The Seychelles BTAA has updated the Business Tax Act to comply with the European Union’s Economic Substance requirements. Previously, Seychelles operated under a territorial tax regime, meaning only income sourced within the country was subject to taxation. Foreign-sourced income was exempt from Seychelles taxation. However, pursuant to the BTAA updates, exemptions for foreign sourced income have been specified.
The Seychelles BO regime has since been further enhanced through the related Seychelles Beneficial Ownership (Amendment) Regulations enacted on 28 April 2023.
We summarise the key amendments to the BO Regulations in our updater here.
The Beneficial Ownership (Amendment) Act, 2022 has been enacted with effect from 30 December 2022. The relevant amendments are introduced to ensure ongoing compliance with international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which require jurisdictions to maintain beneficial ownership information that shall be accessible and made available upon request to competent authorities.
We have detailed 5 significant updates that affect Seychelles International Business Companies in our summary.
Seychelles entities are reminded of the requirement to submit their bi-annual accounting records to their registered agent (by July and January) each year. The official deadline for submitting accounting records for the second half of the year 2022 (July to December) is 31 January 2023. Furthermore, large entities (with an annual turnover of more than SCR 50 million), as well as non-large non-holding entities, should prepare and submit their Financial Summary using the prescribed template for submission within six months from their financial year end. As detailed in our original Seychelles update, significant penalties have been introduced in case of non-compliance with statutory obligations by International Business Companies (IBC). Therefore, please ensure that you provide accounting records to Marbury before 30 January 2023 to enable filing with the Seychelles registered agent by the above deadline. Non-compliant entities face delay in obtaining company documents For any Seychelles entities that have not yet submitted their historical and/or first half 2022 accounting records, these are now overdue. The Seychelles registered agent will not issue certificates to non-compliant entities and thus clients will face delays in their business operations when a certificate is required until their outstanding obligations are fulfilled. Seychelles entities are further reminded of the obligation to inform the registered agent of any change of address of directors or members on an ongoing basis. Inaccurate or not up-to-date information held on the registers may also incur penalties. For further details, please see the penalty table covering each type of non-compliance under the IBC Act. Marbury is able to provide bookkeeping and accounting management services. Please contact your usual Marbury advisor or email info@marburys.com if you have any queries about this update or would like to learn more about our related services.