How international structures are owned, held and kept.
Which legal entities each jurisdiction offers, how owners use them in a structure, who counts as the beneficial owner, and what every layer must file and keep. Written for owners and their advisers, and kept current.
Before the jurisdictions: the rules every structure meets.
Who is a beneficial owner
The natural people who ultimately own or control an entity — worked out through every layer of a structure, through trusts and nominees, and recorded in registers that are no longer public.
Trusts and foundations
How trusts and foundations hold family companies, why every person in a role over them is a beneficial owner whatever their share, where they are registered, and what a bank asks to see.
Substance and tax transparency
What economic substance means for holding, financing, IP and shipping companies, and the exchange-of-information and anti-avoidance rules every structure meets — CRS, FATCA, DAC6, DAC8 and CARF, CFC rules, Pillar Two and the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions.
EU restrictive measures and structures with Russian links
What the EU's restrictive measures against Russia mean for companies, trusts and the firms that serve them — the services ban, the trust-services ban, asset freezes and the ownership-and-control test, and anti-circumvention — and why every engagement is screened.
General information, not advice. Facts are stated as of the date on each page. Law, lists and rates change; the professional who acts for the entity confirms what applies to it. Chrysos performs no regulated act and gives no legal or tax advice.
Typical structures, layer by layer.
A holding company over operating companies
The owners hold a group's operating companies through one holding company, so dividends, sales of subsidiaries and group financing pass through a single, well-documented layer.
A family trust over a BVI holding company
A BVI VISTA trust, with a private trust company as trustee, holds a BVI business company that keeps the family's investment portfolio and most of a Cyprus operating company, so ownership stays in one place across generations while the company's own board runs the business.
A foundation over a Cyprus holding company
A private-benefit foundation, here in Liechtenstein, holds a Cyprus holding company and through it the family's businesses, so the group has an owner with legal personality that outlasts each generation and a holding layer inside the EU.
Ship-owning companies under a Cyprus holding company
Each vessel is owned by its own company in the Marshall Islands or Liberia; the vessel companies sit under one Cyprus holding company, and a Cyprus ship-management company runs the fleet.
A family investment holding company
A family holds its securities portfolio through one Cyprus company with accounts at one or more custodians, so the investments sit in a single audited company with one set of owners on record.
EU property held through a special-purpose company
A property in Cyprus is owned by a company formed for it, and that company by the owners' BVI holding company, so the building has one owner of record with its own accounts, financing and register entries.
A UAE free-zone company as a regional hub
A company in a UAE free zone trades or provides services across the region for a group whose Cyprus holding company owns it, with its own licence, premises, corporate tax registration and beneficial-ownership filings.
A Cyprus fund with a general partner and an external manager
Investors hold interests in a Cyprus alternative investment fund formed as a limited partnership, run by a general partner and managed by an authorised external manager; when no investor reaches 25%, the beneficial owner is found through control.
The entities each jurisdiction offers.
European Union
Cyprus
An EU member state with English-based company law, used for holding, financing, IP, shipping and fund vehicles; a 15% corporate tax rate since 2026 and a non-public beneficial-ownership register.
Malta
An EU member state used for EU holding, trading, financial-services and fund vehicles; a 35% corporate tax with shareholder refunds or an optional 15% final tax, foundations and trusts under Maltese law, and a beneficial-ownership register open only to authorities, obliged entities and those with a legitimate interest.
Europe outside the EU
United Kingdom
A common-law jurisdiction whose companies, LLPs and limited partnerships are registered at Companies House, with a free public register of people with significant control, identity checks for directors since November 2025 and a separate register for overseas entities that own UK land.
Switzerland
A federal state outside the EU whose stock corporations and limited liability companies serve as group holding, trading and family-office companies; profit tax set by federation, canton and commune, and a federal transparency register of beneficial owners, not public, in force since 1 October 2026.
Liechtenstein
An EEA member in a customs and currency union with Switzerland, known for the foundation, the establishment (Anstalt) and the trust alongside the company limited by shares; a flat 12.5% profit tax, a licensed local professional on the board, and a beneficial-ownership register open to authorities, obliged entities and those with a legitimate interest.
Caribbean
British Virgin Islands
A Caribbean jurisdiction whose business company serves holding, joint-venture and fund structures; on the FATF grey list since June 2025, on the EU list of high-risk third countries since January 2026, and in Annex II of the EU tax list.
Belize
A jurisdiction with a single Companies Act since 2022, which replaced the IBC regime and moved every company onto an online registry; beneficial-ownership registers are filed with the Registrar, and Belize has been off the EU tax list since 9 October 2026.
The Bahamas
A financial centre whose international business company is used for family holding and investment structures; off the EU tax list since February 2024, with a domestic minimum top-up tax for in-scope multinational groups.
Saint Kitts and Nevis
A two-island federation whose Nevis corporations, LLCs, international exempt trusts and multiform foundations serve holding, investment and family structures; tax residence by management and control, no economic substance law, and on neither the EU nor the FATF lists.
The Americas
Panama
A territorial tax system and long-established company and foundation law, used for holding companies, ship-owning companies and family foundations; moved from Annex I to Annex II of the EU list in October 2026, with a confidential beneficial-ownership register kept through resident agents.
United States
A federal system in which each state forms its own companies; Delaware and Wyoming LLCs and corporations are widely used by owners abroad. Since 2025 companies formed in the United States file no federal beneficial-ownership report, and the United States obtains foreign account data through FATCA rather than the CRS.
Africa
Seychelles
An Indian Ocean jurisdiction whose international business company, foundation and trust serve holding and family structures; off the EU tax list since February 2026, with a 10% beneficial-ownership threshold and a central database that is not public.
Liberia
A West African registry of non-resident corporations, LLCs and private foundations, run by LISCR alongside the Liberian ship register; entities that do no business in Liberia are not Liberian tax residents, and corporations formed since June 2018 cannot issue bearer shares.