UK company set-up and management services for businesses based overseas
A licensed UK accountancy practice. We incorporate the company, register it for every UK tax, open the banking, run the payroll, and file everything Companies House and HMRC require from then on.
Get a fixed quote
Where the parent company is, and what the UK operation has to do.
What we do
One licensed practice incorporates the company, registers it for tax, opens the banking, runs the payroll and files the accounts.
Corporate governance
Everything needed to exist and trade in the UK: the company or the branch, the registers, the HMRC registrations, the bank account, the contracts, the licences and the insurance.
Finance and tax
Bookkeeping, expenses, credit control and payments, plus corporation tax, VAT and customs, run so the group gets its numbers on time and HMRC gets them correctly.
People
UK payroll and pensions, benefits and share awards, employment contracts, recruitment, casework and moving group staff into the UK.
Virtual office
A UK address that meets the rules, post opened the day it arrives, a UK number answered in your name, and someone to accept legal documents.
Advisory
Transfer pricing, audit, group reporting, research and development relief, and a finance director's input once the UK business is large enough to need one.
Roughly thirty filing dates a year
That is what a trading subsidiary carries between Companies House and HMRC. The penalties behind them are automatic and charged without a reminder, and a confirmation statement left long enough can have the company struck off the register.
See how it worksThe order the work happens in
The slow steps are the bank account and director verification. Both can run alongside everything else.
Decide and incorporate
- Check for an existing UK taxable presence
- Subsidiary or branch
- Verify the directors' identities
- Incorporate, and set the year end to match the group's
Register and open
- Start both bank applications the same day
- Corporation tax, PAYE and VAT
- Intercompany agreements in writing
- Payroll, pension and insurance before the first hire
Run and report
- Bookkeeping closed monthly, intercompany agreed
- VAT quarterly, payroll every payday
- Accounts, corporation tax and the confirmation statement
- Profits home, or the company closed cleanly
Subsidiary or branch
They differ on liability, on what goes onto the public register, and on where early losses can be used.
Before either: whether to use an employer of record instead of an entity at all.
Where the parent company is based
The treaty position, the social security agreement, the accounting standard and what the home regulator expects of outward investment all change the set-up.
The United States
239 UK projects last yearIndia
93 UK projects last yearFrance
64 UK projects last yearGermany
62 UK projects last yearIreland
45 UK projects last yearThe Netherlands
39 UK projects last yearSpain
39 UK projects last yearAustralia
32 UK projects last yearCanada
32 UK projects last yearThe UAE
Covered in depthSingapore
Covered in depthGuides and calculators
Do you already have a UK tax presence?
A UK taxable presence can exist, and corporation tax accrue, for two years before anything is registered. A UK taxable presence is created by what people do here, not by what has been registered.
Employer of record or your own UK company
An employer of record puts one person on a UK payroll in days without an entity. It does not give the group a UK company, and it does not settle whether the parent has a UK taxable presence.
Subsidiary or branch: how to choose
One creates a new UK company. The other extends the existing one into the UK. The choice turns on liability, what the public register shows, and what happens to early losses.
Should you set up a subsidiary or register a branch?
Eight questions covering what drives the decision: liability, disclosure, employment, banking and where early losses can be used.
Open the calculatorWhat does it cost to employ someone in the UK?
Salary is about four fifths of it. Employer National Insurance at 15% and a compulsory workplace pension make up the rest, and the Employment Allowance can be claimed only once across a group.
Open the calculatorWhat will the UK subsidiary pay in corporation tax?
The headline rates are 19% and 25%. The number that decides which applies is how many companies are under common control, anywhere in the world.
Open the calculatorCommon questions
Do we need a UK-resident director?
No. UK company law has no residence requirement for directors of a private company. Some banks want a UK-resident signatory, and a UK-resident director makes the company's UK management position easier to evidence, so it is a consideration rather than a requirement.
How long does the whole thing take?
The company is incorporated in about 24 hours once the directors have verified their identity. VAT and PAYE references take a few weeks. The bank account is the variable: days with a regulated payment provider, four to twelve weeks with a high-street bank. Groups that start the bank application on incorporation day are trading within a month.
Should we set up a subsidiary or a branch?
A subsidiary in most cases, because a branch gives no separation of liability and usually puts the parent's own accounts on the UK public register. The real argument for a branch is that early losses can often be used against the parent's profits at home. There is a checker and a full guide for this.
What will the corporation tax rate be?
Assume 25%. The 19% small profits rate exists, but both thresholds are divided by the number of companies your group controls worldwide, so a subsidiary of an established group very rarely gets it.
Will the UK subsidiary need an audit?
It depends on the size of the whole group, not the UK company. If the worldwide group is above two of £15m turnover, £7.5m balance sheet and 50 employees, then yes, even if the UK company is tiny. We establish this at set-up, because the auditor must be appointed before the year end.
Can you take on a company we already set up?
Yes, which is common. The usual tidy-up is the ownership register, tax registrations that were never done and a year end that does not match the group's. It is quoted as one job.
Is there UK tax on sending profits to the parent?
Not on dividends. The UK charges no withholding tax on dividends to a parent in any country. Interest and royalties have 20% deducted at source unless the treaty rate is claimed in advance.
What does it cost?
Every job is quoted as a fixed fee in writing before anything starts, covering the set-up and the first year's running costs.
Get a fixed quote
Tell us where the parent company is and what the UK operation has to do.
