Offshore SAL · Beirut
Invoice the world from Lebanon.
A Lebanese offshore company, incorporated end to end by a lawyer. No tax on your profit. No tax when you pay yourself. One flat annual amount instead.
Typically registered in 6 to 10 weeks. Single shareholder is enough.
Under Decree 46/1983 as amended, a Lebanese offshore company is exempt from corporate income tax and from withholding tax on dividends. It pays a lump-sum annual tax of LBP 50,000,000 (about $560). General information, not tax advice.
Why this structure
Built for income that comes from outside.
Lebanese law has a company type made for people whose clients are abroad. Not a shell somewhere you have never been. A Lebanese company, registered in Beirut, that only does business outside the country.
01
Invoices clients can expense
A registered company with a tax number and a corporate account. Their finance team gets a real invoice instead of a wire to a personal account.
02
Your tax bill stops scaling
The lump-sum tax is fixed. Doubling your revenue does not double what you owe the state.
03
You can run it from home
Managing foreign companies from Lebanon and exporting professional and IT services to non-residents are both permitted. You do not have to leave.
04
You can own all of it
A single shareholder is enough, Lebanese or foreign. No nominee partners to satisfy a quorum.
Honest first
This does not suit everyone.
An offshore SAL comes with real restrictions. Read both lists before you pay anyone, us included.
It works if
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You contract with companies outside Lebanon
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You run an agency or studio serving foreign clients
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You hold, or want to hold, shares in foreign companies
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You have access to a Lebanese address you may register at Yours or family-owned. We handle the paperwork with the owner.
It does not work if
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You want to invoice clients inside Lebanon A SARL is the right tool for that, and we will say so.
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You need a bank account guaranteed on day one Banks treat offshore companies as higher risk and decide on their own timeline.
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You want to do banking, lending or insurance
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You cannot sign on paper, in person or by proxy The registry takes wet ink only. Blue pen, three originals.
How it goes
Four steps. No mystery about which one you're in.
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A call
We confirm an offshore SAL fits what you actually do, agree a name, and check your address. If a SARL suits you better, you hear it here.
Day 0 -
You send four things
Passport, proof of the registered address, a recent judicial record extract, and your auditor's name. We can introduce one. Scans are fine.
Week 1 -
Bylaws drafted and notarised
We draft everything and send it with precise signing instructions. You sign three originals in blue pen. We legalise them before the notary.
Weeks 2–4 -
Bank, registry, Ministry of Finance
Capital is deposited and the bank certifies it. The file goes to the Commercial Registry of Beirut for your company number, then to the Ministry of Finance for your tax number.
Weeks 4–10
Files move at the speed of the people handling them. Ours are people we have worked with for years. Bank approval still runs on the bank's own clock.
Scope
Everything, to the certificate.
One engagement, first call to Ministry of Finance certificate. Not a checklist you then take to a lawyer.
- Structure advice, offshore SAL or SARL, in writing
- Name check and reservation
- Articles of association in Arabic and English
- Registered-address file, legalised with the owner
- Notarisation of the bylaws
- Auditor appointment, with an introduction if you need one
- Bank file prepared and capital letter drafted
- Commercial Registry filing and Ministry of Finance registration
- Every original document, delivered and explained
- Twelve months of legal support on the company
Pricing
One number, with the government fees shown.
Most quotes quietly exclude the notary, the registry and the translations, then arrive as a surprise later. Here is the whole thing.
$500 opens the file and reserves the name. The balance is due when your documents are ready to sign. If we find this structure is wrong for you, the $500 is refunded in full.
Then, every year
Not a fee
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Share capital, LBP 30,000,000 (about $335) Deposited into your own company's account and stays yours. Capital, not a cost.
What we won't do
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Bill you by the hour The number above is the number.
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Promise a bank account We prepare the strongest file we can. The bank decides.
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Take the engagement if the structure is wrong for you
Who you're working with
Gracia Hobeich
Lawyer · Corporate & commercial
I set up companies for people whose work crosses a border. Engineers and consultants billing clients abroad, small studios with foreign contracts, founders who need a clean entity before anyone will wire them money.
Lebanese incorporation is not difficult so much as unforgiving. A signature in the wrong colour pen, a certificate nobody told you to request, a bank file missing one undertaking, and you lose a month. My job is to make sure that month never happens to you.
It also helps to know the room. The registry, the notaries, the auditors and the banks are the same people year after year, and my family has been working with them for a long time.
Licensed by the Beirut Bar Association. Hobeiche Daher Law Firm, TotalEnergies, INDEVCO Group, and clients who prefer not to be named.
Questions
The ones people actually ask.
Yes. The company can be managed and run from inside Lebanon. What matters is where the clients are, not where you sit. All commercial activity must be directed outside Lebanese territory.
Not through this company. Serving Lebanese residents is outside the permitted scope and risks the company's status for very little revenue. If local work matters to you, a SARL is the honest answer.
Yes. The company is registered at a specific property, and the file needs the property certificate plus an undertaking signed by the owner. Usually this is a family apartment or office. We deal with the owner directly, so it comes to one signature and an ID copy on their side.
Six to ten weeks when documents come back quickly. The legal work takes days. The calendar is set by how fast you return signed originals, the notary, and the bank. We have seen a file take seven months because signatures were done in black pen and had to be redone, which is why our signing instructions are almost insultingly specific.
Lebanese banks treat offshore companies as higher risk and review each file individually. We prepare the complete file and tell you which bank tends to work for your profile. We cannot guarantee approval, and you should be sceptical of anyone who does.
The flat lump-sum tax of LBP 50,000,000 (about $560), your auditor's fee for signing the annual accounts, and the registry's small annual formalities. No tax on profit, and nothing withheld when you pay yourself.
Sometimes you should, and we will say so. But if you live in Lebanon, a foreign entity leaves you with a company somewhere you have no standing, filing obligations in a system you do not follow, and a personal tax position here that never got resolved.
Yes, with a power of attorney legalised at your nearest Lebanese consulate, which lets us sign and file for you. Tell us where you are on the call and we will set out exactly what that consulate requires.
Start with a call.
You will leave knowing whether an offshore SAL is right for you, and if it is not, what is.
Replies within one business day. Arabic, English or French.