Non-Resident Company in Mauritius: How It Works for Foreign Owners

A Mauritius non resident company is a company incorporated under the Companies Act 2001 whose real decision-making happens outside Mauritius and whose business is conducted mainly abroad. In practice, the vehicle that most foreign owners use for this purpose is the Authorised Company. The label "non-resident" is not a separate company type: it describes how the company is owned, managed and treated, and it comes with conditions, a regulator and a few firm limits.

This guide explains what makes a Mauritian company non-resident, who actually benefits from the arrangement, which activities it fits and which it does not. It is general information, not advice: whether the structure suits you depends on where you live, where your clients are and where you work from, which is a matter for a qualified adviser.

What "non-resident" means for a company incorporated in Mauritius

Two ideas are easy to confuse: where a company is incorporated and where it is resident. A company can be registered in Mauritius and still be treated as non-resident.

Under the Income Tax Act, a company is resident in Mauritius if it is incorporated there or if its central management and control (the place where the real strategic decisions are taken) is in Mauritius. That is section 73. Section 73A then provides an important carve-out: a company incorporated in Mauritius is treated as non-resident if it is centrally managed and controlled outside Mauritius.

Non-resident status does not mean the company disappears from the Mauritian tax system. It must still file an income tax return under section 116 of the Income Tax Act. For how the tax treatment works once that status is established, see Authorised Company taxation in Mauritius. Questions about your own tax residence, and how your home country treats the company, belong with an adviser in your country.

Incorporation, residence and licensing are three separate questions

Keeping these three apart avoids most misunderstandings. A company can pass the first test, fail the second and still need the third.

The legal route: authorisation as an Authorised Company

The Financial Services Act 2007 draws the regulatory line. A company incorporated under the Companies Act, in which a majority of the shares or voting rights is held or controlled by a person who is not a Mauritian citizen, which carries on its business mainly outside Mauritius, and whose central management and control are outside Mauritius, must apply to the Financial Services Commission (FSC) for authorisation as an Authorised Company. That is section 71A(1).

Three conditions therefore work together:

• Foreign control. A majority of the shares, voting rights or the legal or beneficial interest is held or controlled by a non-citizen of Mauritius.
• Business conducted mainly abroad. The company's activity takes place principally outside Mauritius.
• Management and control abroad. The company's central management and control sit outside Mauritius.

The application is not filed by the owner personally. It goes to the FSC through an FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence), in the form and manner the FSC determines, with the information, documents and fees set by the FSC Rules. The authorisation itself is issued by the Chief Executive on behalf of the Commission. Since 1 October 2024, the FSC must grant a complete application within 10 working days of the date it is considered complete, a deadline that also applies to Global Business Licence and Authorised Company applications, except those filed before that date.

For a fuller definition, read Authorised Company in Mauritius: definition, features and uses. For the regulator's role and what to expect from it, see Authorised Company and the FSC.

Operating without the right status

The law attaches a penalty to getting this wrong. A company that carries on the business described in section 71(1) without holding a Global Business Licence commits an offence liable to a fine of up to MUR 1 000 000. The same sanction applies to a company that operates as an Authorised Company without authorisation (sections 71(5) and 71A(12)). The point is practical: the status has to be obtained before the company starts operating, not after.

A word on the other route

The Financial Services Act also provides for the Global Business Licence, held by a Global Business Corporation (GBC). The legal difference is clear: a GBC must be managed and controlled from Mauritius, carry out its core income-generating activities there, have two resident directors and be administered by an FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence). An Authorised Company is the reverse on the first point: its central management and control must be outside Mauritius, it must have a Mauritian registered agent, and it cannot carry on the activities listed in the Fourth Schedule of the Act. This page concentrates on the Authorised Company route.

Non-resident or resident: how the two profiles differ

A short comparison helps to see where the non-resident profile sits.

If your business is genuinely local, a non-resident structure is the wrong tool. The comparison of an offshore company with a local company walks through that decision.

Does your company fit? A decision path

The tree is a first filter only. It does not replace the analysis of your facts.

How the non-resident structure works day to day

The registered agent in Mauritius

Every Authorised Company must have a registered agent in Mauritius at all times, and that agent must be an FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence). The agent's role is defined in the Act. It includes filing the returns and documents required under the Financial Services Act, the Income Tax Act or the Companies Act, passing on communications with the FSC, the Mauritius Revenue Authority and the Registrar, carrying out anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures, and keeping records such as minutes, resolutions and transaction documents.

This is why choosing the provider matters more than choosing a name for the company. The article on the provider behind your Authorised Company explains the relationship, and you can change provider later if needed. When a company appoints a new registered agent, the application must be accompanied by the fee set by the FSC Rules, a requirement in force since 1 August 2024.

Managing from abroad without losing the status

Non-resident status depends on the facts, not on the paperwork. If the directors in practice run the company from Mauritius, the foundation of the status weakens. The practical consequences of running the business from your country of residence are covered in managing an Authorised Company from abroad.

Deemed to operate outside Mauritius

The Act recognises that a non-resident company may still have some links with the island. An Authorised Company is deemed to carry on its business outside Mauritius even if it carries out the transactions referred to in section 73(1)(c) to (f) of the Financial Services Act (section 71A(13)). By comparison, the text on Global Business Corporations lists examples of transactions with residents that do not change their treatment: opening a rupee bank account for day-to-day operations in Mauritius, holding or disposing of immovable property in Mauritius (subject to the Non-Citizens (Property Restrictions) Act) and investing in securities listed on a licensed exchange under the Securities Act 2005.

Ownership, beneficial owners and privacy

A non-resident company is not an anonymous one. Every Mauritian company must identify its beneficial owner on a continuing basis, and any nominee where relevant, and record them in a separate register. The record covers the full name and residential address, national identity or passport number, nationality and the holding structure identifying the ultimate beneficial owner (Companies Act 2001, section 91(3A), as updated to 15 May 2026).

Several further points follow from the Companies Act:

• The beneficial owner is the natural person who ultimately owns or controls the company, or on whose behalf a transaction is conducted, through direct or indirect shareholding at a prescribed percentage, voting rights, ownership interest or control by other means. The earlier wording of section 91 used a threshold of 25% of voting rights.
• The company must keep a record of the steps taken to identify the beneficial owner, including a written declaration from the beneficial owner. The beneficial owner must tell the company of any change in status.
• The register and information must be accurate, up to date and made available without delay to competent authorities on request.
• The Registrar of Companies holds a Beneficial Ownership Register, accessible to all competent authorities and to other prescribed public authorities. The Companies Act does not describe it as a public register.
• The share register must be kept for at least 7 years after the relevant transaction, and the last directors of a company that ceases business keep beneficial ownership information for at least 7 years.

The Corporate and Business Registration Department (CBRD) also lists on its Guidelines page a document titled "BO Guidance – Identification of Beneficial Owners under the Companies Act 2001", dated 5 October 2026. Check that guidance directly, as it post-dates the other texts used here. For a plain-language discussion of privacy, see Is the owner of an offshore company private?.

Who benefits from a non-resident company

The structure is designed for owners who live, work and sell outside Mauritius. It tends to suit the following profiles, subject to the rules of their own country:

• Founders of internationally facing businesses who want a clear corporate vehicle separate from their personal assets, with a regulated provider handling the Mauritian formalities.
• Owners who already manage the business from outside Mauritius and have no intention of relocating decision-making to the island.
• Businesses with customers, suppliers and contractors in several countries, where a neutral holding or trading company simplifies contracts and invoicing.
• People who need a stable base for intellectual property, royalties or international contracts, within the limits of tax law at home.

It tends to suit the following profiles poorly:

• Owners whose real work happens in Mauritius, or whose customers are mostly Mauritian.
• Anyone expecting the company to remove tax obligations in their country of residence. That is not how the system works; the home-country position is a separate analysis, which is why the question of how the owner is taxed at home comes before incorporation, not after.
• Businesses in regulated financial sectors, which fall outside what an Authorised Company may do (see below).

Activities that fit a non-resident company

The test is not a long list of permitted trades. In effect, an Authorised Company may carry on a lawful business mainly outside Mauritius, apart from the activities that the Financial Services Act reserves. The examples below are the ones most often considered by foreign owners.

Further detail sits in the dedicated pages: what business an Authorised Company can run lists the types of activity, and how to open an offshore company in Mauritius takes you through the sequence.

Royalties and payments to non-residents

The Income Tax Act's Second Schedule exempts royalties paid to a non-resident by a company on its foreign-source income (Part II, Sub-part A, item 5). It also exempts interest paid to a non-resident who does not carry on business in Mauritius, where the payer is a Global Business Licence holder paying out of foreign-source income. These exemptions have conditions and apply to specific payments; they do not describe the tax position of every Authorised Company. Confirm the position for your own flows before relying on them.

What a non-resident Authorised Company cannot do

The restrictions are as important as the permissions. Unless the FSC Rules allow an exception, an Authorised Company cannot carry on the activities in the Fourth Schedule of the Financial Services Act. There are five categories:

1. Banking.
2. Managing or administering a collective investment fund or scheme as a professional.
3. Financial services.
4. Corporate services such as company headquarters, nominee, director or secretarial services for other companies.
5. Professional trusteeship.

This is why crypto and digital asset businesses cannot assume a standard Authorised Company is suitable, and why anyone offering regulated services needs to look at the relevant FSC licence rather than a plain authorisation. The wider list of boundaries is in limits of an Authorised Company.

Cost, timing and recurring charges

The current fee schedule comes from the Financial Services (Consolidated Licensing and Fees) (Amendment) Rules 2026 (Government Notice No. 119 of 2026), made by the FSC on 29 June 2026 and in force since 1 July 2026. In its communiqué of 10 July 2026, the FSC said that processing fees had not changed since the 2008 rules and that annual fees had not been reviewed since 2019. It presented the reform as the implementation of a 2025/26 budget measure and justified the adjustment for Authorised Companies by their inherently higher risk profile.

Some details are worth knowing:

• The annual fee of 1 400 USD excludes the annual registration fee of 65 USD (or another amount set by the Registrar of Companies), which is payable to the Registrar.
• The first annual fee is prorated according to the quarter in which the authorisation is granted: 1 400 USD (July to September), 1 050 USD (October to December), 700 USD (January to March) and 350 USD (April to June).
• Late payment raises the annual fee from 1 400 USD to 1 750 USD if paid within a month after the due date, 2 100 USD between one and three months after, and 2 800 USD between three and six months after.
• For the 2026-27 renewal cycle, the FSC moved the payment deadline to 30 September 2026. Payment is made through the FSC One platform, including by direct debit or from the deposit account of an FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence).

The provider's own service fees are separate and are set by the provider, not by the FSC. A registered agent also pays the FSC a variable fee depending on how many Authorised Companies it serves, which is one reason to ask providers how they price their services. A list of useful questions is in Questions to ask an offshore FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence). Annual duties after the first year, including the yearly financial summary filed with the FSC within 6 months of the end of the financial year, are described in annual obligations of an Authorised Company.

Banking and day-to-day practicalities

Non-resident status makes banking a topic to plan early. Banks apply their own due diligence on ownership, activity and source of funds, and an FSC authorisation does not oblige any bank to open an account. Options are discussed in banking options for an offshore company.

Because corporate service providers are subject to the Financial Intelligence and Anti-Money Laundering Act (FIAMLA), with the Registrar of Companies as supervisory body, expect identity checks at the start and periodic updates afterwards. A person who helps a third party to incorporate or register a legal entity as a formation agent is acting as a company service provider under that Act.

Risks and points of caution

• Substance in the wrong place. If decisions are actually taken in Mauritius, or in the owner's home country, the company's status and tax treatment may not be what the documents say.
• Home-country rules. Many countries have rules on foreign companies controlled by their residents. The answer depends on the country and must be checked before incorporation.
• Regulated activities. An activity that falls within the Fourth Schedule cannot simply be added later.
• Struck-off risk. The Registrar may remove a company from the register if it has ceased business with no reason to continue, has not paid registration fees, has not filed its annual return (section 223(2)), is in liquidation without a liquidator or fails to comply with beneficial ownership filing (Companies Act, section 309(1)).
• Letters of intent. For a project that intends to carry on global business, the FSC may issue a letter of intent setting the conditions for a licence. It can be revoked at any time without reason and is not a promise that a licence will be granted.

Next steps

A sensible order of work is to confirm where you and your clients are, check the rules in your country, then speak to an FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence). You can use the checklist before you start to prepare, or send your situation through the contact form to be put in touch with a licensed provider.