Ask five providers for an offshore quote, get five definitions of cost. Here is the one that matters: year five.
- Year one is what the ads shout about: the setup fee, then the registered agent, the government annual fee, and the compliance the jurisdiction demands. Those are not optional extras. - Years two through five are where cheap gets expensive. Maintenance almost never goes down, and new requirements show up mid-stream. - The honest comparison: setup plus five years of maintenance, divided by five. That is your real annual cost. Do it for three jurisdictions and the ranking flips. - Budget banking separately. It is never in the formation quote: account opening fees, minimum balances, monthly charges. - Before committing, ask for an itemized five-year quote in writing. Anyone who dodges or quotes only year one is telling you about the whole relationship.
And when you are ready to file a US company, IncorpTrack handles it for $49 plus the state fee, EIN and banking included.