International Corporate Structure

In order to be legally present and operate in countries, it is becoming increasingly necessary to register your organization in some form. The analysis of your corporate structure in the case of a commercial entity is more straight forward than the analysis involved with a non profit entity or NGO. A good way to start is to develop a matrix of all of the factors that could affect the type of registration you choose to do. It is important to have a US international attorney assist you in this analysis, as they will be able to tie together corporate law and governance considerations in advance to avoid surprises once you have begun the registration process or achieved registration to find that certain conditions may be onerous or impossible. Also jurisprudence is very different in the US business/corporate legal environment from most other developing country business/legal environments.

Some factors:

1. Time and costs of registration
2. Informational and document production requirements
3. Capitalization requirements
4. Governance requirements
5. Management profile requirements
6. Local government scrutiny
7. Annual reporting obligations
8. Risk analysis
9. Overall level of burden
10. Tax burden

Legislation for non profits and NGOs in lesser developed countries

The legislation regarding non profits and NGOs in many lesser developed countries lags behind commercial legislation.  However, there has been increasing focus and scrutiny in many countries on non profits and NGOs with the result that many companies that do charitable work globally are finding it necessary to register a legal entity and create a global corporate governance structure.  This is normally the work of international attorneys who are familiar with different legal and business cultures.