Malta shelf company acquisition from internationalbusiness's blog

A shelf company also called a read-made company is generally used in connection with corporate transactions. Shelf companies are incorporated by service providers but no operating activity is taking place in these companies. Instead, after incorporation they are maintained and kept on the shelf until there is an opportunity to sell them. In this case service providers can guarantee that no operational activity has taken place in the company and therefore there is no debt or other liability that could be transferred to the new owner.

Meanwhile, there are also such companies, that were incorporated some time ago with a general objective to operate and earn profit but due to some reason the company ceased its operations. While typically companies would cease to exist, service providers buy the previously active companies and maintain them until a potential investor comes around. As these companies have had certain operational activity, it is important to make sure that they have no debt or other liability. Typically, quality service providers give their guarantee that you are purchasing a debt-less company. Nevertheless, it would be useful to do your own due diligence in order to be totally sure that you are buying a clean company.

Business in Malta

If you are searching for the right place where to acquire a shelf company and commence a business activity, Malta might be what you are looking for. Malta is a well-developed country in Mediterranean located in between Europe and Africa. In addition to the advantageous geographical location and enjoyable weather conditions throughout the year, Malta manages to attract foreign investors due to its business environment and taxation system. Thanks to Malta’s taxation system, it is considered as a tax haven.

Malta’s taxation system offers numerous advantages to companies. For example, Malta has signed double taxation treaties with over 70 countries ensuring that companies do not have to pay taxes in their resident countries for the profits generated in Malta. Also, if a holding company has to pay the full corporate tax rate of 35%, typically the payable amount is largely reduced – shareholders are able to ask for a refund as large as 6/7th from the tax on dividends.

Shelf company in Malta

There are several benefits of acquiring a shelf company instead of incorporating a new one. The main advantage involves a possibility to operate a company that already has some history. Quite often, newly incorporated companies are not considered reputable, therefore potential partners and customers might decide to prefer older companies. This is the reason why the price of a shelf company is determined by the age of it: older the company – higher the price.

Generally, another benefit of acquiring a shelf company is the relatively shorter time of procedure in comparison to an incorporation of a new company. Meanwhile, this benefit does not work as good in Malta as in other countries. This is due to the short incorporation time of companies in Malta – it can take only 24 hours to incorporate a new company (the same amount of time will be needed to acquire a shelf company).

While shelf companies are rather rear in Malta, you are able to acquire companies with various legal structures – from partnerships and limited liability companies to corporations. Maltese companies can be managed both from Malta and from abroad.