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France: providing services and travelling for business
Guidance for UK businesses on rules for selling services to France.
Living in the USA
Information about moving to, living or retiring in the USA – including visas, working, healthcare and driving.
Trade with Liechtenstein
How you import from and export to Liechtenstein
UK trade with the United States: Impact of tariffs on imports and exports of goods
A closer look at the goods the UK trades with the United States in the context of trade tariffs.
Simplified rates for bringing personal goods into the UK
Find out about the simplified rates of customs and excise duty used when you declare your personal goods online.
The right business model
Many companies decide to invest overseas when they have established an export trade and a customer base. But has appropriate thought been given to the right business model?
So the first step could be to use a British agent and/or distributor if you are selling product, depending upon whether sales will be as the principal selling direct to the customer, or as agent for the parent company.
If you decide to start in the UK with a marketing facility, finding someone who can generate leads and, can test the UK market and even facilitate sales before you reach the UK would be useful.
Simple enough criteria, but you also need to consider the tax implications when making the decision. The tax treatment in the UK books could result in a full profit and loss recognition (by buying and selling at arms length) through to a cost-plus basis.
We put together a reasonably detailed blog post on the VAT registration for online businesses . This could be a different type of business model, where there will be no UK entity and the trading model will be the overseas entity is UK VAT Registered.
Other company’s could take the commitment leap and opt to setup a UK entity straight away. Depending on the customers and transactions, a UK based entity might be compulsory. For example, as part of a tender process there may need to be a specific type of legal entity, such as a Ltd company or LLP.
Of course we can advise on the viability of some suggested trading models, but only you will truly know your business inside-out. For further information please get in touch for further exploratory discussion.