Amendments to the British Virgin Islands Commercial Companies Act (BVI Business Companies Act)

The Government of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) has issued a press release with planned amendments to the Law on Commercial Companies of the British Virgin Islands (BVI Business Companies Act).

We have prepared for you a brief overview of the most important changes regarding the requirements for filing financial statements, the rules of liquidation and restoration of companies.

1. According to the changes, companies are required to prepare annual financial statements (annual financial return). Financial statements will need to be sent only to the registered agent.

If the company does not submit its reports on time, the registered agent, in turn, will be obliged to notify the Registrar of Companies about this. It is assumed that it will be necessary to submit reports within 6 months from the end of the reporting period. In case of failure to submit reports on time, the company will not be able to receive a Certificate of Good Standing, Certificate of Incumbency, as well as other documents issued on the territory of the BVI.

2. The changes will also affect the requirements for the candidacy of a liquidator, whom companies appoint during the voluntary liquidation procedure.

Now the liquidator will have to be physically located on the territory of the British Virgin Islands. In some cases, the liquidator will need to have a license confirming qualifications in the relevant field.

3. Another important change is that the transition of the company to the status of dissolved (forcibly dissolved) will occur after 6 months (and not 7 years, as before) from the moment the company receives the strike off status (inactive status due to non-payment of the annual fee). At the same time, the period for the restoration of the company will be reduced from 7 years to 5 years.

Despite the fact that the changes have not yet entered into force and will be clarified in the future, it is obvious that the British Virgin Islands are moving to a policy of tightening requirements for companies registered on their territory.

If you have been planning to liquidate or restore your company for a long time, then, perhaps, you have very little time left to do it according to the old, less strict rules.