jenkinsp
22nd September 2010, 16:43
Hello,
I'm looking into setting up a company. The company will provide a service in the form of a subscription to a number of web apps, the same business model as basecamphq .com. I am a UK resident and will be the sole director but any staff will be based in Hong Kong and the main address is in Hong Kong. I'm looking at incorporating this in the british virgin islands and registered address in the BVI too. We will sell the service to western europe, north america, australia and a few countries in the developed parts of the middle and far east mainly hong kong.
I have a few questions for someone who has experience doing this previously or something similar.
The point of this is to be tax efficient as possible.
1. I've read if the offshore company *operates* in the uk and is *managed* in the uk then its applicable to the UK tax (and vat?). Would my situation above fit this statement?
2. Based on the statement above what's the definitions of management/operating? where the server is based, where the director is resident (even if s/he does no work in that country), corrispondance address, registered address, majority of staff located, if its trading with clients in the country, where the bank account is located etc..
3. if Q1 is true then would this the same for everywhere we have a management position and we make a sale i.e hong kong and most other countries?
4. Do I need an offshore bank account? The plan was to set up a number or currency related bank accounts in the correct places, example a UK account for UK profits and maybe a virtual address to go with it. HK account for HK profits. This allows customers to send us bank transfers without any reasonable international transfer fees. If we did this method would this have any tax or vat issues for the counties where the bank account was located?
Any knowledgeable comments or advice on this would be greatly appropriated.
I'm looking into setting up a company. The company will provide a service in the form of a subscription to a number of web apps, the same business model as basecamphq .com. I am a UK resident and will be the sole director but any staff will be based in Hong Kong and the main address is in Hong Kong. I'm looking at incorporating this in the british virgin islands and registered address in the BVI too. We will sell the service to western europe, north america, australia and a few countries in the developed parts of the middle and far east mainly hong kong.
I have a few questions for someone who has experience doing this previously or something similar.
The point of this is to be tax efficient as possible.
1. I've read if the offshore company *operates* in the uk and is *managed* in the uk then its applicable to the UK tax (and vat?). Would my situation above fit this statement?
2. Based on the statement above what's the definitions of management/operating? where the server is based, where the director is resident (even if s/he does no work in that country), corrispondance address, registered address, majority of staff located, if its trading with clients in the country, where the bank account is located etc..
3. if Q1 is true then would this the same for everywhere we have a management position and we make a sale i.e hong kong and most other countries?
4. Do I need an offshore bank account? The plan was to set up a number or currency related bank accounts in the correct places, example a UK account for UK profits and maybe a virtual address to go with it. HK account for HK profits. This allows customers to send us bank transfers without any reasonable international transfer fees. If we did this method would this have any tax or vat issues for the counties where the bank account was located?
Any knowledgeable comments or advice on this would be greatly appropriated.