In which EU country starting a company is the easiest and cheapest for people that are not residents of this country?
Cyprus and Malta are popular for internet companies.
Estonia's e-Residency Program
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Re: Estonia's e-Residency Program
#12In which EU country starting a company is the easiest and cheapest for people that are not residents of this country?
http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings
Rank by "Starting a Business".
Looks like it's Lithuania. Denmark wins overall, but that includes things like property and electricity that you may not care about. Sweden and the UK are also not bad.
And holy shit Germany and Austria do badly in this ranking when it comes to starting a business!
Re: Estonia's e-Residency Program
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
UK probably. But resident requirements for starting companies are somewhat rare these days. Getting a bank account or sorting out your taxes is another story though.
I've heard that to start a company in UK, a UK bank account is required, and it is pretty difficult for non-residents to get.
You heard wrong. There's no requirement for a UK company, or its directors or shareholders, to have a bank account of any kind.
Re: Estonia's e-Residency Program
#14I wrote about the program a few months back: http://brunozzi.com/2015/08/22/estonia-e-residency/
(I hope you find it useful)
Re: Estonia's e-Residency Program
#15Sounds a bit like what happened in Stephenson's Diamond Age.
Re: Estonia's e-Residency Program
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are already "virtual offices" being offered by Estonian physical companies. These fulfil the requirement for having an Estonian address for certain functions. It was in the article, near the end.
Thanks, I took a look to the services linked from the article. What I still don't understand is the need of a physical address in Estonia, instead of one in another country, if you're an e-Resident. How does it work in Delaware? Reading the Stripe Atlas FAQ, I understand one doesn't need to live there, but do you still require some kind of physical presence there? For example, an office. (See: https://stripe.com/atla…
In Delaware, Wyoming, etc, you need a physical registered address. There are hundreds of businesses in the US offering such services, and it only takes a few clicks to sign up.
The reason for them is that any registered business needs a place where it can be served legal & tax notices, etc.
Re: Estonia's e-Residency Program
#17I wrote about the program a few months back: http://brunozzi.com/2015/08/22/estonia-e-residency/ (I hope you find it useful)
Thanks for sharing your experience. Have you noticed improvements in the different issues you wrote about?
I think they have improved in those you raise in point 4.2 of your post. For example, I tried downloading their software (from https://installer.id.ee) and got redirected to the Mac App Store to download from there.
Re: Estonia's e-Residency Program
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard that to start a company in UK, a UK bank account is required, and it is pretty difficult for non-residents to get.
You heard wrong. There's no requirement for a UK company, or its directors or shareholders, to have a bank account of any kind.
Can you explain how it works without a "uk business account"? I've done researches this week and didn't find any answers. e.g. can I use my personal basic French bank account?
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Not sure also how you get out the money from your company to make you a salary. In France we have 2 forms of company for starting a personal business and with both you can use your personal account so basically company income = your salary. I read that with a limited company you can't do that.
Re: Estonia's e-Residency Program
#19Re: Estonia's e-Residency Program
#20The current requirement for e-residents to have an Estonian postal address is quite a speedbump for what they're trying to accomplish. The article mentions several companies filling in the gap by offering virtual addresses. Does anyone have any suggestions on a good Estonian company that provides this service?
While the postal address is annoying, I think (currently) having to go there to open a bank account is a bigger deal, since it will be hard to open one anywhere else. Even if you can get a bank account, many payment providers want you to have your business, bank account and residency in the same country (something e-residency won't do).
So while I think the are moving in the right direction, it's still reminds me of government startup programs disconnected from reality. My suggestions would be that they, other than sorting out banking/payment processing:
a) Allow companies to register as LLC or Limited, for increased customer confidence. b) Give foreigners a income tax holiday, so they can become resident without worrying about paying taxes on worldwide income. c) Generally make it easier to go there. Last time I tried to figure out how much it would cost to go there for a month and work I couldn't really find any (at least cheap, upfront) prices for serviced apartments and coworking spaces. They need to do more "outreach" (tourist board for entrepreneurs please) than just "look how good we are".