As the offshore planning world turns, the limited liability company (“LLC”) is starting to appear with greater frequency as an alternative to the conventional offshore asset protection trust.  It is desirable because unlike the offshore trust, which requires an independent trustee, the LLC permits the client to remain in full control as the Manager of the entity.  While the typical offshore trust provides the highest form of asset protection, the asset protection afforded by the LLC is significant, and with retained control, provides a powerful combination.  Recently, St. Vincent and the Grenadines as well as Nevis, have sought to improve their legislation by offering superior LLC statutes.  Each is progressive and will be desirable for planners and clients alike.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

St. Vincent and the Grenadines (“SVG”) has become the most recent entrant into the foreign LLC space.  Recently passed limited liability company legislation puts SVG on par with other jurisdictions such as Nevis, Anguilla, and the Cook Islands.  In particular, SVG has enacted compelling provisions regarding: 1) Charging Orders, and 2) Series LLCs.

Charging Orders

Borrowing a little from Nevis and a little from Anguilla, the SVG statute offers LLC asset protection

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The most important thing that happened in January was the Indian Supreme Court’s ruling in Vodafone. The transaction in Vodafone was one that India’s tax department deemed taxable, but it was also deemed to be as confusing as possible in order to avoid taxation. Vodafone Group bought Indian mobile operator Hutchison Essar from Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. (HTIL) — a Li Ka Shing company, in an $11.1 billion transaction that gave Vodafone a two-thirds stake in Hutchison Essar. Vodafone International Holdings BV, registered in the Netherlands, acquired the entire share capital of CGP Investments (Holdings) Ltd., a Cayman Islands company from HTIL, giving it control over Hutchison India, which was owned by CGP, and thereby gained virtually 100 percent control over Hutchison Essar. HTIL made a huge capital gain goes without saying.   August 2007, six months after that acquisition, the tax department levied an INR 11,000 crore tax on Hutch. But Hutch was smart. It took the money and ran as fast as it possibly could. By the time the tax department came knocking, Hutch had legally removed all presence of itself from India.   A month later, in September 2007, the tax department hit on Vodafone, stating that it should

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