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When you need an Antigua company that can sign a contract this week, a ready-made shelf company, an off-the-shelf Antigua and Barbuda International Business Corporation (IBC) under the IBC Act 1982, is the fastest legal route into the Eastern Caribbean’s gaming and citizenship-by-investment-friendly offshore jurisdiction. ShelfCompanies24 maintains a live inventory of clean, never-traded Antigua IBCs registered with the Antigua and Barbuda Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC), with paid-up share capital, registered agent, and clean Antigua tax record. Most transfers complete in 3 to 7 working days.
Antigua and Barbuda combines no corporate income tax for IBCs, English common-law tradition, and offshore-financial-services tradition since the 1980s. Particularly suitable for online gaming (Antigua is the original online-gaming licensing jurisdiction), holding structures, and Citizenship-by-Investment-related corporate vehicles.
Our service covers IBC, FSRC filings, registered agent.
Off-the-shelf IBC + registered agent + banking introduction + ES compliance bundled.
Most transfers within 3 to 7 working days. English-speaking case manager.
IBC transfers do not require notarisation.
We file director-change forms, share-transfer documentation, and ES Reporting.
An Antigua off-the-shelf IBC is incorporated by a registered agent purely to be transferred. From incorporation to sale, the IBC has:
| Feature | Antigua IBC |
|---|---|
| Authorised capital | None statutory (US$50,000 typical) |
| Members | 1+, any nationality |
| Directors | 1+, any nationality |
| Registered agent | Mandatory, Antigua-licensed |
| Best fit | Holding, online gaming, CBI-related structures |
Antigua and Barbuda was the world’s first jurisdiction to license online gaming (1994, predating Malta, Curaçao, Gibraltar, Isle of Man). The Directorate of Offshore Gaming maintains a regulated online-gaming licensing framework, particularly attractive for Caribbean and Latin-American online-gaming operations.
Antigua’s CBI programme (operated since 2013) provides Antigua passports through qualifying investments. Antigua corporate vehicles often serve as ownership structures for CBI-qualifying real estate and other assets.
Antigua IBCs pay no Antigua corporate income tax on foreign-source income.
Every Antigua ready-made IBC carries an active company number and clean Registry record.
| Tax | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CIT, IBC foreign-source income | 0% | Subject to ES compliance |
| CIT, Antigua-source income | 25% | Operating in Antigua triggers domestic CIT |
| ABST (VAT) | 17% | Antigua-source goods/services |
| Annual government filings | Varies by structure | Payable annually to keep the IBC on the register |
| Economic Substance | Compliance regime in place | Aligned with OECD/EU standards |
The most common special request is an older company, so it is worth being precise about what age does. It gives a longer record at the FSRC for a bank or a counterparty that checks, and an established entity can read differently in a bank’s risk model from one registered last week. It does not create trading history, accounts or credit, and it cannot be manufactured, because the FSRC holds the real incorporation date and that date is what appears on the certificate. Our Antigua stock carries honest dates from a few months to several years, each transferred with a documented dormancy declaration covering the period we held it.
Antigua and Barbuda licensed the first online gaming operations in 1994 and the Directorate of Offshore Gaming still runs the framework, but the licence and the company are separate exercises. The application is made by a company that already exists, and licensing runs 4 to 6 months with its own substance requirements and its own due diligence on the owners. That is why gaming applicants often take an IBC off the shelf: the corporate vehicle, the registered agent and the FSRC record are in place within days, so the clock on the licence starts sooner. The same logic applies to Citizenship by Investment structures, where an Antiguan company is often the vehicle that holds the qualifying real estate.
Ask for three things before money moves. The FSRC record, which shows the incorporation date, the registered agent and every change filed since. The filing history, which for a company held in stock is the annual government filing and nothing else, with no trading registrations and no employees. And a written dormancy declaration covering the whole period the entity sat in our stock, which we provide with every transfer. A seller who cannot produce all three is not selling a clean company.
Yes, and most buyers do. The name change is a directors’ resolution and a filing with the FSRC, handled alongside the share transfer rather than afterwards, so the company reaches you already carrying your brand. Once it is registered the company number and the incorporation date stay exactly as they were, which matters, because those are what a bank or a counterparty checks. One name change is part of the standard transfer.
Most transfers complete in 3 to 7 working days from KYC completion. The share purchase agreement and the director changes are documented and filed with the FSRC within 48 hours, and the rest of the window is the register amendment working through. An Antigua IBC transfer does not require notarisation, so nothing waits on a notary appointment. You can sign contracts in the company’s name from the transfer date, and the bank introduction runs in parallel rather than afterwards.
Antigua issued the world’s first online-gaming licences in 1994. The Directorate of Offshore Gaming maintains a regulated framework. For Caribbean / Latin-American facing online-gaming operations, Antigua remains a competitive licensing jurisdiction.
No. An Antigua IBC transfer does not require notarisation, so the share purchase agreement and the director resignations are signed where you are and returned electronically, and our Antigua registered agent makes the FSRC filings. Buyers in Europe, the United States and Latin America complete the whole purchase remotely. The step that occasionally asks for a face to face meeting is the bank, and most now accept a video call instead, which we confirm before the introduction.
Want today’s Antigua inventory? Contact our Antigua desk.
Buying a pre-formed Antiguan IBC from the ShelfCompanies24 stock is materially faster than forming a new one, the share transfer and the FSRC filings are documented and made within 48 hours of KYC sign-off, with the register amendment completing in 3 to 7 working days. The mechanics:
The shelf IBCs in our stock are true Vorratsgesellschaften, incorporated solely to be held in reserve. Every entity we offer:
This profile is what banking-onboarding teams want to see and what avoids the complications of buying a previously trading company (loss-utilisation rules, anti-abuse provisions, undisclosed liabilities, beneficial-owner-history scrutiny).
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 shelf 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.
Shareholders face no residency or nationality test. Section 61 of the International Business Corporations Act requires at least one director, who may be a company and need not live in Antigua and Barbuda. Licensed banking, trust and insurance corporations are the exception, because at least one of their directors must be a citizen and resident of the country. Every corporation must also name a resident agent for service of process who lives in Antigua and Barbuda.
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 3 days. 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.