JOHNNY DOETHE LIFE WHISPERER

Living on Sark - Where to base a company?

Barney2201

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Barney2201Active RecruitAuthor
Joined
Feb 2017
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134

#1

Having spent the last 18 months experimenting with living on Sark I come to the conclusion it's probably one of the best tax free solutions for UK passport holders within Europe....

However.... There is no company register in Sark so I need to create a company somewhere else, the question is where?

I own a Uk events company (UK Ltd) which since the end of the pandemic has been very successful (pre Pandemic £1.3 million turnover), this year £3.2 million projecting £4 million next year. I take £10k per month in salary (tax free as I'm Sark resident) and so does my wife. Even after salary we are looking at a pre tax profit of £800K this year and £1 million next year), so a great problem to have!

Being so busy the business of creating an offshore company to extract profit has fallen behind, this is going to result in a large corp tax bill from HMRC this year, not much I can do about this with a year end at the end of April.

To be truly tax efficient I need a company in an offshore location which can extract profit by way of invoice to the Uk company. We need to invoice a 'design fee' from the offshore company to the UK company to extract some profit whilst leaving some corp tac for HMRC.

Sark has no CFC rules or any rules really so Sark is not the issue. Where would be best to establish the company? Ideally somewhere that does not require a resident director. Obviously the lower the tax the better but doesn't have to be tax free just low tax.

I have been told I could domicile the company in Sark even if it's registered off shore.

Alternatively if business continues I might decided to open a small office in the offshore location and place a designer there for added substance (thinking HMRC investigation), think the key is to show some substance somewhere, wether that be a small office on Sark (although hard to convince a designer to come here to work) or somewhere. If that happens to be a nice beach location to work from even better.... Eventually I would like to use the company to buy property rather than personally...

Any thoughts on my best bet?

JohnnyDoeSchrödinger‘s guy
Joined
Jan 2020
Messages
10,049

#2

Barney2201 said:

To be truly tax efficient I need a company in an offshore location which can extract profit by way of invoice to the Uk company. We need to invoice a 'design fee' from the offshore company to the UK company to extract some profit whilst leaving some corp tac for HMRC.

You can't do that.

You could setup a Cyprus company and domicile it on Sark. @CyprusLawyer101 can help you with that.
If you need UK tax advice, drop me a PM and I will give you the contact details of a great tax advisor.

Congrats for your business!

Barney2201Active RecruitAuthor
Joined
Feb 2017
Messages
134

#3

Thanks Johnny, why can profits not be extracted by design fee? It's a legitimate cost....
Would Cyprus be a better option than US LLC?
Guessing it would be easier to set up a company with real substance in Cyprus vs a US LLC.

Guess the other option is to speak to Fred, set up a UAE company...

Already using your UK tax man! He's very good and making sure we stay within the boundaries when it comes to HMRC.

JohnnyDoeSchrödinger‘s guy
Joined
Jan 2020
Messages
10,049

#4

Barney2201 said:

Thanks Johnny, why can profits not be extracted by design fee? It's a legitimate cost....

It is legitimate if the service is really provided, and not by an offshore company.

Barney2201 said:

Would Cyprus be a better option than US LLC?

Yes

Barney2201 said:

Guessing it would be easier to set up a company with real substance in Cyprus vs a US LLC.

Absolutely, also because a LLC with substance would be subject to US taxation.

Barney2201 said:

Guess the other option is to speak to Fred, set up a UAE company...

That would be an offshore company”¦

Barney2201 said:

Already using your UK tax man! He's very good and making sure we stay within the boundaries when it comes to HMRC.

He will be able to explain why offshore companies are not a good idea. Your business is one that will not fly under the radar, you need to have a bombproof setup.

Barney2201Active RecruitAuthor
Joined
Feb 2017
Messages
134

#5

Hi, sorry quick reboot of this thread....

So if I set up a Cyprus Non-Resident company and manage / control it from Sark (ideally setting up a small office on Sark) I could avoid the 17% distribution tax on dividends imposed by Cyprus on EU Black list countries as Sark is not on the EU- Black list?

ey.com/en_gl/tax-alerts/cyprus-amends-defini…and-introduc

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