Ask HN: Is there any country that allows foreigner setup their company online?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8870948

by alansparrow • 12 years ago

55 56 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hello, I am living in South Korea and I am a foreigner. The procedures to setup a company in SK are quite complicated for me. I just want to have a legal entity to run my online business (SaaS), I would like to ask if there is any country that allows me to register a company online (with simple procedures). Thank you very much!

P/s: This question is inspired by this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8870593

So thank the author ;)

I've heard a lot about some weird countries like: Luxembourg, British Virgin Islands.. where many paper companies are made for different reasons (tax evasion, law...), so I think anyone can register a company there with ease?

mtmail• 12 years ago

The UK limited allows that. There are many online services (law firms?) will help you for less than $100 USD. One of the first results I found http://www.ltdcompany.co.uk/company-formation/starting-a-ltd...

mariusandra3• 12 years ago

You can easily set up a UK company online, but you won't be able to get a UK bank account.

However I was able to get my local bank to open an account for us when I presented stamped legal documents sent from the UK.

alansparrow7• 12 years ago

Thank you, this will be helpful.

danieltillett3• 12 years ago

Could you provide more details on what was involved? Was your local bank a branch of a UK bank? Are you located within the EU? What legal documents did you need stamped? Who were they stamped by and how much did it cost?

abhimir• 12 years ago

Would you mind sharing which bank?

ascorbic• 12 years ago

No need for that. Just go direct to the Companies House site and do it for £15. You can even pay by paypal. They'll email you the registration documents in about 48 hours. Laughably easy. https://www.gov.uk/register-a-company-online

alansparrow7• 12 years ago

Is this only for UK citizen or anyone?

jreimers2• 12 years ago

Estonia is trying to make this possible with their e-Estonia initiative https://e-estonia.com/component/e-business-register/

charlesdm6• 12 years ago

I've heard good things about Estonia as well. Don't forget, merely incorporating a company in a different jurisdiction will NOT mean it is resident there.

Establishing companies in different jurisdictions can be a viable way to run (internet) businesses, but care needs to be taken in various areas.

If you have limited understanding about business and international structuring, go with a South Korean company. If you want to use a foreign company, you will probably need to register it in SK regardless. Especially if you're the sole director/shareholder and running it from SK.

'Offshore' havens often serve very specific purposes, i.e. holding of assets or stakes in companies, as a tax neutral special purpose vehicle to easily structure a joint venture, etc

If you take the foreign route, talk to a (South Korean tax) lawyer! That way, you can get it set up properly. You might get pummeled with fines otherwise.

xrd• 12 years ago

Looks like you need an id card, and it looks like this is something issued to Estonians. If the question is whether anyone (not just Estonians) can easily and quickly setup a company there, the answer looks to be no.

jreimers2• 12 years ago

You can become an "e-Resident" and receive an ID card. I believe this requires you to travel to Estonia once to get the card, however they are working on rolling this out to their embassies in other countries.

skrebbel• 12 years ago

The way it was explained to me is that you need to physically travel to Estonia once, to become an Estonian e-resident. From then on, you can deal with the Estonian government exclusively via the internet. You get access to a very large amount of the services they provide to their real citizens. Not all, of course, but starting a business is on the list.

mb_72• 12 years ago

Currently, yes, you need to travel to Estonia: https://e-estonia.com/e-residents/apply-2/ ... but from mid-year it should be possible to become an e-resident via an application to an Estonian consulate without needing to travel to Estonia itself.

gabemart2• 12 years ago

I believe you can set up a company in Hong Kong online as a foreigner. Additionally, I believe that there is no corporate tax for Hong Kong companies that have no business presence or operations within Hong Kong.

alansparrow7• 12 years ago

Does that mean I don't have to flight to Hong Kong and file application there? All I need to do is submit some documents online? It would be nice if you can give some more information (ex: website, etc..)

gabemart2• 12 years ago

I'm afraid I'm totally unqualified to give any more information than can be found by searching the web.

It looks like you can do everything online and most applications are processed within one hour [1]. The minimum cost for a one-year registration looks like it's around 600 USD equivalent. My source for the statement about corporation tax is from PWC [2].

[1] http://www.investhk.gov.hk/setting-up-your-business/hong-kon...

[2] http://www.pwchk.com/home/eng/tax_hk_corptax.html

derefr4• 12 years ago

There's usually no need to fly to any of these countries, no matter their laws. Instead, you pay a lawyer local to the jurisdiction to organize and file the paperwork for you. There are lawyers in Delaware whose whole job is this. For any given jurisdiction, there may even be someone offering to do it "online" (i.e. product model) rather than as a consult, presenting an interface equivalent to that of a government offering the same registration service.

LukeB_UK• 12 years ago

In the UK you can do it via Companies House for £15: https://ewf.companieshouse.gov.uk/runpage?page=welcome

Edit: Not sure about for foreigners though.

bprieto• 12 years ago

Yes, you can, both EU residents and out of EU residents.

But you need an official address in UK (registered address) for your company, where Government can send you official mail. There are companies that give you this service, so it's not a big problem.

alansparrow7• 12 years ago

"There are companies that give you this service, so it's not a big problem.", can you list some companies who provide this kind of service?

justincormack• 12 years ago

You also need to make sure that having a foreign company will meet your requirements for why you want to have a limited company, under local law.

lotsofmangos• 12 years ago

UK, Isle of Man or Estonia.

comrade13• 12 years ago

Are you American? Have you tried contacting someone at the u.s. Chamber of commerce in South Korea?

alansparrow7• 12 years ago

No, I am not.

rgbrenner3• 12 years ago

I don't know SK law.. but would this really simplify things? Does SK allow foreign corporations to operate in SK without any paperwork? Seems unlikely.

alansparrow7• 12 years ago

My business is a SaaS company so basically I can provide service globally, not necessarily just in SK.

rgbrenner3• 12 years ago

Ok.. but _you_ are in SK.. and I assume you'll be doing some amount of work on the service... that would often be enough to qualify as operating in the country. (Again, I don't know anything about SK law.. so I don't know if that's the case.)

charlesdm6• 12 years ago

That does not mean anything.

You can transfer capital/IP/shareholdings/operations to lower tax countries and/or companies. However, if you're operating from SK, (simplifying things) you'll probably need to pay SK tax, and register your foreign entity in SK.

The 'general' rule is that you pay tax where the people are, in this case you.

This is not legal advice, obviously.

comrade13• 12 years ago

In my limited experience Asian countries are less flexible than western countries. In the west as long as you're paying your taxes they don't care where the money comes from. Other places you may need to do more work - set up a corporatoin, pay various benefit taxes/fees, etc.

Are you trying to integrate into SK? If not you may just want to keep things in your home country. If so, then get a lawyer. No matter what you have to pay SK taxes. The other stuff beyond taxes though can get expensive.

alansparrow7• 12 years ago

@rgbrenner: Thank you but I am a student and study visa is not qualified for setting up a company. Otherwise, you have to invest ~100,000 USD to get a business visa then you can setup your company OR you have to spend time working in SK, gain some point from other activities (Korean language, community service..) to be qualified for a F2 visa (which is eligible for setting up a company). In my opinion, a very complicated system for foreigners who want to do business in SK.

cpncrunch• 12 years ago

I don't know how SK law works, but in most of the rest of the world the corporation is deemed tax resident where it is managed from. See for example:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/bsnss/bs-rs-eng.html#re...

So, unless SK has some very permissive tax laws (which I suspect is unlikely), you'll just be making things more difficult for yourself by setting up an offshore corp.

danieltillett3• 12 years ago

It is relatively easy to set up a company online in many countries, the difficulty is opening a bank account.

joeyspn• 12 years ago

I bookmarked this the other day. Check it out...

http://www.1click2startacompany.com/

womitt• 12 years ago

Our UK Ltd was registered in a day by evabookkeeping.co.uk after we've sent the documents, and we don't have anybody in our company living in UK.

silver1• 12 years ago

Read this fantastic blog ....matches your situation : it gives you info about everything (how to incorporate in USA, Physical address, Opening a bank account, cost etc.) .... GOOD LUCK!

http://blog.freshdesk.com/how-to-incorporate-a-us-corporatio...

bikamonki• 12 years ago

Why do you need the company???

_rahuls• 12 years ago

Can I register my startup in UK without even going there with just £15. This sounds interesting but are there any complications or hidden stuffs that I should be aware of?

known• 12 years ago

Ireland does allow https://core.cro.ie/Main/index.jsp

rahimnathwani• 12 years ago

You are asking about setting up the company, but you will want to consider other factors as well:

- Where can you open a bank account for the company?

- What are the annual and periodic filing requirements (and fees) in regards to ongoing company registration (e.g. the Company Annual Return in the UK)?

- What are the tax filing requirements and tax rates for your situation?

- Do you annual company accounts need to be filed? Do these accounts need to be audited by a professional accountancy firm? Are there any exemptions from this requirement?

- What are your own country's laws re: determining the domicile of a corporate entity, for the purposes of calculating tax?

mynewcompany• 12 years ago

Starting the company in the US is actually the easy part; getting a bank account and/or merchant account can add complications. We've created a checklist here: http://www.mynewcompany.com/international.htm

Ask HN: Is there any country that allows foreigner setup their company online?

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