Afaia
22nd July 2010, 03:33
I am British but have lived and been in business in Greece for several years. It's a nightmare running a business here and getting worse every month due to the economic problems of the country. VAT is 23% now for instance and we pay 41% of employees salary in IKA, the national insurance scheme.
Everything is incredibly difficult, complicated, and expensive compared to Britain and it is driving me nuts. It's also eating into the profits - I feel as if I am just working to pay the government at present. This is especially annoying as we have a situation here where a lot of wealthy people don't pay taxes and get away with it.
Over half our customers are from the UK and we receive payment in sterling from most of them. Some employees are also British and only work here for part of the year.
I think we may have to keep a Greek company for part of what we do or we wouldn't be legal but I want to find out what we could run from the UK and whether it would be a good move to open a British company and transfer some of what we do there.
My husband and I are in business together. We're both in our 60s now and thinking of taking on one of our employees as a partner so it might be a good time to restructure/relocate the business.
I'm interested in hearing from accountants who could offer initial advice and ongoing accountancy if I proceed with a UK company please.
Everything is incredibly difficult, complicated, and expensive compared to Britain and it is driving me nuts. It's also eating into the profits - I feel as if I am just working to pay the government at present. This is especially annoying as we have a situation here where a lot of wealthy people don't pay taxes and get away with it.
Over half our customers are from the UK and we receive payment in sterling from most of them. Some employees are also British and only work here for part of the year.
I think we may have to keep a Greek company for part of what we do or we wouldn't be legal but I want to find out what we could run from the UK and whether it would be a good move to open a British company and transfer some of what we do there.
My husband and I are in business together. We're both in our 60s now and thinking of taking on one of our employees as a partner so it might be a good time to restructure/relocate the business.
I'm interested in hearing from accountants who could offer initial advice and ongoing accountancy if I proceed with a UK company please.