[capableweb]

> it's also considerably anti-business [...] extremely complicated regulatory requirements

Do you have any personal experience with starting a business in the EU and receiving hostility or dealing with complicated requirements? (asking emteycz here, no one else)

I've started multiple businesses in different EU countries and never hit any "extremely complicated regulatory requirements" when I've done it. Basically sign some papers, pay the necessary fees (if even needed, not always a requirement) and make sure the company reports accurate numbers each quarter and you're basically good to go. Is it any easier in the US?

Or are you simply echoing other peoples opinions here?

[inglor_cz]

IDK if "cz" means Czechia in the name of OP, but yes, once you employ somebody and are a VAT payer, your paperwork goes way up. You can outsource it to your accountant, though.

AFAIK employment is bureaucratically easier in the US and none of the US states even has VAT.

But other barriers have fallen recently. If you wanted to start a Ltd company here in Czechia around 2005, all the necessary paperwork took about 100 days to complete. This has been optimized, now it takes just several days and the fees have been cut in half.

[Taniwha]

I ran a business in California - there sales tax is incredibly more difficult to manage than the VAT (GST) here in New Zealand. Imagine having to charge someone a different sales tax rate depending on which county they live in .....

[donaltroddyn]

Only five US States don't have Sales Tax, and most counties and cities have their own, too.

[emteycz]

I was born in, live, work and do business in the EU.

Perhaps you're talking about one of the 'free' sectors? My IT services business is as easy as you say, even being a VAT payer is not that bad to me (but is to others in different sectors).

Medical devices, or e. g. people transportation (which I have experience with) are the polar opposite.

[p1necone]

Medical devices and transportation sound like exactly the kind of areas that should be heavily regulated (and are in the USA as well as the EU).

[emteycz]

No, transportation definitely is not as regulated in the USA as it is in the EU. I'm not against regulation, and you're right that medical devices should be regulated more than less, but tranportation is overregulated for nothing.