We often hear stories on how hard it is to start a business in France. As a French, I'd like to hear how easy it is in other countries (UK, US?). For example, what are the costs, the amount of paperwork...
Obviously things get more complicated once you start hiring other people but the government does a good job of trying to streamline things compared to France.
Did that in Japan (I'm talking about the sole proprietorship and already have a working visa here, so it's not exactly the same situation).
Well, actually I didn't do anything because you literally have nothing to do. You just have the right to do some business on your own (but of course there are official companies of you want to get bigger).
Just when you start getting money, you have to inform the tax office, so they can give you the form next year.
I have done it in Germany. I had to register my website as a business, and documented how to do it on that same website.
Honestly, it wasn't so hard, and I can honestly say that I made it a little easier. The hardest part was taxes, and the honest solution is "hire a tax advisor, pay 300€ a year, be done with it".
The biggest problem for me is the cost of health insurance. As a self-employed person, you pay double. I pay 850€ a month in health insurance, and 550€ a month in rent. The fix is to switch to private health insurance, but that has its own caveats.
What do you mean, pay double? If you mean that, with regular employment, your "employer pays half" - that is just an accounting trick and you actually pay all of it.
You pay twice as much as regular employees, whose employers cover half of it. It's not an accounting trick, since the half the employer pays is not included in your net income. The same applies to public pension payments, although freelancers can opt out of them.
> since the half the employer pays is not included in your net income
There is a total cost for employer for a particular employee and the take-home pay for that employee. Where between those two we put a number that's called "your net income" is just arbitrary convention.
Employer knows how much the total cost will be when they negotiate the salary. It's all the same to them if the entire amount goes to you personally and then you use it to pay health insurance, or they first pay some of that amount to health insurance and then give the rest to you.
In Ireland you can incorporate a company in three days for about €30. You're only expected to start filing taxes when revenue crosses some reasonable threshold like €10k. Taxes are low and there are many grants available from the gov if you plan on hiring.
Ireland constantly pokes the tops of indexes that rank the ease of doing business across the world.
Current problems include the unattractiveness of using equity as a payment tool -- this only affects startups though.
UK company incorporation is especially easy; you use the templates, give them a bunch of personal information, and pay £12. There's an annual filing fee of about the same amount, and for small companies the accounting requirements are very simple.
Usually you delegate that to some company like Sage.
Giving them shares or share options is potentially much more complicated, but by that point you'll retain an accountant for the purpose.
The big nightmares are visas (of any kind) and bank accounts. Small business banking doesn't have "consumer protection", and can come with all sorts of fees and predatory lending practices.
In Canada to become self employed is basically processless. You just file personal taxes as usual. They get slightly more complicated with deductions and such though. But many people do self employed taxes themselves.
Next level would be incorporating. The process is easy. Can be done online in a few minutes.
Taxes become more complicated. For a small one to three person company expect to pay about 2-5K annually to a professional accountant.
Corporate tax rate is 15% under 500K of revenue in Ontario. It varies province by province. Quebec as I understand is higher and also more complicated as they have their own tax system separate.
In the US, it's hard to answer because it will depend on the state where you incorporate. Usually you can do everything online and would venture that it would cost maybe ~$200 on average.
Keep in mind thought that "starting" the business is one thing. How easy it it to find investments, opportunities and make it sustainable is a different question.
https://www.gov.uk/limited-company-formation/register-your-c...
Obviously things get more complicated once you start hiring other people but the government does a good job of trying to streamline things compared to France.