Moving a business overseas?

geminidawn

I'm starting a business in Ireland within the maritime industry. My peers however think I would be better off in the UK where there is a well established maritime industry and a greater potential customer base. If I were to try it here first and not get the turn over I was expecting how easy would it be to move a business lock stock and barrel?
Would I still be able to keep my Irish registration and operate in the UK as an Irish offshore business? or would I have to set up again from scratch when I'm there?

NCG

As an Irish registered company or sole-trader there is nothing to stop you trading in the UK now or at a later date. You may have more complex tax issues though at that stage (VAT registration and permanent establishment issues come immediately to mind) so I would strongly suggest you get permanent adice. There is nothing to stop you doing as you suggest though.

robinph

To register in the UK you would need a UK address, but as said, there is nothing to stop you being a limited company in Ireland and trading in the UK.

I wouldn't expect trading to a UK market with an Irish company and address would be an issue either, unless the people your selling to are very picky. We do have clients from elsewhere in Europe though that prefer the UK address and company for selling to UK and USA markets for instance and don't want to appear as so obviously Spanish/ Italian/ French etc.

geminidawn

Many thanks for your posts! I contacted "Companies House" in the UK and they said that if most of my trading was to be done there I would have to dissolve the Irish side of things and re-register the company in the UK. Decisions, decisions, decisions.......

robinph

Was it really Companies House that you spoke to? That is a strange thing for them to be saying, and they wouldn't get involved in advising people on what type of company is appropriate for them or the shutting down of the Irish branch. We deal with other company formation agents in the UK and clients then coming to us are often wrongly under the impression that they were speaking with Companies House.

Pretty certain what you were told about having to register in the UK and close the Irish branch if that is where you are doing most of your trading is incorrect though, it being beneficial to register in the UK for tax/ VAT/ company image reasons is a different matter entirely.

If you want to register a company in the UK then send me a PM and I'll give you my details and will be able to sort you out with what need.

mneylon

There's nothing to stop you trading from Ireland to any EU country (and further afield)
As previously mentioned, there can be tax implications if you sell over a certain volume into a particular market, but I can't think of any reason why you would need to dissolve the Irish entity unless you chose to do so ..