Speaking about the business Mauritius, one surely sets his first sights on the offshore sector. Often considered as a tax-heaven, the country can offer much more than confidential offshore business vehicles. You can benefit from many interesting features by setting up a company here - and we are not talking about complex tax planning or investment gearing strategies yet. I won’t go into details or jargon-packed exposition of the Mauritian business environment, but here are some points that might interest readers.
Domestic companies
Enjoy limited liability. You need not be present in Mauritius to incorporate your company. All you need to have, if you do not hold a residency permit, is a Mauritian-resident director and a company secretary. Usually your business consultant is able to provide adequate services in these lines. The resident director is not necessarily a shareholder and may not hold any exceptional powers (bank account signature, contracting on behalf of the company without your instructions, etc). The Registered Office is another requirement but this is addressed by all professionals providing company formation procedures.
Licence fee
You pay as low as Rs2,000 a year!
Tax
15% tax on profits & no direct taxes on your revenue. VAT is at 15% and works in the same universal system. There’s no VAT on export, which means an export-oriented business can get itself reimbursed all VAT paid. Yes, the tax office sends you your cheque!
If you have a company in Mauritius, it can handle various functions: administrative, marketing, sales & invoicing and back-office, for instance. It is then possible for you to minimize tax in your own country. With all sales being made in Mauritius, you pay tax on profits made over here. You get it?
Simplified accounting and fiscal obligations
The overall business obligations are simple to manage. Government offices are all online, and most of them now offering e-platforms. Your tax declaration, accounts filing at the Registrar are no longer complex exercises that require chartered accountants to follow. For information, you need a chartered accountant if your business exceeds Rs30 million of annual turnover (that makes around US$1 million a year). What you need to get is a good accounting software…!
Employee costs
You contribute around 6% to the National Pension’s fund, while 2.5% is deducted from salary of your employee as his contribution. Employment tax is paid by the employee and deducted from source under the Pay As You Earn system (15%). All training costs are refunded by the government if you contribute to the National Pension’s Fund for more than one year. Yes, that’s true!
Literacy
Enjoy the capabilities of a young population of dynamic and educated population. Mauritians are education fanatics. Once out of high-school, our kids immediately set their eyes on tertiary education. Most of them travel abroad (UK, Australia, France, Canada, etc) for higher education. Those not having same possibilities have recourse to courses offered by numerous training institutions of the country, supported by Universities of high repute (Sorbonne, Leicester, John Moore Liverpool, etc). And then also, we’ve got the University of Mauritius and the University of Technology.
Duty-free and concessions
In the Freeport zone, you are able to benefit from duty-free imports of machinery and equipment. You are exempt from VAT (you don’t even pay VAT). There are other duty-free possibilities depending on your business activities. As Mauritius plans to be a duty-free island (read previous article), there is an interesting possibility that ALL businesses will benefit from the scheme.
Residence permit
Would you not like to have a residence in paradise-island? Under certain conditions, maybe the easiest in the world, you can settle down under the sun and wake up with your feet on the most beautiful beaches on earth.
Strategic location & infrastructure
We are in the middle of the Indian Ocean, accessible to Africa, India and China. There are daily flights to Europe and major cities of the world. In simple words, we make the bridge between the biggest supplies of the planet (China & India) and huge markets. The modern airport will be upgraded soon, while the harbor already caters for advanced technological solutions.
Mauritius is constantly improving its business framework and it ambitions to be the leading regional business platform. I personally think that the country is getting closer and closer to its objectives. Local people and regulatory bodies have understood the fact that we don’t have natural resources and we need to find new ways to attract investment and competencies to Mauritius. That’s precisely what we have been successfully doing since year 2006.
If you think that you are operating a business that cannot be migrated (in full or in part) to Mauritius, think again. Or you might just want to speak to us!
