The following came to my attention today:
The SCF Legal Department is delighted to announce the introduction of their new Seychelles PIF’s — Although technically introduced under the 2009 Foundations Act, the legislation did not provide proper thought-out ‘regulations’ which have now been addressed by our Legal Department very much in the way they drafted such ‘regulations’ in the past for Panamanian PIF’s. In pr?©cis, SCF Seychelles PIF’s can now provide an extremely cost-effective method of protecting your hard earned money from vexatious 3rd party actions, the taxman, potential or existing husbands or wife’s combined with unparalleled levels of confidentiality. So powerful and relatively inexpensive are these structures that our legal team firmly believe that most clients (new or existing) should now carefully consider using them in their structures as in most ways they are far more powerful than even trusts in their halcyon days!
What exactly is a Seychelles PIF and how can it help me? A Seychelles PIF, like all private interest foundations, is a self-owning separate legal entity and therefore doesn’t have any ultimate beneficial owners, the very basis of virtually all modern anti-avoidance legislation. In other words, whilst you may have gifted or donated money or money’s worth to your Seychelles PIF it is technically no longer yours but the PIF’s although, provided there has been no duress, you will have retained the right to end the existence of your PIF at any time of your choosing but most importantly all legally. A SCF Seychelles PIF in many ways is similar to other SCF PIF jurisdictions but local legislation has provided a very flexible and user-friendly template.
The advantages of a SCF Seychelles PIF include:
- Initial Donations can be as little as US$1.00
- There is a local Statute of Limitations where-by transferred assets will be totally protected after the expiry of a 2 year period
- Local banking facilities include such British banks such as Barclays Bank
- Absolute confidentiality as only the PIF Charter is publically recorded and not the much more expansive SCF Regulations
- You will no longer be the ‘ultimate beneficial owner’ of any transferred assets
- Seychelles PIF’s can be used to reduce ‘surplus’ assets before a marriage
- They prevent further taxation or at least double taxation of PIF assets
- They are generally no more expensive than setting up a basic IBC company structure whilst ‘traditional’ PIF jurisdictions such as Switzerland and Liechtenstein would cost multiples of the amount for a Seychelles PIF
- They can be ended at anytime by the Founder of the PIF
- SCF Seychelles PIF’s have anti-flea or duress clauses where-by if anyone or indeed even a court demand that you close or otherwise act against your own declared interests or desires (save for illegal activities) the Foundation Council will be obliged to ignore your instructions
- SCF Seychelles PIF’s can be drafted to meet your exact needs
- SCF Seychelles PIF’s can act very much like trusts but often avoiding probate, capital gains and inheritance tax issues
Why an SCF PIF? Are they not the same as every one else’s PIFs? The answer is simply no! Only a SCF PIF will come with SCF ‘Regulations’ that have been drafted by our in-house lawyers who have over 15 years experience of drafting such instruments and further can create any ‘bespoke’ changes you may require especially when there are a number of potential beneficiaries.
And who is selling such things? Start here:
Representative Office:
SCF Legal & Corporate Management Services Limited,
3 The Fountain Centre, Lensbury Avenue, Imperial Wharf, Fulham, London SW6 2TW, UK
Certificate Number 05462416 - VAT Number 859 0235 14
T: + 44 (0) 20 7731 2020
E: offshore@scfgroup.com
Maybe the Revenue need to make a visit. What you can be sure of is that there must be demand in the UK if they think it's worth having an office here. People who, it seems, want absolute control of their assets - but wish to deny their ultimate beneficial ownership.
Now, I ask, why would you want to do that?
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Excellent idea these PIFs!
Just an idea I had how this PIF scheme might be constructively used: form a hedge fund, drop the assets into a PIF which will have a London brokerage account (with Goldman Sachs preferably to add a air of legitimacy) to make sure, PIF writes a transferable call option to make sure you can get back 100% of capital and say 99% of its profits (capital gain of course on exercise), manage the PIF assets from London for 1% of profits under a management contract. When the business is successful, expatriate from London for a few months and exercise the option. Voila HMRC! A bit aggressive but it is a risk/reward analysis.
[Whereafter doubts about this arrangement are expressed in language that may not be appropriate here]
Now you have advertised it, I wonder if anywhere closer to home will be rushing through legislation to offer the same option. They might even forgive you for teasing them with Plan B, if you have given them Plan A(ii) instead.
I obviously misunderstood the definition of ultimate control. If the assets are still available for the enjoyment of the person who set up PIF, then aren’t they the UBO?
Of course I am not lawyer with ‘over 15 years experience of drafting such instruments’.
I may be partisan, but as an auditor I rarely think good comes from lawyers meddling in financial matters. Think Lehman and ‘Repo 105’.
@Alex S
Surely this isn’t a case of MEGO – ‘my eyes glaze over’, is it?
I really don’t know
Buy the difference between what is claimed of the substance and form is very odd, and that’s why I think this one is of concern
The promoters are more than welcome to comment, of course