Investors

An attractive destination for offshore investment

Mauritius is an increasingly attractive destination for offshore investors. It offers world-class financial and management services and an attractive legal and tax regime for the formation of offshore companies, known as Global Business Companies.

Global Business Category 2 (GBC2) companies are tax-exempt, while Global Business Category 1 (GBC1) companies are liable for a maximum effective tax rate of therefore 3%.

Benefits of investing in Mauritius
Mauritius offers:

• Strong political institutions rooted in a Westminster-style parliamentary democracy
• Governance and compliance in line with internationally-accepted financial norms and guidelines
• A favourable corporate and personal tax regime:
  • No taxes on dividends
  • No capital gains or inheritance tax
  • Income and corporate tax capped at 15%
  • Global Business companies subject to a maximum effective tax rate of 3%
  • No residential or property taxes
  • No controls on the repatriation of profits, dividends or capital
  • 100% foreign ownership of companies allowed
• Double taxation avoidance agreements and IPPAs with 38 countries
• A hybrid legal system based on English and French laws, with the UK Privy Council as the final Court of Appeal
• Expertise in dispute resolution and arbitration ((Membership of the International Court of Justice, the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA))
• A highly educated, multi-lingual workforce with legal, accounting and financial expertise
• A strategic time zone (GMT+4), allowing business to be transacted with the Far East in the morning, Europe at midday and the US in the late afternoon
• Cooperation with international bodies including the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), FATF (Financial Action Task Force), International Organisation for Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and the UN
• Preferential market access to the EU (under the Cotonou Agreement), the US (under AGOA, the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act) and Africa (via COMESA, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and SADC, the Southern African Development Community)
• Air links to major European, African and Asian cities
• Reliable banking and communications facilities (digital, mobile and virtual telephony, ISDN, Internet access and video conferencing facilities)
• IRS (Integrated Resort Scheme) and RES (Real Estate Scheme) development projects, allowing foreigners to invest in Mauritian real estate and acquire a residents’ permit
• One of the leading Exchanges in Africa, The Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM), which is also a member of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE).