Guides

Thirteen long guides covering the decisions and the deadlines.

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 minread 02

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.

5 minread 03

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.

4 minread 04

How 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 minread 05

The 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 minread 06

Employing 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 minread 07

What 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 minread 08

UK 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 minread 09

Getting 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 minread 10

Skilled Worker or Senior or Specialist Worker visa

Two sponsored visa routes bring someone from the group into a UK subsidiary, under the same sponsor licence but priced, timed and settled completely differently. One is built for a permanent UK employee, the other for an assignment with an end date.

5 minread 11

Companies House identity verification for overseas directors

Every director and every person with significant control must verify their identity with Companies House, wherever they live. A director with no UK passport, UK address or National Insurance number still has two ways to do it, and a company that gets the timing wrong finds its confirmation statement will not file.

6 minread 12

Changing a UK subsidiary's year end to match the parent

Companies House sets a new company's first year end automatically, independent of the parent's. Shortening it is unlimited; lengthening it is capped at once every 5 years and 18 months, except where the company is aligning with a parent or subsidiary, which is a stated exception to both limits.

5 minread 13

PAYE for short-term business visitors to a UK subsidiary

A UK subsidiary's PAYE obligation on someone sent over from the parent starts on their first UK working day, whatever their contract says about where they are paid. Two HMRC arrangements change that outcome for visits of 183 days or 60 days or less, settling the position once a year with no live payroll running in between.

6 minread

Primary sources

Every rate, threshold and deadline on this site is checked against these. They are the originals, not summaries.

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Tell us where the parent company is and what the UK operation has to do.

Peter Allen

Co-founder — answers these himself