I've linked to this a lot in the past on HN, but the World Bank has a fantastic comparison on the ease of doing business in different countries - one of the sections is "Starting a Business". You can see the comparison here:
I highly recommend downloading the excel sheet, makes filtering by country easier.
One of the biggest advantages of choosing Ireland is the low corporate tax rate of 12.5%, compared to 21-26% in the UK (this is according to Wikipedia, not sure what the current rate is there to be honest). This is the reason many US tech giants, big pharma etc. locate in Ireland.
I've heard somewhere that the UK limited company is the easiest and cheapest (also in terms of capital requirements) available. In Denmark, the capital requirements for a limited company is £14,000, although setting up as a sole trader is extremely simple and completely free.
It also have the advantage over Luxembourg and Cyprus that English is the official language. And finally, it's probably worth mentioning that swombat is living in the UK.
http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings
I highly recommend downloading the excel sheet, makes filtering by country easier.
One of the biggest advantages of choosing Ireland is the low corporate tax rate of 12.5%, compared to 21-26% in the UK (this is according to Wikipedia, not sure what the current rate is there to be honest). This is the reason many US tech giants, big pharma etc. locate in Ireland.