[zemvpferreira]

Let's put it this way: If anyone is thinking of starting a business, they should spend a couple of hours researching and getting guidance from experts about the laws in their specific country. It's very easy to act cavalierly on advice meant for another jurisdiction without realising it. I have.

Another quick example from Portugal: Did you know businesses or business-like entities (we have those for smaller entrepreneurs) are required to keep a 10-year archive of paper receipts, regardless of having already filed digital copies with the government or of any other common-sense exception? Most people here don't. But they can get serious fines for not being able to produce almost decade-old records they had no clue were mandatory.

The points are: a) that there is no such thing as "europe" to begin with in a regulatory sense; b) but there are structural reasons why entrepreneurs in the area behave like they do, it's not an accident; c) only the paranoid survive, so do your research because there will be a test later and you don't get a do-over.