Bahamas Company Formation

What if your company could earn worldwide and owe nothing on its profits? That is still true here, an hour's flight from Miami. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas has run a serious financial centre for close to a century. You need one director, one shareholder, and no minimum capital. The registry can incorporate you inside an hour. But the rules moved hard in 2025 and 2026, and most pages selling you a company in the Bahamas have not caught up. That is a shame, because this is still a first-choice destination for offshore company formation. This guide gives you today's version.

Why Choose the Bahamas for Company Formation?

Why do founders keep picking these islands over louder rivals? Because the fundamentals still work, and the government has spent eight years defending them.

• No tax on profits. No corporate income tax, no capital gains tax, no withholding tax on dividends, no inheritance tax. A 15% minimum tax arrived in 2024, but it reaches only multinational groups with annual revenue of EUR 750 million or more.
• Privacy where it counts. Owner details stay off the public record. Beneficial ownership sits in a secure system closed to the public.
• Speed. The registry offers express incorporation in one hour, or 48 hours on regular service.
• Light paperwork. No accounts to file, no statutory review of your books, and no annual return.
• Freedom with money. No exchange controls for a company treated as non-resident.
• Standing. At the Council's update of 17 February 2026 the country sat on neither annex of the EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, having been removed from Annex I in February 2024. That matters more than any brochure claim when you go to open a bank account. The next revision is due in October 2026.

For more on the advantages of this jurisdiction as an offshore financial center, click here.

Where Is the Bahamas, and Who Regulates It?

Before you pick a place to register, you should know who is actually in charge of it. Around 700 islands sit in the Atlantic, just south-east of Florida. The capital of the Bahamas is Nassau, on the island of New Providence, and that is where the corporate machinery lives.

• The registry. The Registrar General's Department keeps the companies register and issues your certificate of incorporation.
• The regulator. The Securities Commission of The Bahamas licenses the corporate service providers who file for you, under the Financial and Corporate Service Providers Act, 2020.
• The bank. The Central Bank of the Bahamas runs exchange control policy and keeps the local dollar pegged one-to-one with the US dollar.
• The law. English common law, with a statute book on top. Final appeals go to the Privy Council in London.

English is the official language. That sounds minor until you are reading your own constitutional documents at 11pm.

Types of Offshore Companies in the Bahamas

Did you know you get more than one structure to choose from? Each fits a different goal, and most Bahamas companies in foreign hands end up as the first one.

International Business Companies

The IBC is the workhorse here, governed by the International Business Companies Act, 2000 (Ch. 309), as amended. It is the vehicle almost every reader of this page ends up using. Key features:

• One director and one shareholder is enough. They can be the same person, of any nationality, and either can be a corporate entity.
• No minimum share capital. Shares may be issued in any currency, with or without par value. Bearer shares are not permitted.
• Meetings can be held anywhere in the world.
• No accounts filed, no annual return, and no statutory review of your books.
• You must keep a registered office in the Bahamas and appoint a licensed registered agent.
• Members enjoy limited liability, capped at any unpaid amount on their shares.

One thing to know up front. Many formation sites still promise a twenty-year exemption from tax written into the statute. That guarantee was repealed at the end of 2018, when the country ended ring-fencing to meet its EU and OECD commitments. What survived is better stated plainly: there is no tax on profits, but there is now a licence charge that can reach a company registered in the Bahamas even when every customer sits abroad. Numbers below.

Segregated Account Companies

Want to wall off one pool of assets from claims against another? A SAC is an existing company that registers under the Segregated Accounts Companies Act, 2004 (Ch. 369C), splitting a single legal entity into separate accounts, or cells. Each cell shields its assets from the debts of the others. It suits investment programmes, insurance arrangements and layered protection, and costs less than running several separate entities side by side. A SAC files an annual declaration of compliance and pays fees based on the number of accounts it operates.

Limited Duration Companies

An LDC is not a separate entity type. It is an existing company that applies to be registered as a limited duration company, and its Articles must then cap the company's life at 30 years or less. That fixed horizon makes it a natural fit for joint ventures and single projects with a defined end, since it winds up on schedule rather than running forever.

Exempted Limited Partnership

An ELP pairs one or more general partners, whose liability is uncapped, with limited partners whose exposure stops at their contribution. There are no capital requirements. General partners run the business; limited partners invest and stay out of management. This legislation was among the statutes amended in 2018, so the old fifty-year exemption language no longer holds.

Domestic and Non-Resident Companies

Under the Companies Act of 1992 you may instead form a domestic company to trade at home, or a non-resident company that operates abroad under more formal governance. Domestic companies need at least two directors and list their shareholders in a public annual return. Non-resident companies must hold annual general meetings and keep fuller statutory records. A Bahamas limited liability company is a further option, and an LLC or trust or foundation rounds out the menu.

What Your Bahamas Company Can and Cannot Do

This is the question that trips people up after they have already paid. This structure is built to look outward. Get the line wrong and you fall into domestic rules you did not budget for.

Your company can:

1. Hold shares in other companies anywhere in the world
2. Own an offshore bank account, or a bank account in the Bahamas
3. Own real estate in the Bahamas… with permissions, and only then
4. Run international trading and other business activities
5. Own vessels, aircraft and intellectual property
6. Serve estate planning and asset holding goals

Your company cannot, without stepping outside that treatment or getting a separate licence:

• Freely conduct business with residents. Since ring-fencing ended in 2018 this is no longer an outright statutory ban, but dealings with residents of the Bahamas pull you into domestic business licence and exchange control rules.
• Hold property in the Bahamas for its own use without the right approvals.
• Carry on banking, insurance or trust business. Those need their own licence, whatever the entity.
• Carry on the business of providing registered office facilities to other companies.

Trading with a supplier abroad and invoicing a client abroad is fine. Signing a lease in Nassau is a different conversation. Where business is genuinely conducted in the Bahamas, expect the domestic regime to follow.

Privacy and Asset Protection

How private is a structure here, really? Private where it counts, and we would rather be precise than flattering.

• Shareholders are not public. The register of members is kept at the company's official address and is not filed with the registry.
• Directors are on file, and they must be real. The register of directors and officers is lodged at the Companies Registry.
• Beneficial ownership is reported, not published. Under the Register of Beneficial Ownership Act, 2018 your details go to us as your agent and sit in the Beneficial Ownership Secure Search System, reachable only by designated competent authorities. The Act expressly does not create a public register. You must tell us within fifteen days of identifying anyone as a beneficial owner.
• Your numbers stay yours. Financial statements are not filed and not open to anyone.

The nominee director route is closed. This is the single biggest change on this page, and most competitor sites still have it wrong. Since 19 January 2026 it has been an offence to serve as a director while acting on another person's instructions, and an offence to arrange or permit such an appointment. The International Business Companies (Amendment) Act, 2025 inserted section 41A, and the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2025 inserted a matching section 80A, both confirmed in the Note to Industry Stakeholders published by the Office of the Attorney-General on 2 December 2025. Penalties reach US $50,000, twelve months in prison, or both. Directors already serving had six months to step down, and that window closed on 19 July 2026. Anyone stepping down had seven days to file a declaration with both the company and the Registrar; miss it and the Registrar issues a notice of disqualification barring you from any directorship under those statutes (Higgs & Johnson, 23 April 2026).

So what works instead? A corporate director. A genuine third-party director who exercises real judgment. Or ownership held through a trust, which separates assets from your estate and can block creditor claims, or an LLC, which adds another wall between company debts and personal assets. Nominee shareholders remain available, but the arrangement is now documented rather than quiet: nominee status must be stated in the memorandum and the register of members, a declaration of trust naming the beneficiary is kept at the registered office, and we must be told of any appointment, change or cessation within fifteen days. Read more on safeguarding wealth and asset protection options.

Key Corporate Features

How Does the Bahamas Company Registration Process Work?

Can you really be registered within a day? At the registry, yes, provided your file is clean. The whole thing runs in six steps.

1. Pick your structure. Most clients pick this structure for its flexibility and light reporting. Talk to our consultants first if your plans are complex.
2. Reserve your name. See the naming rules below. Have a second choice ready.
3. Prepare your KYC. Full list in the next section.
4. Appoint your people. A single director and shareholder is the minimum, but there is a quirk at the start: the statute requires the memorandum and articles to be subscribed by two persons in front of a witness. That is a signing formality, not a requirement to have two owners, and your company can still end up with a single holder. We handle the mechanic.
5. Set your capital. The usual authorized amount is US $50,000 in shares of US $1, which keeps you at the minimum government fee. No capital duty applies at any level.
6. File and collect. Only a licensed provider can file, and filings run through the registry's online platform. We submit the documents, pay the fees, and the Registrar issues your certificate. We typically deliver the full pack in two to three working days.

Government turnaround times are published on the official incorporation service page.

What Documents Do You Need to Register a Company?

Nothing here is exotic, but every item has to be certified properly or the file bounces. For each director, shareholder and beneficial owner we collect:

• A certified copy of a passport or other photo ID
• Certified proof of address, issued within the last three months
• A bank reference and a professional reference
• A completed KYC form, which we send you

Corporate shareholders add their own company documents: their incorporation certificate, constitutional documents, and a register of their own directors and members. Where a trust sits in the structure, we will need the trust deed too.

What you receive back, usually within a week by courier, is the full corporate pack: the incorporation certificate, memorandum and articles stamped by the registry, registers of directors and members, subscriber and director resolutions, share certificates and a director's consent letter.

Choosing Your Company Name

Your company name has to clear two tests: it must be free, and it must be shaped correctly. Every limited company needs one of these endings:

• Limited or Ltd.
• Corporation or Corp.
• Incorporated or Inc.
• Societe Anonyme or Sociedad Anonima, either shortened to S.A.

A defined list of words is restricted and needs the Registrar's prior approval, including Assurance, Bank, Building Society, Chamber of Commerce, Chartered, Cooperative, Imperial, Insurance, Municipal, Royal and Trust, along with anything conveying a similar meaning. Names too close to an existing entity get refused. We run the search before you pay for anything, which is why we ask for a backup.

Share Capital and Shareholders

How much money do you have to put in? None, in the legal sense. There is no minimum, and no capital duty. What you choose still matters for one practical reason: your annual fee tracks your authorized capital.

• The standard structure is US $50,000 of authorized capital, split into 50,000 shares of US $1 each.
• Stay at or below US $50,000 and your annual registry fee is US $350. Go above it and the fee becomes US $1,000.
• Shares can carry par value or none at all, in any currency you like.
• Different classes of shares are permitted, if your memorandum says so.
• Bearer shares are not permitted, and have not been for years.

Your company structure stays flexible either way. A single shareholder is enough, and they need no local connection at all. Corporate shareholders are fine. Shareholder records stay at your registered address, not on public file.

Taxes, Reporting, and Ongoing Fees

Here is the part everyone asks about first, and the part most rival pages get wrong.

• Profits. No corporate income tax, no tax on capital gains, no withholding tax. That has not changed and is not scheduled to.
• Annual registry fee. US $350 where authorized capital is US $50,000 or less, rising to US $1,000 above that. It falls due on 1 January. A 10% penalty applies from 1 April and 50% from 1 November, and continued non-payment leads to strike-off.
• Business licence. This is the real change of the decade. Under the Business Licence Act 2023, a company registered here that trades abroad is treated as doing business from within the Bahamas. Revenue attributable to operations outside the Bahamas is charged at a flat US $2,500 where that revenue is US $1 million or less, or 0.25% capped at US $100,000 above it. Regulated investment funds and pure equity holding entities fall outside the definition of business entirely, as do entities that merely hold financial assets or real estate assets. Where a company earns partly at home and partly overseas, turnover must be apportioned.
• Watch the deeming rule. Revenue an IBC earns from professional services — legal, architectural, consultancy, engineering, accountancy and advisory work — and from the export of goods is deemed to arise from operations within the Bahamas. That pushes it onto the domestic scale rather than the flat charge, so a services business can face a different bill from a pure trading one. Ask us to classify your activity before you incorporate.
• Licence timing. Licences expire on 31 December, must be renewed by 31 January, and the tax is payable by 31 March. Late filing draws US $100, late payment 10% of the liability, and interest runs at 5% a year on anything more than 30 days overdue. Directors are jointly and severally liable with the company for the tax, interest and penalties.
• Records. You must keep accounting records of all transactions. They can sit abroad, provided your agent knows where. Your directors file a declaration confirming reliable records exist, and a copy is lodged with the registry. Nothing goes on public file.
• Bigger companies. Once turnover climbs, licence renewal starts pulling in an independent accountant's report, and at the top end reviewed financial statements.
• VAT. Value added tax runs at a standard 10%, with a reduced 5% band on certain essentials, and applies to local supplies such as office rent in Nassau. Exports to customers abroad are zero-rated or exempt, so your foreign sales are not caught. Registration is compulsory once local taxable supplies pass BSD 100,000 in any twelve months.

So the honest version for a small outward-facing company is: the registry fee, plus a business licence charge that depends on how your activity is classified, plus our fees. That is a different sentence from "zero tax", and you deserve the accurate one.

Economic Substance Requirements in the Bahamas

Will you need an office and staff on the islands? Almost certainly not. Will you still have to file? Yes. These are two separate duties and they get confused constantly.

The substance test applies only to entities carrying on a relevant activity: banking, insurance, fund management, financing and leasing, headquarters business, distribution and service centres, shipping, the commercial use of intellectual property, and holding business. Those must conduct their core income generating activities locally and be directed and managed here. If you are trading, consulting or holding assets, none of it touches you, and you need no physical presence in the Bahamas at all.

The reporting duty is broader. Under the Commercial Entities (Substance Requirements) Act 2023, in force since 1 September 2023, every entity registered under the domestic companies statute, the IBC Act, the Partnership Act, the Partnership Limited Liability Act or the Exempted Limited Partnership Act must report through its local agent no later than nine months after the end of its fiscal year. That includes companies incorporated purely as holding vehicles with no relevant activity at all. We file it for you as part of your annual service, but the classification decision — whether your entity is in scope — sits with your directors, not with us as agent, and the Act carries a fine of up to US $10,000 or six months' imprisonment, with US $500 a day for a continuing breach.

How Is Bahamas Company Formation Changing in 2026?

Is the model under threat? Not for ordinary owners. But something significant just closed.

The stat. Nominee directors have been banned outright. The International Business Companies (Amendment) Act, 2025 (No. 30 of 2025) inserted a new section 41A, and the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2025 (No. 29 of 2025) inserted a matching section 80A. A third statute, the Register of Beneficial Ownership (Amendment) Act, 2025, added section 11A on the accuracy and accessibility of nominee information. All three came into force on 19 January 2026, per the Note to Industry Stakeholders issued by the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Legal Affairs on 2 December 2025. A person may not serve as a director if they act under any agreement, express or implied, to follow another person's instructions. Acting as one, or facilitating the appointment, carries a fine of up to US $50,000, twelve months' imprisonment, or both. Existing appointments had six months to unwind, a window that closed on 19 July 2026, after which a company still holding a nominee director faces a civil penalty of up to US $3,000 per day (Higgs & Johnson, 23 April 2026). The driver is FATF's revised Recommendation 24, adopted in October 2024, and the CFATF Mutual Evaluation set for October 2026.

Our take, after three decades of forming companies here. Watch what the country did not do. FATF offered three routes — disclose, license, or prohibit. The Bahamas prohibited for directors and chose disclosure for shareholders. That split is the whole philosophy in miniature: this jurisdiction will take away the thing that hides who decides, and keep the thing that merely holds title, provided it is documented. If your structure leaned on a director who did as he was told, that was never really privacy. It was distance from a filing, and it has now been priced at fifty thousand dollars and a year in prison. Meanwhile the zero rate on profits has not moved an inch since 2018. That is the trade this place keeps making, and it keeps making it in the same direction.

Our hedged prediction. Based on current trends we expect the October 2026 evaluation to pass without a return to any grey list, the zero rate on profits to hold below the multinational threshold, and the nominee shareholder regime to be tightened by degrees rather than abolished — most likely through who is permitted to provide those services and how fast changes must be reported. Nothing here is certain, but that is the direction of travel.

Bahamas Offshore Company From Offshore Protection

Ready to make it real? Our company formation services handle everything, from the name check to the courier. Our all-inclusive first-year package starts from US $2,250.

That is an all-inclusive figure for a first-year company in Bahamas, not a headline rate with the government fee, the registered office and the agent charges bolted on afterwards. Everything below is in the price.

Your package includes:

1. Government registration fee (first year)
2. Registered office address (first year)
3. Local agent services (first year)
4. Corporate secretarial maintenance
5. Incorporation certificate
6. Memorandum and articles of association
7. Appointment of first directors
8. Consent actions of the board
9. Share certificates
10. Register of directors and officers
11. Register of shareholders
12. Annual substance report filing
13. Free phone and email consultations

You also get support from our lawyers on day-to-day management questions. Start today: order a Bahamas IBC with or without a bank account.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can a foreigner start a business in The Bahamas?

  Yes. Foreigners can fully own a company here with no local partner. There are no residency requirements for directors or shareholders, and you never have to visit to set up. Filings must go through a licensed local provider, which is the role we play for you.

• How much does it cost to form and renew a Bahamas company?

  From US $2,250 for the first year, covering state charges, your official address and local agent, and the full set of corporate papers. From year two you pay the annual registry fee of US $350 (US $1,000 if authorized capital exceeds US $50,000), our services, and any business licence charge that applies.

• Can I use a nominee director in the Bahamas?

  No. Since 19 January 2026 it is an offence to serve as a director while acting on someone else's instructions, and an offence to arrange or permit that appointment. Penalties run to US $50,000, twelve months' imprisonment, or both. Companies that kept a nominee director past 19 July 2026 face a civil penalty of up to US $3,000 for every day the breach continues. Any provider still offering you a nominee director here is offering to make you both parties to an offence. Nominee shareholders are a different matter and remain available, though the arrangement must now be declared in the memorandum, recorded in the register of members, and backed by a declaration of trust.

• Does my company pay tax on foreign income?

  Not income tax — there is none on profits. But since the Business Licence Act 2023, a company trading from within the country is charged on revenue attributable to operations abroad: a flat US $2,500 up to US $1 million of such revenue, or 0.25% capped at US $100,000 above. Pure equity holding entities and regulated funds are excluded. Note also that professional and consultancy revenue is deemed to arise from within the Bahamas, which moves it onto the domestic scale. Ask us to check which side your activity falls on before you incorporate.

• How long does it take to set up?

  The registry offers express service in about an hour and regular service in 48 hours. With clean documents we usually complete the whole process in two to three working days, with hard copies by courier within about a week.

• Do I need a local address and agent?

  Yes. Every company must maintain an official address on the islands and a locally licensed agent. It does not need to be a physical office you rent. We provide both as part of your package.

• Can I open a bank account for my company?

  Yes, locally or internationally. Banks will want to see your corporate pack, your KYC, and a clear explanation of where your money comes from and where it goes. Structures with a real, explainable business behind them open accounts. Structures built purely for opacity increasingly do not, which is one more reason the nominee director ban matters.

• Do I need a company secretary?

  No. Directors may appoint one if they find it useful, but the statute does not require it, and there is no local qualification requirement if you do.

• Do I have to file accounts or submit to an audit?

  No. You must keep reliable accounting records and your directors file a declaration confirming they exist, but nothing is filed publicly and your numbers stay private. Higher turnover can trigger an accountant's report alongside your licence renewal.

• Is my ownership information public?

  Shareholder and beneficial owner details are not public. Beneficial ownership goes into a secure system reachable only by designated competent authorities. The register of directors and officers, however, is lodged with the registry, and since January 2026 there is no nominee route around that.

• Can my company trade worldwide?

  Yes. It can trade globally, hold assets and invoice clients anywhere, provided you follow the laws where you operate. Dealing with residents or holding local real estate brings you inside domestic rules, including exchange control designation.

Start Your Bahamas Company Today

No tax on profits, real privacy, one shareholder, and a setup measured in days: that is why offshore companies here have thrived for decades. Whether you want a holding vehicle, a trading entity or an asset protection layer, we build it end to end and tell you exactly what it owes, including the parts other providers leave out. Book a free consultation and start your company registration now.