Holding Intellectual Property in an Offshore Company

Holding intellectual property (IP) in an offshore company is a common idea among software authors, brand owners, course creators and designers. The intellectual property offshore company Mauritius model is simple on paper: a non-resident company owns the rights, and licensees pay it royalties. In practice the legal side is straightforward, while the tax side is where most plans succeed or fail.

This page explains how an Authorised Company can own and license IP, what the Mauritian rules say about royalties, and why the lack of double tax treaties creates a withholding-tax obstacle. It is general information, not advice: the outcome depends on where the licensee, the creator and the owner are based.

Can an Authorised Company own intellectual property?

Yes. An Authorised Company is an ordinary company incorporated under the Companies Act that has also obtained an authorisation under section 71A of the Financial Services Act 2007 (FSA). It has legal personality, so it can own copyright, trade marks, software, domain names, designs and licence rights, and it can sign licence agreements in its own name.

Nothing in the list of activities that an Authorised Company is barred from running covers owning or licensing IP. That list, found in the Fourth Schedule of the FSA, covers five areas:

• banking;
• managing or administering a collective investment fund or scheme as a professional;
• financial services;
• head-office, nominee, directorship or secretarial services for companies;
• professional trusteeship.

Licensing your own rights to third parties is not on it. For a wider view of permitted activity, see what business an Authorised Company can run and the limits of an Authorised Company.

How an IP-holding Authorised Company works

The structure has a few fixed features, set by statute rather than by choice:

• Foreign control. A company must have its central management and control outside Mauritius to qualify, and its main business must be conducted outside Mauritius. Its shares or voting rights are held or controlled by a person who is not a Mauritian citizen. See managing an Authorised Company from abroad.
• A Mauritian registered agent. The company must at all times have a registered agent in Mauritius, and that agent must be an FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence). The application itself is filed through such a provider.
• Annual filings. The company files a financial summary with the Financial Services Commission (FSC) every year, within six months after its financial year ends, and it files an income tax return even if it owes nothing.

Because the company is run from abroad, the person who creates or controls the IP is usually the one who directs it. That is useful, but it also raises the question of where the company is really managed, which matters for tax at home. The pages on permanent establishment risk and controlled foreign company rules cover those points.

The royalty flow, step by step

Three transactions sit behind this picture, and each should be documented:

1. The transfer of rights. The creator assigns the IP to the company, or grants it an exclusive licence. Whether this is a sale, a contribution or a licence has tax consequences in the creator's home country, which are outside the scope of this page.
2. The licence. The company licenses the rights to customers, platforms or group businesses and receives royalties.
3. The distribution. Profits reach the owner, usually as dividends. See paying yourself from an offshore company.

What the Mauritian rules say about royalties

On the Mauritian side, the rules are favourable to the payment of royalties out of the company. The Second Schedule of the Income Tax Act exempts royalties paid to a non-resident by a company from its foreign-source income. That matters if the Authorised Company later sub-licenses rights or pays a creator abroad.

The Authorised Company also falls within the definition of a "global business entity" in the Income Tax Act, next to the Global Business Licence holder. As a result, the Alternative Minimum Tax of section 44A, which compares tax payable with 10% of the adjusted book profit, does not apply to it.

On the corporate rate itself, the standard rate in the Income Tax Act is 15% of taxable income. How that rate bears on an Authorised Company depends on its residence status and on the special regimes, so it is dealt with separately in Authorised Company taxation in Mauritius. In particular:

• a company incorporated in Mauritius is tax resident there if it is incorporated there or if its central management and control is there;
• section 73A treats a Mauritian-incorporated company that is centrally managed and controlled outside Mauritius as non-resident, and it must still file a return under section 116.

None of this tells you what the licensee's country will do with the royalties it pays. That is the real obstacle.

The withholding-tax obstacle without treaties

Many countries tax royalties paid to a foreign recipient at source, by requiring the payer to withhold tax before it pays. Between two countries with a double tax treaty, that withholding is usually reduced or removed on the strength of the recipient's tax residence certificate.

An Authorised Company is in a different position. Its central management and control are outside Mauritius, so it is treated as non-resident for Mauritian tax purposes and does not have the tax residence that treaty claims normally require. In practice, this means:

• the licensee may withhold at its domestic rate, without any treaty relief;
• the withheld amount may not be creditable against anything in Mauritius;
• the owner may or may not obtain a credit at home, depending on local law and on where the company is considered managed;
• licensees and platforms often ask for a treaty residence certificate that the company cannot provide, and may refuse to contract or apply the highest withholding.

The size of the problem varies by country, so no single figure applies. What matters is to ask, before signing, what the licensee's country withholds on royalties to a company with no treaty access. The detailed treaty planning that a licensed Mauritius global business structure may allow is a separate subject and is not covered here. The Authorised Company is built for non-resident, non-treaty use, and this guide treats it that way. For the wider context, read the limits of an Authorised Company and withholding tax on payments received by an offshore company.

When an IP-holding Authorised Company makes sense

The table is a starting point. If your revenue is mainly sales rather than royalties, see software and SaaS businesses or app and game developers, where the question is often invoicing rather than licensing.

Decision aid: is a royalty model realistic?

Practical points before you assign any IP

• Document ownership. Keep the assignment or licence deed, the chain of title and proof of the creator's rights. Licensees and banks may ask for them.
• Keep the substance real. Decisions about the IP should be taken where the company is genuinely directed, and the minutes and records should show it. The registered agent holds records, but it does not take decisions for you.
• Mind the bank. Royalty receipts from abroad need an account that accepts them; see banking options for an offshore company and why banks refuse offshore accounts.
• Know your home rules. Your tax residence decides whether the income is taxed on you personally; see how the owner is taxed at home.
• Choose a provider carefully. Ask the questions in the checklist for a management provider and, if you need to compare, check the FSC licence.

Costs to keep in mind

Fees changed on 1 July 2026 under the Financial Services (Consolidated Licensing and Fees) (Amendment) Rules 2026 (Government Notice No. 119 of 2026). For an Authorised Company, the processing fee is 600 USD and the annual fee is 1,400 USD, which excludes the annual registration fee of 65 USD (or another amount set by the Registrar of Companies) payable to the Registrar. The first annual fee is prorated by 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 to 1,750 USD within a month of the due date, 2,100 USD between one and three months late, and 2,800 USD between three and six months late. The Commission stated in its communiqué of 10 July 2026 that annual fees had not been revised since 2019. These are statutory amounts only; the provider's own charges are separate. For the full yearly routine, see annual fees and the yearly checklist.