A holding company is a company legally holding (owning) shares of other companies. Usually it is an LLC or LP holding enough capital shares of another company in order to control and manage its activity and profits. A holding company as such is often used only to control other business structure: it may be a corporation, LP or LLC, rather than producing its own goods or providing services. Holding companies may also be used to own some kind of property. Holdings are often used as owners of real estate, intellectual property rights, stocks and other assets. In case a company is fully owned by a holding company, it is called a subsidiary company.

Purpose of a holding company
One advantage of having a holding company is that the holding company’s assets are very well protected against losses, claims and other risks. In case one of the companies is insolvent, the holding structure will have a capital loss and a reduction of net worth overall, however, the insolvent company’s creditors cannot claim assets of the holding company in the litigation. So, a big business structure can be organized in a form of holding with just one subsidiary in order to own its IP rights, or, alternatively, to own real estate property, or, to own equipment, or to conduct business as a franchise. By constructing such complex several-layer holding structure, each daughter company among with the parent company itself are having a quite limited financial and legal responsibility, which makes it a good solution for asset protection. Making holding corporate structure may also decrease tax liability, which can be achieved by incorporating some parts of the company in jurisdictions with decreased or exempted taxes.

Holdings also allow private persons to protect their income or assets. Instead of owning assets personally and bearing full responsibility for one’s debts, possible lawsuits and other risk factors, holding structure can hold the assets instead, thus, putting only holding company’s assets at steak.

Main activities of a holding company include supervising the subsidiary companies it owns. It can recruit and fire staff, if required, however, managers of the subsidiaries will be held responsible for their decisions regardless. Even though the parent company does not manage daily operations of the subsidiaries, the holding shareholders should have a picture of what is going on and how these subsidiary companies work in order to evaluate the performance and financial data.

Benefits of having a holding structure
In addition to everything previously mentioned, there are other major benefits of having a holding structure.

Full operational control over all subsidiaries:

A holding company has full supervision and control over directors’ board of the subsidiary. Parent company has the authority recruit staff, including directors.
Can be used to own property:

A holding company can hold different types of property, including, but not limited to real estate and intellectual property rights as well as other assets.
A holding company can not only hold, but also utilize and even pledge it’s property as well as invest it.
Risk minimization:

Holdings are often used to own assets, thus usually such structures are owners of numerous valuable assets. Holding corporate structure provides legal opportunity to protect these assets from claims, damages, lawsuits and other risks.
Holdings can be organized in several different ways. This allows quite flexible asset distribution between all subsidiaries.
Holdings company can own and use property:

Putting your company’s intellectual property rights or any other assets into a holding structure may be very beneficial in terms of legal protection against potential risks.
Flexibility of participation in risky investment projects:

A holding company participating in high-risk investment projects can protect shareholders of a daughter company.
Board of directors of each of the companies must act in the best interests of their company:

The parent company and its subsidiaries are recognized as separate legal entities each, each having separate board of directors. The board of directors is liable for the company’s activities as well as they are bound to act in the best interests of the represented business.
Tax planning solution:

The holding structure may be set up entirely in a different jurisdiction, which offers decreased or exempted taxes.
The holding can be quite a beneficial structure, especially considering that it often has lower tax rates than a trust would usually have applied.

Madagascar is considered to be a developing nation. The developmental stage of a nation is determined by a number of factors including, but not limited to, economic prosperity, life expectancy, income equality, and quality of life. As a developing nation, Madagascar may not be able to offer consistent social services to its citizens. These social services may include things like public education, reliable healthcare, and law enforcement. Citizens of developing nations may have lower life expectancies than citizens of developed nations. Each year, Madagascar exports around $0.64 billion and imports roughly $2.79 billion. 1.8% of population in the country are unemployed. The total number of unemployed people in Madagascar is 472,731. In Madagascar, 70.7% of the population lives below the poverty line. The percentage of citizens living below the poverty line in Madagascar is very high when compared with other nations. This situation is indicative of a variety of alarming economic and political factors. It is not advisable to make any investments in countries with this level of poverty. Government expenditure on education is 3% of GDP. The Gini Index of the country is 47.5. Madagascar is experiencing poor equality. The gap between the richest and poorest citizens in this country is quite noticeable. Madagascar has a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.498. Madagascar has a lower medium HDI score. This indicates that the majority of citizens will struggle to attain a desirable life due to flawed economic and social systems. The Global Peace Index (GPI) for Madagascar is 1.911. Due to strong law enforcement presence and high social responsibility, Madagascar is very safe by international standards. The strength of legal rights index for Madagascar is 3. Overall, it is considered to be rather inadequate - bancrupcy and collateral laws are able to protect the rights of borrowers and lenders to some degree; credit information may be sufficient, but hardly available, or, the oppoiste case, available but not sufficient.

Currency
The currency of Madagascar is Malagasy ariary. The plural form of the word Malagasy ariary is ariaries. The symbol used for this currency is Ar, and it is abbreviated as MGA. The Malagasy ariary is divided into Iraimbilanja; there are 5 in one ariary.

Credit rating
The depth of credit information index for Madagascar is 0, which means that information, if any, is scarce, of insufficient details and almost inaccessible.

Central bank
In Madagascar, the institution that manages the state's currency, money supply, and interest rates is called Central Bank of Madagascar. Locally, the central bank of Madagascar is called Banque Centrale de Madagascar. The average deposit interest rate offered by local banks in Madagascar is 12.4%.

Public debt
Madagascar has a government debt of 89.3% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as assessed in 2012.

Tax information
The corporate tax in Madagascar is set at 20%. Personal income tax ranges from 0% to 20%, depending on your specific situation and income level. VAT in Madagascar is 20%.

Finances
The total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) assessed as Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in Madagascar is $34052 billion. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) assessed as Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) per capita in Madagascar was last recorded at $1 million. PPP in Madagascar is considered to be below average when compared to other countries. Below average PPP indicates that citizens in this country find it difficult to purchase local goods. Local goods can include food, shelter, clothing, health care, personal care, essential furnishings, transportation and communication, laundry, and various types of insurance. Countries with below average PPP are dangerous locations for investments. The total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Madagascar is 10,612 billion. Based on this statistic, Madagascar is considered to have a medium economy. Countries with medium economies support an average number of industries and opportunities for investment. It should not be too difficult to find worthwhile investment opportunities in medium economies. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in Madagascar was last recorded at $0 million. The average citizen in Madagascar has very low wealth. Countries with very low wealth per capita often have lower life expectancies and dramatically lower quality of living among citizens. It can be very difficult to find highly skilled workers in countries with very low wealth, as it is difficult for citizens to obtain the requisite education needed for specialized industries. However, labor can be found for very low rates when compared with countries with higher wealth per capita. GDP Annual Growth Rate in Madagascar averaged 3% in 2014. According to this percentage, Madagascar is currently experiencing modest growth.

Structuring a holding company is one of the most challenging tasks for tax advisors and businesses, because there are so many factors to consider in terms of taxation, residence and optimisation. The simple fact that a holding regime exists in a given country will not make the whole structure work. Here are the key aspects to consider when choosing a holding jurisdiction:

Income tax. In favourable holding jurisdictions, income derived from qualifying participations (i.e. dividends and capital gains) will ideally be fully exempt from corporate income tax. In many holding countries, full tax exemption is possible under specific participation exemption rules established by local legislation.
Outbound distribution of dividends. Dividends paid by a holding company to its parent company may be exempt from withholding tax under certain conditions. The final withholding tax rate may vary, depending on the residence status of the beneficial owner.
Double taxation treaties and the EC Parent-Subsidiary Directive. Tax treaties are aimed at reducing withholding tax rates on inbound and outbound dividends. Therefore, the most appropriate holding jurisdiction depends on the respective locations of the parent company and the subsidiary.
Tax residence status. Achieving tax residence status can be crucial for utilising the benefits of a holding company. Obtaining a tax residence certificate can be challenging but may be possible under certain conditions, such as having a resident director, a local rented office, local employees and others. Other obligations, like annual financial accounts, statutory accounts and tax returns, must be complied with at all times.
Substance. Very often there are substance requirements, with some countries stipulating a certain amount of substance in the holding jurisdiction before tax benefits can be obtained (so-called anti-abuse legislation).

The total population of Portugal is 10,291,196 people. The people of Portugal speak the Portuguese language. The linguistic diversity of Portugal is almost homogeneous according to a fractionation scale, which is 0.0198 for Portugal. The average age is around 41.1 years. Life expectancy in Portugal is 81 years. The female birth rate in Portugal is 1.2. Around 24% of Portugal's population is obese. Ethnic diversity is nearly uniform according to a fractionation scale, which is 0.0468 for Portugal. Details of the language, religion, age, gender distribution and advancement of the people of Portugal can be found in the sections below, as well as the section on education in the country.

Population
In Portugal, the population density is 115 people per square kilometer (299 per square mile). Based on these statistics, this country is considered densely populated. The total population of Portugal is 10,291,196 people. Portugal has approximately 837,257 foreign immigrants. Immigrants in Portugal account for 0.4 percent of the total number of immigrants worldwide. Immigrants in Portugal account for 8.4 percent of the total number of immigrants worldwide. Portugal's ethnic diversity is nearly uniform according to a fractionation scale based on ethnicity. Ethnic Fractionation (EF) deals with the number, size, socioeconomic distribution, and geographic location of diverse cultural groups, usually within a state or some other demarcated area. Specific cultural characteristics can refer to language, skin color, religion, ethnicity, customs and traditions, history, or other distinctive criteria, alone or in combination. These characteristics are often used for social exclusion and power monopolization. The index of ethnic fractionation in Portugal is 0.0468. This means that the people living in Portugal are somewhat fractional. EF is usually measured as 1 minus the Herfindahl concentration index of ethnolinguistic group proportions, which reflects the probability that two randomly drawn individuals from the population belong to different groups. The theoretical maximum of EF of 1 means that each person belongs to a different group. Read below the statistics of Portugal on the average age and gender distribution at different ages.

Age
The average age is around 41.1 years. The average age for men is 39 and the average age for women is 43.3 years.

Gender
The sex ratio, or number of males for every female (estimated at birth), is 1.07. It can be further broken down into the following categories: sex ratio under 15 - 1.09; sex ratio from 15 to 64 - 0.99; sex ratio over 64 - 0.7; Overall sex ratio - 0.95. The overall sex ratio differs from the sex ratio estimated at birth. This is because some newborns are included in the sex ratio estimated at birth, but die within the first few weeks of life and are not included in the overall sex ratio.

Religion
The majority religion in Portugal is Christianity, whose adherents make up 93.8% of all religious believers in the country. Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as presented in the New Testament. Christianity is the largest religion in the world with over 2.4 billion followers known as Christians. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind, whose coming as Christ or Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. In addition to Christianity, there are some followers of Islam in Portugal. Portugal's religious diversity is vaguely diverse according to a fractionation scale based on the number of religions in Portugal. The index of religious fractionation in Portugal is 0.1438. This score means that within the country there is a major belief with a few other subordinate beliefs.

General development
Portugal is considered a developed nation. A nation's level of development is determined by a number of factors including, but not limited to, economic prosperity, life expectancy, income equality and quality of life. As a developed nation, Portugal is able to offer its citizens social services such as public education, health care and law enforcement. Citizens of developed countries enjoy a high standard of living and longer life expectancies than citizens of developing countries. In Portugal, 64 out of 100 people use the internet.