The quick answer
You can liquidate a BVI registered company even if it owns assets in the UK by filing the right pieces of paper in the right order with the Registry in the British Virgins Islands.
In more detail
A typical reason to liquidate a solvent British Virgin Islands (“BVI”) company is to transfer property out of corporate ownership held in that company which now falls into the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (“ATED”) charge. This is an annual tax charge designed to discourage residential property being held within limited companies.
The process of liquidation is:
- We work with you to list what assets and liabilities the company has.
- We then draft all the paperwork to liquidate.
- We use an associated firm in the BVI to file our forms at the Registry.
- Once in liquidation we transfer any assets out to the shareholders.
- We help agree the tax position with H M Revenue and Customs and pay any tax due e.g. capital gains tax on a property sale.
- We close the case and file the closure forms at the Registry in the BVI.