Registering UK Limited company in Italy

[BlasterBates]

As Darmstadt pointed out UK Ltd's are popular in Germany. It's less expensive to set up a UK Ltd and pay German tax. One of the key reasons is that there is no need to stump up 20 grand of capital as you do with a German GmbH. There is no tax to pay in the UK. German businesses are not setting up UK Ltd's to do business in the UK they do it because it's a good way of doing business in Germany.

I presume the same is true in Italy. However you do it you need the services of an Italian accountant. It's only worth setting up a UK Ltd if it will be cheaper and only an Italian accountant will be able to tell you.

[dropbaer]

I don't know about Italy but its pretty easy to set-up a UK Ltd. in Germany (in German): Gründung einer Limited - Ltd. - IHK Frankfurt am Main

The only difficulty really is:

Physical address is the least of the problem IMO. There are companies out there who offer physical address and receiving your posts etc. For e.g. google scanmypost

[darmstadt]

Pretty sure you can't register a UK Ltd outside the UK but I stand to be corrected.

This is why I've given up on EU working - too many whatifs/maybes/etc where am I tax-resident, where is my Ltd tax-resident, what with all the extra diligence, fees, accountancy, taxation, travel and mostly lower rates seems a bit of a no-go area for me...

I don't know about Italy but its pretty easy to set-up a UK Ltd. in Germany (in German): Gründung einer Limited - Ltd. - IHK Frankfurt am Main

The only difficulty really is:

Every company must have a registered office within the UK which is the official legal address of the company. It must be a physical address (i.e. not a PO Box without a physical location) as Companies House will use this address to send correspondence to.

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

You can, through very convulted means, re register a UK ltd somewhere else. Equally you can register a company from another jurisdiction in the UK.

It's called migrating a company, HSBC are thinking about it if you read the press.

It's horrendously complicated and expensive. Unless you are HSBC you really don't want to think about it.

Finding a UK accountant with a through knowledge of Italian system, or vice versa, is possible, but it is specialist.

You have three practical choices:
- register some type of entity out there - sole trader, italian company. Close uk company of leave it dormant.
- use a brolly of some sort
- use your UK company out there with local registration for taxes, but keeping the company registered in UK (cf the first option of migrating a company registration). Complexity of being in two tax regimes.

[TykeMerc]

Nobody said free.

Googling for specialist is daft as search results are full of scammers offering quick and easy schemes.

That's where you start the filtering.

The other rational alternative is finding Expat people/forums with people that spend a lot of time in Italy. Italy has never been a big contract market like Belgium, Germany, Holland and Switzerland.

[freeplatypus]

There are a few specialist accountants who post on CUK, but hoping that one is familiar with UK-Italy taxation and company structures is a big reach and hoping that one will post that specialist advice for free is fairly daft.

I'd suggest that you Google the specialists and approach some.

Nobody said free.

Googling for specialist is daft as search results are full of scammers offering quick and easy schemes.

[TykeMerc]

I got to terms with myself that I will have to pay for quality advice/service. That's not problem. I am quite honestly looking for someone here recommend good accountant, tax specialist (I kind of assumed they are present on this forum as well) and also hoped for response from people who actually went through the pain.

I am slowly loosing hope in European tax system (nothing wrong with EU, but the whole 'territorialism' of each and every country is painful).

There are a few specialist accountants who post on CUK, but hoping that one is familiar with UK-Italy taxation and company structures is a big reach and hoping that one will post that specialist advice for free is fairly daft.

I'd suggest that you Google the specialists and approach some.

[stek]

I got to terms with myself that I will have to pay for quality advice/service. That's not problem. I am quite honestly looking for someone here recommend good accountant, tax specialist (I kind of assumed they are present on this forum as well) and also hoped for response from people who actually went through the pain.

I am slowly loosing hope in European tax system (nothing wrong with EU, but the whole 'territorialism' of each and every country is painful).

I just forget EU harmony etc, I don't really think it exists except for individuals rights to free movement, so I\d just treat it as if where any other country in the world, just do everything locally.

[freeplatypus]

I don't think there is a DIY/lo-cost/no-effort solution here.

I got to terms with myself that I will have to pay for quality advice/service. That's not problem. I am quite honestly looking for someone here recommend good accountant, tax specialist (I kind of assumed they are present on this forum as well) and also hoped for response from people who actually went through the pain.

I am slowly loosing hope in European tax system (nothing wrong with EU, but the whole 'territorialism' of each and every country is painful).

[stek]

Sorry wasn't clear. I already have UK Ltd company through which I trade at the moment.

I think there's nothing stopping you opening an Italian branch/office from your UK Ltd. but I'd imagine you'd still need more specialist accountancy/taxation services, whichever way you look at it, you're going to have significantly higher fees in these areas.

I don't think there is a DIY/lo-cost/no-effort solution here.

[eek]

Sorry wasn't clear. I already have UK Ltd company through which I trade at the moment.

Yep but you can't easily use it as your accountants have already pointed out. As Stek says its just not worth the pain...

[freeplatypus]

Pretty sure you can't register a UK Ltd outside the UK but I stand to be corrected.

Sorry wasn't clear. I already have UK Ltd company through which I trade at the moment.

[stek]

Pretty sure you can't register a UK Ltd outside the UK but I stand to be corrected.

This is why I've given up on EU working - too many whatifs/maybes/etc where am I tax-resident, where is my Ltd tax-resident, what with all the extra diligence, fees, accountancy, taxation, travel and mostly lower rates seems a bit of a no-go area for me...

[freeplatypus]

Hi,

I went through questions about trading from Italy using UK Limited company in the other thread. The outcome is grim and conclusion is greatly discouraging. Effectively: close your UK Limited, set-up Italians Srl or go Sole Trader in either case face contract renegotiation, additional fees and loss of personal and corporate brand.

My last resort: Keep UK Limited and register UK Limited company in Italy.

My accountant says this is not a good idea and almost hinted that cannot be done but I have strong feeling they don't like non-standard clients that actually make them work instead of collecting fee worth nothing more but quarterly VAT fillings.

So maybe here someone can help me with these few questions or point me at vetted accountant/tax specialist that is not afraid of actually working.

1. Can UK company be registered in Italy?
2. If yes, and if company is managed in Italy it is due to pay taxes in Italy, is there any obligation to pay taxes in UK or sufficient to declare that these have been paid in other country with double-taxation agreement?
3. Where is VAT due?

I appreciate that these might be quite complex things but heaving heard that quite a few people here contract from Italy and that there are accountants looking for clients on this forum I will try.