MEDIA CONTACT
For media enquiries, please contact [email protected]
Subscribe to our e-mail list to get the latest News & Insights on Bermuda, BVI and Cayman law.
Bermuda’s Economic Substance Act 2018 and Economic Substance Regulations 2018 (and subsequent amendments) set out the requirements that Bermuda-based entities must adopt with regard to economic substance in the jurisdiction. Bermuda, along with all of the major offshore jurisdictions, passed this legislation in order to remain on the European Union’s ‘white list’ of cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. This article provides a general overview of economic substance as it applies to shipping entities in Bermuda.
Entities within the scope of the legislation (‘registered entities’) include exempted and local companies, permit companies, exempted and local LLCs, and partnerships that have elected to have separate legal personality, where those entities are carrying on a ‘relevant activity’ as a business in or from within Bermuda. Non-resident entities are out of scope; for this purpose a non-resident entity is an entity which is resident for tax purposes in a jurisdiction outside Bermuda that is not designated by the EU as a non-cooperative jurisdiction for tax purposes.
Shipping is a ‘relevant activity’ under the Economic Substance Act. As defined in the sector-specific Guidance Notes, an entity will be carrying on the relevant activity of “shipping” if it engages in any of the following activities involving the operation of a ship anywhere in the world other than in the territorial waters of Bermuda:
To continue reading full articles in PDF format:
Economic Substance: An Overview for Bermuda Shipping Companies