Priority Sectors: Financial Services
[ Companies | Limited Partnership | Trust | Foundations | Captive Insurance Companies ]
Foundations
A foundation is essentially an instrument for wealth management and estate planning; typically used to contribute to the cost of the upbringing of children, education, aid, maintenance and so forth. St. Kitts is one of the first countries in the Caribbean region to introduce this civil law concept into a common law system. Foundations are used extensively by high net worth international clients as an instrument for wealth management and estate planning. Although the foundation has certain features of both the trust and the company limited by shares, it is a separate and distinct type of legal entity. In the foundation Act, great care has been taken to ensure that the rules that will govern foundations are, insofar as possible, contained within the specific legislation and principles of trust law in particular do not apply.
Advantages of St. Kitts Foundations
- Anonymity and privacy of the beneficiaries is maintained, since their names are not registered in a public office.
- Full exemption from taxation for foundations that transact business with persons who are not resident in the Federation.
- Flexibility to transfer or administer assets in favor of the same founder or third parties, families, children or inheritors.
- There is no minimum capital requirement.
- Provides a fiduciary structure for the orderly transfer and disposition of assets to the beneficiaries upon death of the founder, keeping control of assets during lifetime.
- Inheritance laws that apply in the domicile of the founder or beneficiaries shall not be effective against the foundation’s assets nor may these laws affect the validity or performance of the foundation’s objectives.
- A private foundation registered in other countries may be re-domiciled to St. Kitts.
- The costs for registering a St. Kitts Foundation are very competitive compared to other jurisdictions.
The fees for registration of a Foundation and filing its annual returns are as follows:
Ordinary Exempt
Foundations USD 100 USD 200