Should I open a UK Ltd as EU resident?
So I was planning to move to London and open a ltd company in the UK but the pandemic happened.
Now I don't know when I'm going to be able to do that (considering we're in the middle of the pandemic) or if it's a good idea anymore.
Brexit, IR35, London being expensive and Covid in the UK.. the insecurity adds up.
Many people are fleeing London due to the pandemic.
I'm from a EU country that doesn't have a good ecosystem for entrepreneurship and I want to leave the country as well. My idea was to be in London for at least 6 months per year (for taxation reasons).
My second option was Berlin and opening a UG.. but I'm reading of many hurdles one has to jump with a German company. Harder to close if things don't go well, more expensive to operate, more bureacratic processes etc.
It seems that UK ltd is way straightforward and the ecosystem and taxation is easier to understand (documents in English certainly help). On the other hand many people are saying you shouldn't found a company in the UK right now because of all the aforementioned reasons.
Any advice?
I would not recommend opening a british ltd at the current moment as I've seen a lot of my network switching from british ltd's to german ltd's (like UG & GmbH). Mostly because of the unsecurities concerning brexit. What might be an alternative to you is to open an irish ltd as it's the most comparable with the british ltd and you can (as I know) open it remotely. There are services & agencies on the internet that help you open one and provide you the (needed) registered office adress etc. Would not recommend a german ltd if you're not sufficient in german as it's a whole other story (and it's definitely more bureacratic).
But I am not a tax consultant and recommend you to inform yourself here more intensly. Just personal opinion & experience
Thanks for the reply.
The thing is I would only consider moving to London or Berlin and not somewhere in Ireland. For UG/Gmbh I have seen there are services that help you with paperwork/invoicing etc but of course it's going to be more complicated than the UK ltd I guess.
I've thought of Paris as well but I've read there's a lot of bureaucracy/hurdles that makes things hard for business owners.
From what I've read (and I've read quite a lot) it is going to be a problem if where you reside is different from where the company is located.
So I'm trying to see where to move that is helpful to the business but also somewhere I like living.
I don't want be a "digital nomad" or do tricks with taxes, I just want to have a legitimate business and do things properly.
Opening an closing a company in the UK is incredibly easy to do. You can pay 20GBP for a company to complete all of the paperwork and in most cases they also provide you with a registered address in London too. It's one of the reasons why the UK is loved by businesses across the globe.
How do you handle post sent to the business address?
Some of these companies offer monthly subscriptions which includes photocopying and forwarding you the letters.
Have you thought about an e-residency (Estonia) ? Pretty simple tax laws.
Yeah but since I don't plan to move to Estonia, it is not a viable option. Your remote company can be considered (and taxed as) a local company if you don't live there more than 183 days (it's more complicated than that but that's the short version).
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