The corporate form, denominated for cross-border use.

The international business company first gained prominence among Caribbean jurisdictions as a tax-neutral business vehicle in the late twentieth century. Modeled on the modern corporation, IBCs typically have ownership denominated in shares; some jurisdictions also permit ownership denominated by guarantee. Most IBC statutes preserve the essential corporate features — limited liability for shareholders, board governance, formal recordkeeping — while relieving the entity of local tax on activity conducted outside the country of formation.

Within the firm's practice, IBCs most often appear as an intermediate layer in a larger structure — sitting beneath an asset protection trust as a holding entity, or above an operating subsidiary as a balance sheet that can be capitalized and recapitalized without disturbing the underlying business. The choice of jurisdiction follows the work: Nevis where the broader Caribbean architecture is appropriate, and Hong Kong where the activity has an Asian center of gravity.