[arethuza]

When I co-founded a company in the UK in 1995 there were two £1 shares - one for each founder. Mind you it was an off the shelf company - but the process couldn't really be much simpler back then - and its probably a lot simpler now.

[amiga386]

For a limited company in the UK, you need a number of pieces of legal paperwork which I think you can technically write yourself but may prefer a solicitor to draft them correctly for you, and then you pay £100 to register the company, and you (and any other directors, shareholders or guarantors) capitalise the company yourself.

You are now limited in liability for what the company does, to no more than the capital you put into it.

You then have to supply yearly accounts, may have to register for corporation tax, VAT, register as an employer for paying national insurance, you'll probably need business insurance, etc.

https://www.gov.uk/set-up-limited-company

[ascorbic]

You don't need to use a lawyer to draw up the docs unless you have special requirements: you can use the proforma memorandum (it's auto-filled if you apply online) and adopt the model articles of association.

- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7da236e5274...

- https://www.gov.uk/guidance/model-articles-of-association-fo...

[arethuza]

If you buy and off the shelf company then you don't need any of that - they supply a pile of stuff (e.g. articles of association) and you don't need a solicitor to be involved.

Edit: And these days you don't even need two people - used to be that you needed two directors or director and company secretary.

[notpushkin]

You can open an Estonian company with 0.01 € capital. It will look ridiculous in the registry, and you will still be liable for the remaining 2499.99 € personally anyway, but it is possible. I’ve seen a couple 100 € companies, which is more reasonable I guess.

You can also declare that you’ve paid the capital in, without any proof required for small amounts (up to 50k € IIRC). If you lie about it, I suppose you’ll be personally liable for everything, so definitely not worth risking it. Just put in like 500 €, set it aside on the business account, and don’t touch it.

(IANAL)

[metadat]

Then it’s not an LLC, though. Personal assets exposed.

[notpushkin]

Up to 2500 €.

You could put in 2500 € in capital – then your personal exposure will be zero. In practice, I don’t think it’s a meaningful difference, you will just have to keep the whole 2500 € on the company balance by the end of each FY. (Unless you wanna deal with non-monetary contributions!)

If you put in 500 €, you’re liable for 2000 € personally, but you don’t have to keep them for your annual report. (It also means your company looks a bit riskier, since you might not have the 2000 € personally, so you might have trouble getting credit or whatever, but otherwise I don’t think it’s a big deal.)

---

Edit: to the author: you should really look into Estonia (or any other sane jurisdiction mentioned elsewhere in the thread). You can still set up a KG (or a sole proprietorship), then put an Estonian OÜ in front of it. Costs something like 300 €, can be done online (you’ll probably need an e-residency card, an Estonian e-signature thing for foreigners, which is another ~150 €). Annual reports are fairly easy if you keep your books properly. And you’ll need an address in Estonea which is also like 125 €/yr. No additional taxes most likely (but check with a real accountant).

[markvdb]

Substance in Estonia is usually required. A rented address does not suffice for that.

[notpushkin]

Could you elaborate, please? I’ve thought the whole point of e.g. the e-Residency program was to bring in business that’s not substantially tied to Estonia.

[markvdb]

Substance would be real activity happening in Estonia: - Where are the decisions made? - Where is the work being done?

Why would I otherwise pay 66% in taxes in Belgium when I could just set up an Estonian ltd, get limited liability and pay 0 until I take anything out?

[petesergeant]

Still a limited-liability company. "You might be personally liable for up to €2,499.99" is not anything like the same as "your personal assets are exposed to all company debts".

[arethuza]

That sounds a bit like the UK concept of a Company Limited by Guarantee - which is used by a lot of charities.

Edit: I'm not a lawyer either!