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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 3–7 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.
Single fixed price covers IBC, FSRC filings, registered agent and our agency fee.
Off-the-shelf IBC + registered agent + banking introduction + ES compliance bundled.
Most transfers within 3–7 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 fee | From US$300+ | Standard IBC fee |
| Economic Substance | Compliance regime in place | Aligned with OECD/EU standards |
3–7 working days from KYC.
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.
Typical 2026 prices: fresh IBC from approximately US$2,000–US$3,000. Contact our Antigua desk.
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 — typical end-to-end is 48 hours from KYC sign-off to your name on the FSRC. 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).
The fixed price for a clean, transferable Antiguan IBC starts at EUR 3,500, including:
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: 0% offshore.
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 fixed fee — typically EUR 1,500-4,500 per year for a non-trading IBC and EUR 4,000-12,000 for an actively trading one.
The right bank for a 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.
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 (from EUR 3,500) or a fresh formation taking 3 days (from EUR 2,000). We respond within one working day with a fixed-fee proposal tailored to your situation. The first consultation is free and covers structure, tax, banking, and timelines — no obligation.
Our retainer-based ongoing service covers the full annual lifecycle of a 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 annual fixed fee 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 — fixed-fee handled by us, 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 reduced-cost dormant filings keeps the IBC alive at minimal annual cost (registered office plus nil filings, typically EUR 1,200-1,800 per year) for the day you might want to use it again. Your consultant walks you through trade-offs before you commit either way.