How can I contract in London through my (foreign) limited company?

[Boo]

I need to work through my Swiss company so I can write off my London expenses.

I know its perfectly legal to do this, but I also know agencies don't care and won't entertain the idea of dealing with a foreign company.

If you can find an international agency with subsidiaries in both countries you may find they can do something.

Boo

[Boo]

I keep wondering whether contracting in the UK through an overseas limited company can help to avoid any headache with IR35?

Nope.

Boo

[lecyclist]

Long way round: start up a UK company. Have it pay your Swiss company.

+1

There are advantages to operating through split tax jurisdictions, in terms of revenue management using companies with different financial year ends and transfer pricing

[Criticular]

Long way round: start up a UK company. Have it pay your Swiss company.

Is this allowed? And if it is then why everyone do not register a company in offshore with taxes close to zero and then transfer income from British company into offshore one?

[stek]

Is this allowed? And if it is then why everyone do not register a company in offshore with taxes close to zero and then transfer income from British company into offshore one?

Because tax is due where the work is done.

[kolata]

Because tax is due where the work is done.

Sure they do - Starbucks.
Yes, tax is due where the work is done, AFTER you paid your "license"/franchise fee/<you name it> to your Luxembourg based mothership company. Which expense is 95% of your turnover.

[northernladuk]

Sure they do - Starbucks.
Yes, tax is due where the work is done, AFTER you paid your "license"/franchise fee/<you name it> to your Luxembourg based mothership company. Which expense is 95% of your turnover.

Really useful thanks.... :/

[oliverson]

Given the state of the market it's almost like a hypothetical question.

It's like me saying "when I win the lottery next weekend how best should I invest my windfall" :-D

[stek]

Sure they do - Starbucks.
Yes, tax is due where the work is done, AFTER you paid your "license"/franchise fee/<you name it> to your Luxembourg based mothership company. Which expense is 95% of your turnover.

There's a world of difference between multi-national plc and one-man-contractor Ltd...

[CoolCat]

Well you need to think about what is least hassle really.

You can setup lots of ways of doing it legally, just some are a lot more hassle.

The big boys do it all the time, and there are ways of moving the money round.

For instance Cognizant UK Ltd was for a long time (don't know if their current UK trading entity still is) a company registered in Mauritius despite having UK in the title. Many advantages to being registered somewhere like Mauritius such as no need to file accounts, so lots can be hidden. All the UK banks etc were happy to let this foreign entity have a UK bank account, and they happily ran a UK payroll etc.

The classic way of moving money from one country to another is to use multiple legal entities, the one in the lowest tax jurisdiction charges the other entities (where the money is earned) for use of the brand which they own, then the money can be moved as a charge for use of the brand. Hence the entity in the high tax country can show little or no profit while the money is moved to the low tax country as a payment for use of the brand.

And so on and so on.