Dual Citizenship & Corporations

[oldmalthouse]

Thanks Ron for you advice earlier on.

We have just got back from our trip to London to reacquire my wife\'s Philippine Nationality and to renew our daughters Philippine passports.
The Philippine Embassy staff were superb, very helpful and cautious. I was even allowed to witness the ceremony, and the Consul  asked if any of us had any questions before the ceremony commenced, and this included me.

So what I learnt is that now my wife and children are allowed to purchase unlimited amounts of land, my children are automatically allowed both British and Philippine Nationality and do not have to make a choice at age 21 which nationality to keep.

More importantly, and here I quote from the Press Release:
\"For those married to Britons, the British spouse may apply for permanent residency in the Philippines and form a Philippine corporation to own land in the Philippines.\"
(I would presume that this right would also apply to other non-Philippine spouses, but you should check for yourselves.)

This of course is limited to 40% foreign ownership. This means that for myself, when we get to the Philippines and form our corporation, that I can own 40%, my wife and 2 children can each own 20%.

The Consul also mentioned that land could be put \"in trust\". He told me to consult a Lawyer about Philippine Trust law once we are in the Philippines. (any one in this group with knowledge of Philippine Trust Law?)

We did not have an \'NSO\' certificate of marriage, just a \'Certified Copy\' of our Marriage. This they did accept, but advised us to get the \'NSO\' certificate, both for our marriage certificate and register of birth for our daughters.

All in all a successful, if not expensive, trip to London (the girls, now aged 16 and 14), both agree that they do NOT wish to live in London!

cheers

Martin

\"For those married to Britons, the British spouse may apply for permanent residency in the Philippines and form a Philippine corporation to own land in the Philippines.\"
(I would presume that this right would also apply to other non-Philippine spouses, but you should check for yourselves.)

This of course is limited to 40% foreign ownership. This means that for myself, when we get to the Philippines and form our corporation, that I can own 40%, my wife and 2 children can each own 20%.

Is it worth all the trouble and expense to set up a corporation just to own land? Why not do the same as the rest of us and simply put it in your wifes name?

Colin

[coutts00]

There is of course benefits to a corporation, limited liability, if someone gets hurt breaking into your house, and they sue you, well they sue the corporation that owns the house, not the individuals who own the corporation, there are tax benefits to corporations instead of individuals, yes there is an associated cost, but lets say you have a falling out with your wife and she leaves you, or kicks you out, if it is all in her name you get nothing. You get to walk home and she has it all.

But if its in a corporation you have some ownership, you are not quiet as penniless as you would be otherwise, you can keep all of your money in your name outside the country and bring in what you need, then there is the trust account, lets say your wife and you had a traffic accident and the kids were left penniless, they would still have the house, but there could be some fighting amongst the relatives, I have seen it here, parents die and leave something to others but not in the Filipino hierarchy of who gets what when a parent dies, and the youngest son gets this etc etc, with the trust, if something were to happen, its all held in place till the kids reach a certain age, then the kids can decide what to do with it, and although the executor has certain powers they cannot override the will, when it comes to the sale of the land or property or the corporation for that matter.

Thats why we are doing a corporation at the moment, its being drawn up at the moment.

Wayne

I may be wrong here but I am sure that I read somewhere that you CANNOT form a corporation with your wife to obtain land as a foreigner. As well as that I believe that family law out ranks that anyway. Good thread to get going on the Forum though as it affects us all.

I may be wrong here but I am sure that I read somewhere that you CANNOT form a corporation with your wife to obtain land as a foreigner. As well as that I believe that family law out ranks that anyway. Good thread to get going on the Forum though as it affects us all.

You aren\'t wrong.  A married couple can\'t enter into contract with each other because they are considered a single unit.  It\'s pretty difficult to draw a contract between you and yourself.  This is easily solved if the Filipino spouse owns it all.  There are also laws against forming dummy corporations to thwart the no foreigner ownership of land rule (per the Constitution).  No matter which way you cut it, you\'re never going to own land as a foreigner.  Your best security is to maintain a good relationship with a Filipino (spouse).  There are other legal ways to protect yourself; condos and land leasing.  You may purchase and own a condo unit as long as 60% or more of the whole is Filipino owned, but you have no rights to the property it sits upon.  You may enter into a lease arrangement for land, it\'s duration could be for up to 75 years.  Leases can be tricky to draw up and must be constructed precisely to have any value in court.  A foreigner trying to protect his rights on a broken lease has a long and protracted fight in court and may not live long enough to see it through. 

If the lack of absolute security on property ownership is an issue for you, better in my opinion to own a condo or rent.  Different strokes for different folks....

My logic is a simple one. If I hadn\'t bought the house, then I would be renting instead. I would NEVER buy a condo. Lived in them & with neighbours above below & sides, odds are you will get at least one noisy one.

So working on the rent option (& I know you can rent cheaper elsewhere) houses on my sub division rent out at MINIMUM P30k a month. Not allowing for inflation at all, I would spend P3.6 Million over just 10 years (& I hope to be around longer than that). That is what I paid to OWN. It is my Wifes & family beyond us. We can do what we want without worrying about the landlord. It is going up in value as well.

To me, having a piece of paper (title) that says \'I own\' is like saying, having a marriage certificate guarantees my wife will never leave me.

I\'m with keith.......I\'d rather sleep on the beach than own a  condo

Look at this from the wifes point of view. If she thinks that you feel insecure in the marriage by not trusting her with the land ownership, then she could feel that your relationship is not what it should be.

Colin

[oldmalthouse]

Is it worth all the trouble and expense to set up a corporation just to own land? Why not do the same as the rest of us and simply put it in your wifes name?

Colin

Colin

We are intending to farm the land and set up farm shops, so for us setting up a corporation may well be our best bet.
If the Philippine tax laws are similar to those in the UK, then there will be additional benefits such as noncontributory Pension Schemes and Health Care paid for by the Company, (for the Directors and workers), thus reducing the tax burden.
This at the moment is \'wishful thinking\' and I need to investigate these issues in depth at a later date.

cheers

Martin

Is it worth all the trouble and expense to set up a corporation just to own land? Why not do the same as the rest of us and simply put it in your wifes name?

Colin

Colin

We are intending to farm the land and set up farm shops, so for us setting up a corporation may well be our best bet.
If the Philippine tax laws are similar to those in the UK, then there will be additional benefits such as noncontributory Pension Schemes and Health Care paid for by the Company, (for the Directors and workers), thus reducing the tax burden.
This at the moment is \'wishful thinking\' and I need to investigate these issues in depth at a later date.

cheers

Martin

Hi Martin,

I understand, if it is a business you are considering then that is a different matter. However, don\'t expect the Philippine Tax Laws to compare with the UK. You will need to do a lot of research, and I doubt if the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is any easier to deal with than the other large organizations here. You also need to be familiar with the tax agreements between the Philippines and the UK; I have posted a link on another board here. Here is a link to BIR plus some other useful links :-
http://www.abakada.com.ph/phil_link.htm#agency

Colin

Thanks Ron for you advice earlier on.

We have just got back from our trip to London to reacquire my wife\'s Philippine Nationality and to renew our daughters Philippine passports.
The Philippine Embassy staff were superb, very helpful and cautious. I was even allowed to witness the ceremony, and the Consul  asked if any of us had any questions before the ceremony commenced, and this included me.

So what I learnt is that now my wife and children are allowed to purchase unlimited amounts of land, my children are automatically allowed both British and Philippine Nationality and do not have to make a choice at age 21 which nationality to keep.

More importantly, and here I quote from the Press Release:
\"For those married to Britons, the British spouse may apply for permanent residency in the Philippines and form a Philippine corporation to own land in the Philippines.\"
(I would presume that this right would also apply to other non-Philippine spouses, but you should check for yourselves.)

This of course is limited to 40% foreign ownership. This means that for myself, when we get to the Philippines and form our corporation, that I can own 40%, my wife and 2 children can each own 20%.

The Consul also mentioned that land could be put \"in trust\". He told me to consult a Lawyer about Philippine Trust law once we are in the Philippines. (any one in this group with knowledge of Philippine Trust Law?)

I would suggest you check with the local PH laws and vist your local DAR Office here concerning any land purchases you plane to make of agricutural land

Under CARP and the DAR your plan on owning Farm land is limited to 5 hectares  whether it be a corporation or single ownership all farm land is under this ruling of CARP whether Rice Mango Sugar Cane or forest etc.

If you are to obey the letter of the law you also need to farm the land and have income from the property all land titles now for agricutural land have to have a sign off from local DAR office before ownership can transfer make sure you have a good attorney and understand what you are getting involved in here are some web pages for your to look at that may help


http://www.dar.gov.ph/legal_opinion.html     http://www.gov.ph/forum/thread.asp?rootID=22786&catID=23  http://www.dar.gov.ph/freqaqs.html#faq15


Good luck on Your Venture

Tom