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ShelfCompanies24 has been forming Antigua companies for international clients since 1995. Our Antigua registered-agent partners handle every step of company formation in Antigua and Barbuda on a single agreed service contract, from picking the right legal form through FSRC registration, registered-agent engagement, ES compliance and beneficial-ownership filing. Most clients are trading inside 1 to 3 weeks, or in 3 to 7 working days via a ready-made off-the-shelf Antigua IBC.
Our service covers FSRC filings, registered agent, ES setup.
Antigua IBC + registered agent + banking introduction + gaming/CBI advisory if relevant under one roof.
FSRC standard formation 1 to 3 weeks. English-speaking case manager.
No notarisation required.
We file Memorandum and Articles, register the BO, organise ES.
Governed by the IBC Act 1982 (as amended). Workhorse Antigua offshore form.
Incorporation in Antigua is handled by an Antigua licensed registered agent, which is the only channel to the FSRC and which provides the registered office the IBC must have. The sequence is short, and the paperwork is the slow part rather than the filing. You confirm the form and the activity, we take KYC on every beneficial owner, the agent clears the name and drafts the Memorandum and Articles, and the IBC is registered with the FSRC. The beneficial ownership record and the economic substance assessment follow, then the bank introduction. Standard timing is 1 to 3 weeks end to end, against 3 to 7 working days for an off the shelf IBC that already exists.
There is no residency or nationality requirement for the members or directors of an Antigua IBC, and one of each is enough. The Antiguan elements are the licensed registered agent and the registered office, both of which we arrange. No notarisation is required, so passport copies and proof of address are certified where you live, documents are signed electronically or couriered, and nobody travels to St John’s. What distance does not solve is your own tax position: an Antigua IBC does not put income beyond the controlled foreign company rules of the country where you are tax resident, and that is worth settling before the Articles are drafted.
Offshore, applied to Antigua, describes where the income arises. An IBC pays no Antiguan corporate income tax on foreign source income, provided the economic substance rules are met for what it actually does, while income sourced in Antigua is taxed at 25% and ABST at 17% applies to Antiguan goods and services. Everything else that people associate with the word has moved on. The beneficial ownership record is filed through the registered agent, the economic substance regime is in place, and Antigua and Barbuda exchanges account information under FATCA and the Common Reporting Standard. Offshore company registration in Antigua in 2026 produces a reportable, substance tested company that pays nothing locally on foreign earnings, not a company that nobody can see.
Through an Antigua licensed registered agent, which is the only party that can file with the FSRC. You confirm the activity and the form, normally the IBC, provide KYC for every beneficial owner, and sign the Memorandum and Articles the agent drafts. The agent clears the name, registers the company and obtains the certificate, then files the beneficial ownership record. Allow 1 to 3 weeks end to end, or 3 to 7 working days if you take an existing IBC off the shelf.
For each director and beneficial owner: a certified passport copy, apostilled where it crosses jurisdictions, and proof of residential address no older than 3 months in that person’s own name. For the company: a short source of funds declaration, a one to two page description of the intended activity, target markets and expected volumes, and specimen signatures for whoever will sign the incorporation and banking papers. The same pack goes to the bank afterwards, so it is worth preparing properly once.
Not on foreign source income, provided the economic substance rules are met for the activity it carries on. Income sourced in Antigua is a different matter: it is charged to corporate income tax at 25%, and ABST at 17% applies to Antiguan goods and services. Annual government filings are due whether or not the company trades. Tax in the country where you are resident is separate, and usually the question that decides whether the structure is worth having.
A standard IBC takes 1 to 3 weeks end to end. The filing with the FSRC is not the slow part: what sets the pace is KYC on every beneficial owner, clearing the name, drafting the Memorandum and Articles, and the beneficial ownership filing. A gaming licence, if you need one, is a separate process running 4 to 6 months on top of that. An off the shelf IBC that already exists transfers in 3 to 7 working days instead.
Yes. The Directorate of Offshore Gaming licences online gaming operations, and Antigua and Barbuda was the first jurisdiction in the world to do so, in 1994. The licence is a separate process from the incorporation: the application is made by a company that already exists, it runs 4 to 6 months, and it brings its own substance requirements and its own due diligence on the owners. We form or transfer the IBC, and the licence application is handled with our regulated counterpart firms.
No. An Antigua IBC can be owned and directed entirely from abroad: one member and one director are enough, both can be the same person, and neither has to be Antiguan or resident in Antigua. What must be Antiguan is the licensed registered agent and the registered office it provides, and we arrange both. Your own country’s tax rules still apply to you personally, controlled foreign company rules included, which is worth checking before you file.
Ready to register your Antigua IBC? Contact our Antigua desk.
Forming an Antiguan IBC through ShelfCompanies24 follows a defined sequence. Knowing what happens at each stage helps you prepare documentation and avoid surprises:
Modern offshore practice has shifted substantially since 2019. Antigua and Barbuda, like most international financial centres, requires entities engaged in ‘relevant activities’ (banking, insurance, fund management, financing & leasing, headquarters, distribution & service centre, holding-company business, IP, shipping) to demonstrate economic substance, adequate staff, premises, and management presence in Antigua and Barbuda commensurate with the activity carried on. Pure passive holding companies face a reduced substance test; active income-generating activities face the full test.
Antigua and Barbuda-resident corporates are also subject to FATCA and Common Reporting Standard (CRS) automatic exchange of financial-account information with US IRS and OECD partner jurisdictions respectively. We brief every client on these obligations during scoping; they are not deal-breakers but they materially shape how the IBC should be structured and where the beneficial owner sits for tax-residency purposes. Our consultant helps you build a structure that is both efficient and demonstrably compliant, Google’s E-E-A-T standards, OECD pressure, and your home jurisdiction’s controlled-foreign-company rules all push in the same direction: substance matters more than ever.
Headline Antigua and Barbuda corporate tax in 2026: no Antigua and Barbuda corporate income tax on foreign-source income where the company is not tax resident there and has no permanent establishment.
0% IBC offshore; Citizenship by Investment programme; original online-gaming jurisdiction (1994); FSRC regulation.
Annual obligations after incorporation typically include FSRC confirmation/return filings, beneficial-owner-register updates whenever ownership changes, and corporate-tax filings on the company’s financial year. Where VAT/sales-tax registration applies, periodic VAT returns are filed on calendar-quarter or monthly cadence depending on turnover. Our retainer-based bookkeeping and tax-compliance service handles the entire annual cycle for a service, for a non-trading IBC and for an actively trading one.
The right bank for an Antiguan IBC depends on what you’ll actually do with the company. Operating-account-only with low transaction volume is straightforward. International EUR/USD multi-currency with high-volume B2B transfers requires a different banking partner. E-commerce processing has yet another set of requirements.
For Antigua and Barbuda entities specifically, we work with relationship managers at international banks that accept antigua-domiciled corporate structures, a noticeably narrower set than for onshore EU companies. The banks that do accept offshore entities focus on substance evidence, beneficial-owner CV, and source-of-funds documentation rather than just incorporation paperwork. Our consultant pre-positions your application against the bank’s specific scoring model so the application clears on first submission.
Operators evaluating Antigua and Barbuda for a formation project frequently also look at:
Each of those jurisdictions has its own trade-off matrix on tax, banking, substance, and operational practicalities. If you’re early in your evaluation, your consultant will walk you through the comparison in the first call, we are deliberately jurisdiction-agnostic about which structure fits your business best.
Most Antigua and Barbuda corporate structures do not require a local-resident director, you and your appointed directors can be resident anywhere. A few jurisdictions, and certain regulated activities, do require local-substance directors or a registered local agent. Your consultant confirms the exact requirement for your structure in the initial call.
A Antiguan IBC can be wound up voluntarily through a FSRC dissolution procedure (typical timeline 6-12 months including the statutory creditor-notice period). It can also be sold, the share-purchase mechanism is the same one we use to transfer shelf companies, just operating in reverse. We handle both routes; clients often resell a no-longer-needed IBC as a shelf entity to recover part of the original investment.
Yes, Antigua and Barbuda is a major online-gaming licensing jurisdiction. Gambling, betting, and gaming activities require a licence from the local regulator before launch. Licensing typically takes 4-6 months and has separate substance requirements. Other regulated activities include trust and corporate-services provision, cryptocurrency exchange, and EMI/payment-institution operations. We refer clients into our regulated counterpart firms for licensed activities.
A Antiguan IBC can hold subsidiaries, branches, or contractual relationships in other jurisdictions. The optimal multi-country structure depends on tax-residency rules, treaty access, transfer pricing, and beneficial-owner reporting in each country. ShelfCompanies24 covers 56 jurisdictions across our network, so we can implement a multi-country structure end-to-end without you needing separate providers in each country.
Send us a short message with your country preference (or that you’re undecided), the activity you have in mind, and whether you’d prefer a pre-formed shelf IBC ready in 48 hours or a fresh formation taking 1 to 3 weeks. We respond within one working day with a service tailored to your situation. The first consultation carries no obligation and covers structure, tax, banking, and timelines, no obligation.
Our retainer-based ongoing service covers the full annual lifecycle of an Antiguan IBC: registered office and mail handling, accounting and bookkeeping, periodic VAT/sales-tax filings (where applicable), payroll for any employed staff, beneficial-owner-register maintenance, FSRC confirmation/return filings, and the year-end financial statements plus corporate-tax return. We also provide a dedicated point of contact who knows your file and signs off every filing, no rotating-account-manager experience. Specialised work (transfer-pricing studies, restructurings, M&A on the IBC, or sector-specific licensing) is quoted separately. Most clients find the predictable service far easier to budget than buying piecemeal services from local accountants and lawyers, especially when starting out in Antigua and Barbuda.
You have three practical options. Voluntary dissolution through a FSRC winding-up is the cleanest route, handled by us end to end, typically completed inside 6-12 months including the statutory creditor-notice period. Sale of the IBC as a shelf entity to another buyer is sometimes possible, especially if it has clean trading history and a recognisable name; we evaluate this on a case-by-case basis. Mothballing via dormant filings keeps the IBC registered on nothing more than the registered office and nil returns, for the day you might want to use it again. Your consultant walks you through trade-offs before you commit either way.