Cook Islands Company Formation
Cook Islands company formation runs through two separate registers. The Ministry of Justice registers domestic companies for NZD 75. The Financial Supervisory Commission registers International Companies for USD 310 and LLCs for USD 210, and both of those require a licensed Cook Islands trustee company as your registered agent.
Fees verified 7 August 2026.
What forming a company in the Cook Islands actually means
There are two Cook Islands company registers. They are run by different bodies, under different Acts, and they charge in different currencies. Which one you use decides your fee, your paperwork, and whether you can file the application yourself.
| Register | Registrar | Governing Act | Currency | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic | Ministry of Justice | Companies Act 2017 | New Zealand dollars | trading in the Cook Islands |
| International | Financial Supervisory Commission | International Companies Act 1981-82; Limited Liability Companies Act 2008 | United States dollars | holding and structuring outside the Cook Islands |
Almost every page you will find on this subject describes only the international register. That matters, because the NZD 75 figure that circulates in articles about offshore Cook Islands companies is the domestic incorporation fee, published by the Ministry of Justice fee schedule and repeated by the Business Trade and Investment Board. It has nothing to do with an International Company, which costs USD 310.
Most readers of this page want the international register. If you intend to open a shop or a business in Rarotonga, you want the domestic one, and it is cheaper and simpler than anything an agent will sell you.
Which Cook Islands entity you need
The Cook Islands has four entity types on its international register plus the domestic company. Pick the entity first, because the Act you land under determines the fee, the tax answer, and who is allowed to file.
| Entity | Governing Act | Registrar | Who it suits | Where to go next |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cook Islands International Company | International Companies Act 1981-82 | FSC | holding assets or trading outside the Cook Islands | priced below |
| Cook Islands LLC | Limited Liability Companies Act 2008 | FSC | a member-managed vehicle, often held under a trust | priced below |
| Cook Islands International Trust | International Trusts Act 1984 | FSC | asset protection over a long horizon | Cook Islands International Trust |
| Cook Islands Foundation | Foundations Act 2012 | FSC | a civil-law alternative to a trust | not yet covered here |
| Domestic company | Companies Act 2017 | Ministry of Justice | trading in the Cook Islands | filed on Form A-1 |
The market calls the International Company an “IBC”. The Cook Islands statute does not use that term, and neither do the prescribed forms. The statutory name is International Company, and this page uses it.
The Foundation is a real option and we name it honestly: we do not yet cover it in the depth this page gives the company. The trust is covered in full on its own page.
What a Cook Islands company costs
The government fee is fixed by regulation and you can check every figure below against the instrument that sets it. Service fees are separate, and they are where the published market numbers vary by a factor of five.
| Route | Government fee | Annual renewal | Registered agent | Our fee | First-year government cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic company | NZD 75 (Form A-1) | NZD 50 (AR-1) | not required | not yet published | NZD 75, self-filed |
| International Company | USD 310 (ICA/1) | USD 310 (ICA/2) | mandatory | not yet published | USD 310 plus the agent's fee |
| Cook Islands LLC | USD 210 (LLC/3) | USD 210 (LLC/9) | mandatory | not yet published | USD 210 plus the agent's fee |
| Foundation | USD 300 (FA/1) | USD 300 (FA/3) | mandatory | not offered | USD 300 plus the agent's fee |
The USD 310 and USD 210 figures come from the International Companies (Prescribed Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 and the Limited Liability Companies (Prescribed Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, both in force from 1 April 2014, and both are confirmed on the FSC’s own prescribed forms and fees page. The NZD figures come from the Ministry of Justice fee schedule.
Two costs nobody publishes. On the international register, late lodgment carries USD 20 for every month or part month past the statutory period, set by item 17 of the 2014 fee Regulations. On the domestic register, the late filing fee is NZD 50. A name reservation is USD 25 on either international register.
What the market charges on top
| Provider type | Published figure |
|---|---|
| Online formation agent, International Company | from USD 2,000, with USD 2,250 as the same page's headline |
| Licensed Cook Islands trustee, LLC all-in | USD 1,210 first year and USD 910 renewal, on a schedule dated October 2022 |
| US attorney, standalone LLC | USD 5,000 to USD 10,000 for the first year |
Our own fee is not published yet, so the table above says so rather than showing a number we cannot stand behind. Fees verified 7 August 2026.
The tax position, and the 2019 change most pages have not caught up with
The Cook Islands International Company’s statutory tax exemption is gone. It ended on 18 December 2019 for companies formed on or after that date, and on 1 January 2022 for every company formed before it.
The instrument is the International Companies (Removal of Tax Exemption) Amendment Act 2019, which is 2019 No. 12, assented on 17 December 2019 and in force the following day. Section 6 repealed section 250 of the International Companies Act, the exemption for non-resident recipients of income. Section 5 replaced section 249 so that the general immunity no longer covers the Income Tax Act 1997 or the Value Added Tax Act 1997. Section 7 set the transition, and the International Companies (Removal of Tax Exemption) Transitional Provisions Regulations 2021 fixed the commencement date and closed the gap early for income from intellectual property acquired, or activities started, on or after 18 December 2019. Both instruments are published by the Financial Supervisory Commission.
Here is the distinction almost nobody draws, and it is the reason two pages can both look authoritative and contradict each other. The 2019 Act amends the International Companies Act only. Section 76(1) of the Limited Liability Companies Act 2008 still provides that no enactment outside that Act and its First Schedule may impose “any fee, impost, tax, levy, dues, duty or excise” on an LLC, and neither the Income Tax Act 1997 nor the Value Added Tax Act 1997 appears in that First Schedule. The exemption was removed for one entity and left intact for the other.
The rates that now reach an International Company, from the Revenue Management Division’s own quick reference guides at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management:
| Charge | Rate |
|---|---|
| Company income tax, resident | 20% |
| Company income tax, non-resident | 28% |
| VAT | 15%, registration compulsory above NZD 40,000 turnover |
Whether your company is taxed on worldwide income or only on Cook Islands-source income turns on where it is managed and controlled, which is a question for a Cook Islands adviser on your facts. Providers report that a corporate tax return is now required of an International Company; the general company return deadline under the Income Tax Act is 1 May following the tax year, with payment due 1 November. Sources disagree on whether dividends paid to a foreign shareholder carry withholding tax, so treat that as an open question for your adviser rather than a settled rate.
Who can form one, and the rule that stops you doing it yourself
The two registers have opposite rules about who may file.
International register
One director and one shareholder are enough, and either may be a company rather than a person. Non-residents may hold both roles. There is no minimum share capital and bearer shares are not permitted. Two requirements decide the route: the company must appoint a licensed Cook Islands trustee company as its registered agent, and it must appoint a resident secretary who is an officer of a licensed trustee company. Those two gates are reported consistently by the providers who operate in the jurisdiction. We have not located the section that imposes them, and we say so rather than cite a statute we have not read.
Domestic register
You can file Form A-1 yourself online after creating a registry account. The one gate is a Business Trade and Investment Board certificate, required where the applicant is a foreign enterprise.
That asymmetry is the whole story of the price ladder above. One register genuinely takes a self-filed application. The other one cannot, by statute.
Documents and the process, in business days
Domestic route
- Create a registry account.
- Complete Form A-1, or Form A-2 for an overseas company.
- Attach the BTIB certificate if you are a foreign enterprise, and evidence of incorporation at home if you are registering an overseas company.
- Pay NZD 75.
- The Registrar reviews the application and issues the Certificate of Incorporation by email.
International route
- Reserve the name on ICA/11 or LLC/1 for USD 25.
- Your registered agent files ICA/1 for an International Company or LLC/3 for an LLC, with the memorandum and articles or the articles of organisation.
- The agent completes KYC and AML checks before filing, not after.
What you send, in every case
- a certified copy of the passport of each director, shareholder or member
- proof of residential address dated within three months, certified
- a source-of-funds declaration
- the BTIB certificate, where the domestic route applies to a foreign enterprise
- evidence of incorporation in the home jurisdiction, for an overseas company
Certification means a notary, a lawyer, or another professional accepted by the agent, and scans are accepted for review while originals follow where the agent asks for them.
On timing, the Ministry of Justice publishes no turnaround for either domestic form, and we are not going to invent one. On the international register the published figures range from two days from a licensed trustee to two to five days from an online agent to one to two weeks from a US attorney, and every one of them attaches the same caveat: the variable is KYC clearance, not the Registrar. We do not yet name our own filing time, because our registered-agent partner for the Cook Islands is not contracted.
Doing it yourself, using a registered agent, or using us
| Dimension | Do it yourself | Appoint a licensed agent | Engage us |
|---|---|---|---|
| Available on | the domestic register only | both international registers | both |
| What you pay the government | NZD 75, then NZD 50 a year | USD 310 or USD 210, unchanged | unchanged |
| What else you pay | nothing | the agent's fee, which is not published | not yet published |
| What blocks you | a BTIB certificate if you are a foreign enterprise | nothing | nothing |
| What you get | a certificate by email | filing, a registered office and statutory registers | entity and register selection, the agent introduction, and a reporting brief |
Tier one is real. If you intend to trade in Rarotonga, file Form A-1 yourself, pay NZD 75, and keep the rest of your budget. We would rather tell you that than sell you a structure you do not need.
Tier one is closed on the international register, and not as a matter of custom. The statute requires a licensed trustee company as registered agent and a resident secretary drawn from one, so there is no self-filed International Company or LLC at any price. What you are choosing between there is which agent, and what sits around the filing. That is where our offshore company formation service starts.
Who this suits, and who it does not
It suits you if
- you hold assets or trade outside the Cook Islands and want a jurisdiction that is on neither EU annex and not under FATF monitoring
- you already have a Cook Islands trust and want an underlying company
- you want a member-managed LLC whose Cook Islands tax position is still settled by statute
- you genuinely intend to trade in Rarotonga, in which case the domestic company is the answer
It does not suit you if
- you want a cheap holding company and nothing more, because the mandatory licensed agent puts the international register above the Caribbean alternatives on running cost
- you need local banking, because the sector is small and the deposit thresholds are high
- you want treaty access, because the Cook Islands has exchange-of-information agreements and no double-taxation agreement
- you are relying on a company to keep an ownership interest away from a tax authority, which is not what any of this does
What the Cook Islands statutes actually do for asset protection
The Cook Islands wrote the modern asset-protection statute book, and the substance sits in the International Trusts Act 1984 and the Limited Liability Companies Act 2008 rather than in the company Act. If protection is your reason for being here, the Cook Islands International Trust is the page you want.
Two points belong at the jurisdiction level rather than on any one entity page.
There is no statutory creditor bond in Cook Islands law. The US$100,000 bond widely attributed to the Cook Islands is Nevis’s. Section 61 of the Nevis International Exempt Trust Ordinance fixes it at $270,000, section 2 of the same Ordinance defines “$” as Eastern Caribbean dollars, and EC$270,000 is US$100,000 at the Registry’s 2.70 conversion. What the Cook Islands has instead is a court-determined security for costs, with no figure set in the statute.
The protection is a civil-creditor wall, and nothing wider. It does not affect a criminal investigation, it does not affect what you owe your own tax authority, and it does not survive a transfer made to defeat a creditor who already existed. The register of members and directors is not public, and the people who can still see it are the Registrar, your registered agent, your bank, and the authorities entitled to it under the exchange-of-information agreements described below.
Compliance, reporting and list status
What the Cook Islands asks of an International Company: accounting records kept and retained in the Cook Islands by the resident agent or resident secretary, an annual return naming the company and its registered agent’s address, and VAT registration once turnover passes NZD 40,000. A domestic company files annual return AR-1 at NZD 50.
Three further points come from the agents who operate on the register rather than from a statute we have read, so treat them as practice reported consistently rather than as provisions we can cite: a change of director, shareholder or secretary is notified to the Registrar within 30 days; accounts are not filed with the Registrar; and shareholders may waive the appointment of an auditor. Confirm each with your registered agent before relying on it.
On reputation, the Cook Islands appears in neither Annex I nor Annex II of the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes as revised on 17 February 2026, and it is absent from the FATF list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring of 19 June 2026. It has a network of exchange-of-information agreements and no double-taxation agreement, so information moves even though relief does not.
What you still owe at home, which no Cook Islands rule changes
| Your residence | What follows from owning a Cook Islands company |
|---|---|
| United States | Form 5471, or Form 8858 where a single-member LLC is a disregarded entity; an FBAR once foreign accounts exceed USD 10,000 in aggregate at any point in the year; possibly Form 8938. CFC and GILTI rules can apply whether or not the Cook Islands taxes the company. |
| United Kingdom | You must consider the UK controlled foreign company rules and report the interest through Self Assessment. |
| India | Overseas investment is permitted only within the RBI Liberalised Remittance Scheme and the FEMA overseas-investment rules. |
| United Arab Emirates | Check the 9% federal corporate tax position and the economic-substance treatment of the holding arrangement. |
Banking a Cook Islands company
The honest answer is that Cook Islands banking is small and mostly domestic retail. The island’s one private bank is reported to require a minimum initial deposit of USD 250,000, which prices out most readers of this page, and the usual pattern is a Cook Islands entity with an account somewhere else.
- a Cook Islands entity does not come with a Cook Islands account, and does not need one
- the bank will ask for the same source-of-funds evidence the registered agent asked for
- an account elsewhere is normally opened after incorporation, not alongside it
Accounts are subject to the bank’s own KYC and approval. We introduce; we do not guarantee an account opening. Where an account is the point of the exercise, start at offshore bank account introduction.
How the Cook Islands compares to Nevis and the BVI
| Dimension | Cook Islands | Nevis | BVI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government fee, first year | USD 310 International Company; USD 210 LLC | US$320 | US$550 up to 50,000 shares |
| Annual renewal | USD 310; USD 210 | US$330 | US$550 |
| Corporate income tax | 20% resident and 28% non-resident reach the International Company; the LLC is excluded by section 76 | 25% since 1 January 2024 | 0% |
| Public register of owners | no | no | no |
| Records and filings | records retained in the Cook Islands by the agent; an annual return | records kept 5 years; a tax return even with no transactions | economic substance declaration; annual financial return to the agent |
| EU and FATF list status | on neither EU annex, not FATF-monitored | on neither EU annex | EU Annex II, FATF grey list |
The Cook Islands figures are sourced in the fee table above. The Nevis figures come from Statutory Rules and Orders No. 10 of 2024 and the BVI figures from the BVI Business Companies Amendment of Schedule 1 (No. 2) Order 2022. Note that the tax row compares different entity types under different regimes, so it is not a like-for-like outcome for every owner.
The row that decides this for a lot of buyers is the last one, and it is the row no competitor comparison table carries. The Cook Islands and Nevis are both off the EU annexes; the BVI Business Company is not, and that shows up in bank onboarding rather than in the fee table.
On cost the three are closer than the marketing suggests, because the government fee is the small part of all of them. Where they genuinely differ is tax: a Cook Islands LLC keeps a statutory exclusion that a Nevis company lost in 2024 and that a Cook Islands International Company lost in 2019.
Frequently asked questions
- Are the Cook Islands a tax haven?
- Not on the terms that question usually implies. The statutory tax exemption for International Companies was removed by the 2019 Amendment Act, with effect from 18 December 2019 for new companies and 1 January 2022 for the rest. Company income tax is 20% for a resident company and 28% for a non-resident company, VAT is 15%, and the jurisdiction has a network of exchange-of-information agreements. It appears on neither EU annex and is not under FATF monitoring. You still report your interest where you live.
- How do I form a Cook Islands LLC?
- Through a licensed Cook Islands registered agent. Non-residents cannot file the formation documents directly. The filing is Form LLC/3, the government fee is USD 210, and the renewal is USD 210 on Form LLC/9. Published turnarounds run from two days to two weeks, and the variable is KYC clearance rather than the Registrar. Full detail will sit on the Cook Islands LLC page.
- What is the difference between a Cook Islands IBC and an LLC?
- "IBC" is market shorthand. The statute says International Company, under the International Companies Act 1981-82. The LLC is a different entity under the Limited Liability Companies Act 2008. They are taxed differently: the International Company's exemption was removed in 2019 and the LLC's exclusion under section 76 of the 2008 Act was not changed. Most pages treat the two as interchangeable, and on tax they are not.
- Do I need to visit the Cook Islands?
- No, on either register. The domestic route is filed online after you create a registry account. The international route is filed by your registered agent.
- How much does it cost to register a company in the Cook Islands?
- The government fee is NZD 75 for a domestic company, USD 310 for an International Company and USD 210 for an LLC. Annual renewal is NZD 50, USD 310 and USD 210 respectively. Service fees sit on top of those, and published market figures for the international register run from about USD 1,210 to USD 10,000 for the first year depending on who you use. See the cost table for the full ladder.
- Is there a US$100,000 bond a creditor must post in the Cook Islands?
- No. There is no statutory bond in Cook Islands law. The rule belongs to Nevis, where section 61 of the International Exempt Trust Ordinance fixes $270,000 and section 2 defines "$" as Eastern Caribbean dollars, which is US$100,000. The Cook Islands provides for court-determined security for costs instead, with no figure in the statute.
- Which register should I use?
- Use the domestic register, run by the Ministry of Justice under the Companies Act 2017, if you will trade in the Cook Islands. Use the international register, run by the Financial Supervisory Commission, if the company will hold assets or trade outside the Cook Islands. The fee, the currency, the forms and the filing rules all differ between them.
Start your Cook Islands company formation
Government fees on this page come from the International Companies (Prescribed Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, the Limited Liability Companies (Prescribed Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, and the Ministry of Justice fee schedule. The tax position comes from the International Companies (Removal of Tax Exemption) Amendment Act 2019 and its 2021 Transitional Provisions Regulations, read against section 76 of the Limited Liability Companies Act 2008. List status was checked against the EU Council’s 17 February 2026 revision and the FATF’s 19 June 2026 plenary.
WeOpenOffshore is an offshore formation advisory and introduction service. We are not a licensed Cook Islands trustee company, so we do not file on the international register ourselves. We introduce you to a licensed agent, who does. Where an introduction is a paid referral, we say so at the point it appears.
WeOpenOffshore is not a law firm, a bank, or a tax adviser. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice.
You remain responsible for reporting your interest in any foreign company, trust, or account to the tax authority where you are resident.
Fees verified 7 August 2026. Next review 5 November 2026.