ministerial cases can be incorporated within a day and consent cases around a week; this is not a guaranteed KYC-to-trading timetable.
What the public can see
- Directors / managers
Company director register is publicly searchable; directors and officers register is also inspectable at the registered office.
- Shareholders
Register of members is inspectable at the registered office: ordinary ownership privacy is not equivalent to absence from the central online search.
- Beneficial owners
Central beneficial-owner register is not public under section 18 of the Beneficial Ownership Act 2025. Competent authorities and obliged entities have statutory access routes.
- Accounts
Books of account are kept by the company, rather than appearing as ordinary registry accounts filings; regulated and CIT disclosures require separate checking.
BO Act 2025 took effect on 3 November 2025. The Registrar now maintains the central register; service-provider and authority transparency remain.
Profits, company tax and distributions
- Ordinary company treatment
0% ordinary company income tax outside the in-scope MNE regime; 15% for in-scope groups
- Standard headline comparison rate
0% — before lower bands and conditional reliefs
- Retained-profit comparison
0% — company layer
- Distributed-profit comparison
0% — company layer, excluding owner’s tax and outbound withholding
- Conditional reliefs / alternatives
The 15% corporate income tax applies from 1 January 2025 to Bermuda constituent entities of qualifying groups meeting the €750 million consolidated-revenue test.
- Distributions / withholding
The comparison rates refer to company-layer profit tax. Current primary-source confirmation of dividend withholding treatment was not completed; do not present a shareholder net-of-tax rate.
- Other tax conditions
Exempted status is not itself a tax exemption. Payroll tax, local operating charges, licence costs and economic substance can be material; the 0% baseline excludes entities within the new CIT regime.
Business permission and tax are separate
Bermuda’s exempted form is designed mainly for international activity and is distinct from a local company. The status does not confer residence on its owners, replace a business licence where needed or determine their overseas tax position. The actual business and group perimeter decide which rules apply.
Minimum tax changes the comparison
The tax reform commission describes a 15% rate for qualifying MNE groups, not a universal 15% charge on every incorporated business. A small independent company and an entity acquired into a large group can therefore need different models. Review group membership before relying on the ordinary baseline.
Public and confidential records
The government distinguishes public director and member records from confidential beneficial ownership and specified CIT information. Being absent from a central search does not make the registered-office member register private. Identity verification for an online search account is a procedure, not a special legal-interest restriction.