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.
4 minread02Employer 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.
5 minread03Subsidiary 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.
4 minread04How to set up a UK subsidiary, step by step
The company itself takes a day. The slow parts are director identity verification, the tax registrations and the bank account, and all three can run in parallel.
4 minread05The UK taxes a subsidiary pays
Corporation tax, VAT, employer National Insurance and the payroll taxes you deduct for staff. Four taxes, four different clocks, and one rule about group size that changes the corporation tax answer for almost everybody.
4 minread06Employing people in the UK
There is no at-will employment. A written statement of terms is due on day one, holiday is 5.6 weeks, a pension is compulsory, and £5 million of employers' liability insurance is a legal requirement from the first hire.
3 minread07What UK banks ask a foreign-owned company for
The slowest part of setting up in the UK, and the one that stops everything else. A regulated payment provider opens in days, a high-street bank in weeks or months. Run both.
3 minread08UK accounts and audit for a subsidiary
Every UK company files annual accounts on a public register. Whether it also needs an audit depends on the size of the whole group worldwide, not the size of the UK company, which is the thing that catches almost everybody.
3 minread09Getting money out of a UK subsidiary
Dividends leave the UK with no withholding tax at all. Interest and royalties are taxed at 20% at source unless you claim the treaty rate first. Management charges are the flexible one, and the one that needs paperwork.
4 minreadCalculators
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 calculatorPrimary sources
Every rate, threshold and deadline on this site is checked against these. They are the originals, not summaries.
- Corporation tax rates and the associated companies rule
- VAT registration threshold
- Audit exemption and the small-group limits
- Companies House filing fees
- Identity verification at Companies House
- Employers' liability insurance: the legal requirement
- Automatic enrolment: employer duties
- Employment rights: written statement of terms
Get a fixed quote
Tell us where the parent company is and what the UK operation has to do.
