Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Where would you incorporate your European startup?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 75 posts

Re: Ask HN: Where would you incorporate your European startup?

#21

Post by Loic »

Take a good lawyer, accountant. I am French and created two companies in UK (Ltd) and one in Germany (GmbH). In theory, UK was better, in practice, because I live in Germany, the GmbH is more convenient. Also, a lot of your optimisations are dependent on your products. Are you selling software (licenses), consulting or goods? Are you doing import from outside of the EU? Sometimes, depending on your product, a country which is normally not "interesting" turns out to be a great place if you setup more than one company and split who is getting the money for what (here I have software licensing and development in mind).

At the end you need the details to be able to find the good answer, because for taxes, it is always a question of details.

Re: Ask HN: Where would you incorporate your European startup?

#22

Post by unixhero »

sheraz wrote: post #19
r2dnb wrote: post #17

I've incorporated in the UK but I kind of wonder if I made the right choice. It's a fantastic country, but one thing that bothers me and that I discovered too late - only a few weeks ago - is privacy. This is a real one, pay attention to it. Basically, private companies are as public as american public companies. It's ok to have disclosures to make to the government, but here you also have to disclose your financials…

Same is true in Sweden. Just visit allabolag.se

Same in Norway. Just visit brreg.no and for added convenience proff.no

Re: Ask HN: Where would you incorporate your European startup?

#23

Post by nimbix »

lazyjones wrote: post #12

If taxes are the main priority, Malta seems like a good choice: http://www.fbsmalta.com/malta-tax-structures/malta-company-t...

Unfortunately, being incorporated in Malta just screams "shady business" - at least here in Slovenia where such companies belonging to questionable characters are constantly in the news.

Re: Ask HN: Where would you incorporate your European startup?

#24

Post by tzaman »

nimbix wrote: post #23
lazyjones wrote: post #12

If taxes are the main priority, Malta seems like a good choice: http://www.fbsmalta.com/malta-tax-structures/malta-company-t...

Unfortunately, being incorporated in Malta just screams "shady business" - at least here in Slovenia where such companies belonging to questionable characters are constantly in the news.

I wasn't aware of that. Not Malta at least. Cyprus definitely :)

Re: Ask HN: Where would you incorporate your European startup?

#25

Post by ukandy »

r2dnb wrote: post #17

I've incorporated in the UK but I kind of wonder if I made the right choice. It's a fantastic country, but one thing that bothers me and that I discovered too late - only a few weeks ago - is privacy. This is a real one, pay attention to it. Basically, private companies are as public as american public companies. It's ok to have disclosures to make to the government, but here you also have to disclose your financials…

Your accountant will also be working to make the business look as bad as possible on paper to save you tax. With that caveat, it's a tool I've used to investigate markets to see how big they are.

Re: Ask HN: Where would you incorporate your European startup?

#26

Post by lazyjones »

nimbix wrote: post #23
lazyjones wrote: post #12

If taxes are the main priority, Malta seems like a good choice: http://www.fbsmalta.com/malta-tax-structures/malta-company-t...

Unfortunately, being incorporated in Malta just screams "shady business" - at least here in Slovenia where such companies belonging to questionable characters are constantly in the news.

Hopefully that'll pass some day. It's the same in Austria, however recently there's been new legislation for LLC companies with very low starting capital almost all over Europe, so you can have shady-looking businesses anywhere (e.g. 1-Euro-LLC in Germany).

Re: Ask HN: Where would you incorporate your European startup?

#27

Post by buro9 »

r2dnb wrote: post #17

I've incorporated in the UK but I kind of wonder if I made the right choice. It's a fantastic country, but one thing that bothers me and that I discovered too late - only a few weeks ago - is privacy. This is a real one, pay attention to it. Basically, private companies are as public as american public companies. It's ok to have disclosures to make to the government, but here you also have to disclose your financials…

I believe that this is true of all European countries and is not a trait unique to UK companies.

A UK company is cheap to incorporate, easy to manage, has little red tape, and is cheap to dissolve.

The rules are fairly clear, and you don't have to use an accountant to achieve much of the basic stuff.

You may have to use an accountant/lawyer to take advantage of SEIS/EIS relief for investors, or to get assistance with R&D tax credits, but that's about it.

Re: Ask HN: Where would you incorporate your European startup?

#28

Post by bertil »

siscia wrote: post #5

I would definitely check out estonia, you are not taxed on profit but only when you get money out of the company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Estonia#Corporatio... . On wage there is a 33% social tax with is pretty much the same in Italy and I suspect to be pretty much standard across europe.

One interesting aspect of Estonia is the Digital residency: if are you are allowed to live in Estonia (EU citizen or equivalent) you can be asked to be considered a “digital resident”. That means that you can choose to pay tax there. The main advertised advantage is that all your paperwork, including your company’s, can be done entirely on-line, using a super-secure ID card.

That comes with the (welcome) assumption that you are not going to speak Estonian, and would prefer strong encryption and associated protocols.

I haven’t tried it myself, but my experience of paper-based administrations vs. Finnish and Swedish (far more IT-friendly) is night and day.

Re: Ask HN: Where would you incorporate your European startup?

#29

Post by arthurpaul »

siscia wrote: post #5

I would definitely check out estonia, you are not taxed on profit but only when you get money out of the company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Estonia#Corporatio... . On wage there is a 33% social tax with is pretty much the same in Italy and I suspect to be pretty much standard across europe.

there isn't any standard... in Belgium the taxes are 55% : http://www.oecd.org/ctp/tax-policy/taxing-wages-tax-burden-t...

Re: Ask HN: Where would you incorporate your European startup?

#30

Post by MatthewWilkes »

r2dnb wrote: post #17

I've incorporated in the UK but I kind of wonder if I made the right choice. It's a fantastic country, but one thing that bothers me and that I discovered too late - only a few weeks ago - is privacy. This is a real one, pay attention to it. Basically, private companies are as public as american public companies. It's ok to have disclosures to make to the government, but here you also have to disclose your financials…

Private vs public refers only to the way that shares are bought and sold, corporations don't have a right to privacy. The details that are public about your company are related to the size of the company.
Post reply on HN