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ShelfCompanies24 has been forming Bahamian companies for international clients since 1995. Our Bahamian registered-agent partners handle every step of company formation in the Bahamas on a single fixed-price contract — from picking the right legal form through Registrar General registration, registered-agent engagement, Economic Substance compliance and beneficial-ownership filing. Most clients are trading inside 1–3 weeks via electronic filing, or in 3–7 working days via a ready-made off-the-shelf Bahamas IBC.
Single payment covers Registrar General filings, registered agent, ES setup and our service fee.
Bahamas IBC + registered agent + banking introduction + ES compliance under one roof.
Registrar General standard formation 1–3 weeks. English-speaking case manager.
No notarisation required.
We file Memorandum and Articles, draft incorporation documents, register the BO, organise ES compliance.
The IBC is the workhorse of Bahamian commerce. Governed by the IBC Act 2000 (as amended), updated for ES compliance in 2018.
| Form | Min. capital | Formation time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBC | None statutory (US$50,000 typical) | 1–3 weeks | Default — international holding, trade, IP |
| ICON | None | 3–6 weeks | Investment-fund / private-portfolio vehicles |
| Bahamas Foundation | None | 3–6 weeks | Private wealth, succession |
| ELP | None | 2–4 weeks | Fund / JV structures |
| Off-the-shelf IBC | US$50,000 authorised | 3–7 days | Need immediate trading |
Confirm legal form, member structure, business purpose, ES positioning.
Apply via the registered agent. Processing: 1–3 working days.
Drafted by our Bahamian registered agent. Standard articles for most uses.
The Memorandum and Articles are filed with the Registrar General by the registered agent. Includes Director and member details, registered agent and office confirmation, authorised capital, beneficial-ownership disclosure. Registry issues Certificate of Incorporation typically within 5–10 working days.
Filed via the Bahamas portal. We assess your activity profile and structure compliance.
BO Register filing within prescribed time.
Bahamian banking partners: Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, Citibank Bahamas, plus offshore-focused private banks. Banking onboarding requires comprehensive KYC.
Standard IBC: 1–3 weeks. Off-the-shelf transfer: 3–7 working days.
No. Registered agent must be Bahamian-licensed; we provide.
0% in the Bahamas. The 10% VAT applies only to in-jurisdiction goods/services consumption.
Bahamas ES under the Commercial Entities (Substance Requirements) Act 2018 applies to relevant-activity entities. Pure holding has a reduced requirement.
Economic Substance Reporting, BO Register filing, bank account opening, ongoing registered-agent service.
Ready to register your Bahamas IBC? Contact our Bahamas desk.
Forming a Bahamian IBC through ShelfCompanies24 follows a defined sequence. Knowing what happens at each stage helps you prepare documentation and avoid surprises:
The fixed fee for a new Bahamian IBC formation through ShelfCompanies24 starts at EUR 2,500. This single invoice covers:
Optional add-ons priced separately: virtual office, mail forwarding, accountant retainer, payroll setup, sector-specific licences. Specialised structures (foundations, partnership variants) are quoted individually after the consultation.
Modern offshore practice has shifted substantially since 2019. Bahamas, 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 Bahamas commensurate with the activity carried on. Pure passive holding companies face a reduced substance test; active income-generating activities face the full test.
Bahamas-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 Bahamas corporate tax in 2026: 0% on offshore (15% Pillar Two large).
0% on offshore; Pillar Two QDMTT from 2024 for groups over EUR 750M; Economic Substance Act 2018; USD-pegged.
Annual obligations after incorporation typically include RGD 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 Bahamian 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 Bahamas entities specifically, we work with relationship managers at international banks that accept bahamas-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 Bahamas 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 Bahamas 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 Bahamian IBC can be wound up voluntarily through a RGD 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.
Some activities require sector-specific licences in Bahamas — banking, insurance, investment services, crypto-asset services, gambling, and others depending on your business model. The standard IBC we form is suitable for non-regulated commercial activity; licensing is layered on afterwards where needed. Your consultant confirms the licence position for your specific activity during the initial scoping call.
A Bahamian 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 4,500) or a fresh formation taking 3 days (from EUR 2,500). 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 Bahamian 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, RGD 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 Bahamas.
You have three practical options. Voluntary dissolution through a RGD 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.