Business 'relocation' To Iom

[southmartin]

Hi All - am hoping some of you may have some good advice/insights for this.

I'm considering 'relocating' my business to the Isle of Man. The reasons for this are solely tax avoidance (note, not evasion!).

As my business is a ltd co. and mainly internet based (i.e. I don't rely on local custom) then I'm trying to think of reasons for & against moving the registered office out of the UK. At the moment the reg office is specified as our accountants offices, and I work from a satellite location.

It seems that according to IoM regulations, the reg office needs to be in the IoM (which is pretty reasonable really!) so I suppose I could appoint a new accountant there, and swap the reg office to that address, and continue working with my existing clients from my current office.

It's a bit of a hassle, and the annual filing fees seems to be a few hundred pounds higher than in the UK, but the benefits seem to be:

• No capital gains tax

• Personal allowance of 7.5k

• Corporation tax at 10%

• UK tied VAT at 15%

We normally pay ourselves by taking a small salary (just enough to break the threshold and pay some NI) and then take the rest as a dividend, resulting in a tax bill of around 25% instead of 40% (this procedure is pretty common for SME's, and far more efficient than PAYE) However from what little reading I've done to date, it seems we could probably get this down to as low as 12-15% saving several K each year.

Now I fully expect that there are some pitfalls (in addition to the extra fees and accounting charges) - and I'll make a decision as to whether it's worth doing with those in mind, but at the moment, leaving the business paying UK tax does seem a bit daft. - Is there something i'm missing?? Why doesn't everyone do this?

Also, I'm sure there will be some of you who are unhappy about people in my position 'playing the system' as it were. I can see your point to an extent, but let me mention out a few things. Firstly, if the UK took a reasonable percentage of your income, and allowed you to keep enough so you could enjoy life, then I'd leave it as it is. But we get hammered here, and I've had enough. Secondly, my wife has a very good job also, and her tax bill alone is almost 3x the national average... so as Sam in The West Wing was fond of saying "If my house burns down, do I expect the fire service to get there three times quicker?" (ok he said 17 times, but you get my point). Finally please remember that We'd still be paying Council Tax, which I'm pretty sure pays for the Police, bin emptying, local services etc - so the only people I'm 'taking' money from are the bone-idle dossers and 'level 3 diversity outreach monitors" in gvmnt non-jobs...!

So - can anyone offer advice on moving the business details out of the UK?

[southmartin]

Bump

Anyone?

[a+b+c+d]

Business 'relocation' To Iom

So, you fancy living and working in a down-market Blackpool in the middle of the Irish Sea! At least you'll be able to see the TT for free!

[barrabus]

Bump

Anyone?

I.O.M gods waiting room, plus down wind of Selafield ..

[Mr Prudence]

So, you fancy living and working in a down-market Blackpool in the middle of the Irish Sea! At least you'll be able to see the TT for free!

He is not going anywhere just getting a different accountant.

[Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz]

Do you speak Ellan Vanninish?

[southmartin]

He is not going anywhere just getting a different accountant.

Exactly yes - staying put, just changing the registered office address, and (hopefully) paying less tax

Though it does sound a little too good to be true....

[southmartin]

So, you fancy living and working in a down-market Blackpool in the middle of the Irish Sea! At least you'll be able to see the TT for free!

There's an 'upmarket' Blackpool ??

[Mega]

And how much will all this cost to set up?

Mike

[jonb]

Hi All - am hoping some of you may have some good advice/insights for this.

I'm considering 'relocating' my business to the Isle of Man. The reasons for this are solely tax avoidance (note, not evasion!).

As my business is a ltd co. and mainly internet based (i.e. I don't rely on local custom) then I'm trying to think of reasons for & against moving the registered office out of the UK. At the moment the reg office is specified as our accountants offices, and I work from a satellite location.

It seems that according to IoM regulations, the reg office needs to be in the IoM (which is pretty reasonable really!) so I suppose I could appoint a new accountant there, and swap the reg office to that address, and continue working with my existing clients from my current office.

It's a bit of a hassle, and the annual filing fees seems to be a few hundred pounds higher than in the UK, but the benefits seem to be:

• No capital gains tax

• Personal allowance of 7.5k

• Corporation tax at 10%

• UK tied VAT at 15%

We normally pay ourselves by taking a small salary (just enough to break the threshold and pay some NI) and then take the rest as a dividend, resulting in a tax bill of around 25% instead of 40% (this procedure is pretty common for SME's, and far more efficient than PAYE) However from what little reading I've done to date, it seems we could probably get this down to as low as 12-15% saving several K each year.

Now I fully expect that there are some pitfalls (in addition to the extra fees and accounting charges) - and I'll make a decision as to whether it's worth doing with those in mind, but at the moment, leaving the business paying UK tax does seem a bit daft. - Is there something i'm missing?? Why doesn't everyone do this?

Also, I'm sure there will be some of you who are unhappy about people in my position 'playing the system' as it were. I can see your point to an extent, but let me mention out a few things. Firstly, if the UK took a reasonable percentage of your income, and allowed you to keep enough so you could enjoy life, then I'd leave it as it is. But we get hammered here, and I've had enough. Secondly, my wife has a very good job also, and her tax bill alone is almost 3x the national average... so as Sam in The West Wing was fond of saying "If my house burns down, do I expect the fire service to get there three times quicker?" (ok he said 17 times, but you get my point). Finally please remember that We'd still be paying Council Tax, which I'm pretty sure pays for the Police, bin emptying, local services etc - so the only people I'm 'taking' money from are the bone-idle dossers and 'level 3 diversity outreach monitors" in gvmnt non-jobs...!

So - can anyone offer advice on moving the business details out of the UK?

You need to move yourself over to IOM as well otherwise the company will be liable to UK corporation tax in addition to IOM taxes.

[SarahBell]

Are you raking in that much money from your business? Take less. Leave it in the business. No one makes you take shed loads out each year.

You should seek advice from a financial expert on the IOM.

[Mr Prudence]

Are you raking in that much money from your business? Take less. Leave it in the business. No one makes you take shed loads out each year.

You should seek advice from a financial expert on the IOM.

He still has to pay corporation tax on all profits whether the profit is taken as dividends or not.

[Sceptical]

Don't you think you owe it to the society you live in to put something back... I know the current government have pisssed it all up the wall for the past few years, but we've all got to chip in somehow, however distasteful.

If everyone does this = no tax revenue = spiralling debt and no public services = country fcuked beyond belief...

I also expect it's not as simple as you may hope - I thought that UK corporation tax was levied depending on where the underlying business takes place. I appreciate you are mobile as you have an online business, but I expect HMCE would look at where you live / work and if that's in the UK, you'd be taxed.

Edited June 17, 2009 by Sceptical

[Peter Hun]

You need to move yourself over to IOM as well otherwise the company will be liable to UK corporation tax in addition to IOM taxes.

Won't he still be liable for UK income tax on his earnings? Moving the company to the IoM will make no difference to his UK income tax liability as he will be UK resident.

Edited June 17, 2009 by Peter Hun

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

I'm sure this has come up before when a poster investigated and he was told he would face a massive tax bill to move his business to IoM.

[barrabus]

There's an 'upmarket' Blackpool ??

Yes it is called Lytham St Annes.

[rw42]

Don't you think you owe it to the society you live in to put something back... I know the current government have pisssed it all up the wall for the past few years, but we've all got to chip in somehow, however distasteful.

If everyone does this = no tax revenue = spiralling debt and no public services = country fcuked beyond belief...

I also expect it's not as simple as you may hope - I thought that UK corporation tax was levied depending on where the underlying business takes place. I appreciate you are mobile as you have an online business, but I expect HMCE would look at where you live / work and if that's in the UK, you'd be taxed.

If i had my own business i'd do as OP is thinking. The only way the country is going to get fixed is when it's f*cked past the point where GB can pretend that it's all good. Think dead parrot sketch. The economy isn't dead, it's just resting - and green shoots (mould?) is just around the corner!

[US Citizen]

Hi All - am hoping some of you may have some good advice/insights for this.

I'm considering 'relocating' my business to the Isle of Man. The reasons for this are solely tax avoidance (note, not evasion!).

As my business is a ltd co. and mainly internet based (i.e. I don't rely on local custom) then I'm trying to think of reasons for & against moving the registered office out of the UK. At the moment the reg office is specified as our accountants offices, and I work from a satellite location.

It seems that according to IoM regulations, the reg office needs to be in the IoM (which is pretty reasonable really!) so I suppose I could appoint a new accountant there, and swap the reg office to that address, and continue working with my existing clients from my current office.

It's a bit of a hassle, and the annual filing fees seems to be a few hundred pounds higher than in the UK, but the benefits seem to be:

• No capital gains tax

• Personal allowance of 7.5k

• Corporation tax at 10%

• UK tied VAT at 15%

We normally pay ourselves by taking a small salary (just enough to break the threshold and pay some NI) and then take the rest as a dividend, resulting in a tax bill of around 25% instead of 40% (this procedure is pretty common for SME's, and far more efficient than PAYE) However from what little reading I've done to date, it seems we could probably get this down to as low as 12-15% saving several K each year.

Now I fully expect that there are some pitfalls (in addition to the extra fees and accounting charges) - and I'll make a decision as to whether it's worth doing with those in mind, but at the moment, leaving the business paying UK tax does seem a bit daft. - Is there something i'm missing?? Why doesn't everyone do this?

Also, I'm sure there will be some of you who are unhappy about people in my position 'playing the system' as it were. I can see your point to an extent, but let me mention out a few things. Firstly, if the UK took a reasonable percentage of your income, and allowed you to keep enough so you could enjoy life, then I'd leave it as it is. But we get hammered here, and I've had enough. Secondly, my wife has a very good job also, and her tax bill alone is almost 3x the national average... so as Sam in The West Wing was fond of saying "If my house burns down, do I expect the fire service to get there three times quicker?" (ok he said 17 times, but you get my point). Finally please remember that We'd still be paying Council Tax, which I'm pretty sure pays for the Police, bin emptying, local services etc - so the only people I'm 'taking' money from are the bone-idle dossers and 'level 3 diversity outreach monitors" in gvmnt non-jobs...!

So - can anyone offer advice on moving the business details out of the UK?

www.ocra.com they deal with issues like this and they are based in Ramsey, IOM.

[three pint princess]

If you are making taxable profits something has gone badly, badly wrong.

[bagsos]

Hi All - am hoping some of you may have some good advice/insights for this.

I'm considering 'relocating' my business to the Isle of Man. The reasons for this are solely tax avoidance (note, not evasion!).

As my business is a ltd co. and mainly internet based (i.e. I don't rely on local custom) then I'm trying to think of reasons for & against moving the registered office out of the UK. At the moment the reg office is specified as our accountants offices, and I work from a satellite location.

It seems that according to IoM regulations, the reg office needs to be in the IoM (which is pretty reasonable really!) so I suppose I could appoint a new accountant there, and swap the reg office to that address, and continue working with my existing clients from my current office.

It's a bit of a hassle, and the annual filing fees seems to be a few hundred pounds higher than in the UK, but the benefits seem to be:

• No capital gains tax

• Personal allowance of 7.5k

• Corporation tax at 10%

• UK tied VAT at 15%

We normally pay ourselves by taking a small salary (just enough to break the threshold and pay some NI) and then take the rest as a dividend, resulting in a tax bill of around 25% instead of 40% (this procedure is pretty common for SME's, and far more efficient than PAYE) However from what little reading I've done to date, it seems we could probably get this down to as low as 12-15% saving several K each year.

Now I fully expect that there are some pitfalls (in addition to the extra fees and accounting charges) - and I'll make a decision as to whether it's worth doing with those in mind, but at the moment, leaving the business paying UK tax does seem a bit daft. - Is there something i'm missing?? Why doesn't everyone do this?

Also, I'm sure there will be some of you who are unhappy about people in my position 'playing the system' as it were. I can see your point to an extent, but let me mention out a few things. Firstly, if the UK took a reasonable percentage of your income, and allowed you to keep enough so you could enjoy life, then I'd leave it as it is. But we get hammered here, and I've had enough. Secondly, my wife has a very good job also, and her tax bill alone is almost 3x the national average... so as Sam in The West Wing was fond of saying "If my house burns down, do I expect the fire service to get there three times quicker?" (ok he said 17 times, but you get my point). Finally please remember that We'd still be paying Council Tax, which I'm pretty sure pays for the Police, bin emptying, local services etc - so the only people I'm 'taking' money from are the bone-idle dossers and 'level 3 diversity outreach monitors" in gvmnt non-jobs...!

So - can anyone offer advice on moving the business details out of the UK?

You are missing a lot. If a company is "managed and controlled" from the UK then in the eyes of HMRC (and the courts) it is UK tax resident and subject to UK tax, so unless you are personally leaving the UK then it won't save you anything. It is very difficult to "invert" most SMEs as the key people and the business are highly intertwined (unlike a quoted company which has independent directors who have to OK most of the big decisions, so if they shift the location of the board meetings it is easy to demonstrate that the company has migrated even if the exec directors stay put).

[tomwatkins]

My advice FWIW-don't come on this forum for tax advice or to get ridiculed. Get yourself a good accountant and I mean a good one. Preferably go to the IOM rather than do it in the "UK". I had an old IOM company and used Grant Thornton. PWC or Ernst and Young are as good probably. Don't get in to debate on here-most don't know their ass from their elbow on tax issues.

[US Citizen]

Hi All - am hoping some of you may have some good advice/insights for this.

I'm considering 'relocating' my business to the Isle of Man. The reasons for this are solely tax avoidance (note, not evasion!).

As my business is a ltd co. and mainly internet based (i.e. I don't rely on local custom) then I'm trying to think of reasons for & against moving the registered office out of the UK. At the moment the reg office is specified as our accountants offices, and I work from a satellite location.

It seems that according to IoM regulations, the reg office needs to be in the IoM (which is pretty reasonable really!) so I suppose I could appoint a new accountant there, and swap the reg office to that address, and continue working with my existing clients from my current office.

It's a bit of a hassle, and the annual filing fees seems to be a few hundred pounds higher than in the UK, but the benefits seem to be:

• No capital gains tax

• Personal allowance of 7.5k

• Corporation tax at 10%

• UK tied VAT at 15%

We normally pay ourselves by taking a small salary (just enough to break the threshold and pay some NI) and then take the rest as a dividend, resulting in a tax bill of around 25% instead of 40% (this procedure is pretty common for SME's, and far more efficient than PAYE) However from what little reading I've done to date, it seems we could probably get this down to as low as 12-15% saving several K each year.

Now I fully expect that there are some pitfalls (in addition to the extra fees and accounting charges) - and I'll make a decision as to whether it's worth doing with those in mind, but at the moment, leaving the business paying UK tax does seem a bit daft. - Is there something i'm missing?? Why doesn't everyone do this?

Also, I'm sure there will be some of you who are unhappy about people in my position 'playing the system' as it were. I can see your point to an extent, but let me mention out a few things. Firstly, if the UK took a reasonable percentage of your income, and allowed you to keep enough so you could enjoy life, then I'd leave it as it is. But we get hammered here, and I've had enough. Secondly, my wife has a very good job also, and her tax bill alone is almost 3x the national average... so as Sam in The West Wing was fond of saying "If my house burns down, do I expect the fire service to get there three times quicker?" (ok he said 17 times, but you get my point). Finally please remember that We'd still be paying Council Tax, which I'm pretty sure pays for the Police, bin emptying, local services etc - so the only people I'm 'taking' money from are the bone-idle dossers and 'level 3 diversity outreach monitors" in gvmnt non-jobs...!

So - can anyone offer advice on moving the business details out of the UK?

A lot businesses I deal with are internet based retailers and some of them are Incorporated in the Seychelles. No Corporation Tax, No VAT, No disclosure of directors, No accounts.

You then register with HMRC as Sole Trader and you earn £90 per week. You are legally tax free and you get your national insurance stamp paid for you.

For further info. PM me, so I dont get flamed.

[CrashConnoisseur]

...please remember that We'd still be paying Council Tax, which I'm pretty sure pays for the Police, bin emptying, local services etc...

Only around 20% of it. The rest is payed from non-domestic rates and general taxation via the Formula Grant.

[bagsos]

A lot businesses I deal with are internet based retailers and some of them are Incorporated in the Seychelles. No Corporation Tax, No VAT, No disclosure of directors, No accounts.

You then register with HMRC as Sole Trader and you earn £90 per week. You are legally tax free and you get your national insurance stamp paid for you.

For further info. PM me, so I dont get flamed.

Not wanting to flame you, but I am an accountant and have been involved with lots of tax planning over the years. In my view any tax "planning" that relies on non-disclosure or lack of transparency with the tax authorities is, effectively, evasion. And do remember, many of the havens are about to be opened up in terms of their disclosure, almost certainly inc. the Seychelles; I would imagine that HMRC cannot wait to see the lists of haven based companies with UK based shareholders or directors and haven based trusts with UK based settlors - they will have a field day; I have it on good authority that the department for investigating this stuff is being staffed up as we speak!

[right_freds_dead]

It seems that according to IoM regulations, the reg office needs to be in the IoM (which is pretty reasonable really!) so I suppose I could appoint a new accountant there, and swap the reg office to that address, and continue working with my existing clients from my current office.

So - can anyone offer advice on moving the business details out of the UK?

im considering it myself being self employed on a supply chain i have no physical contact with, and yep. im sick myself of paying so much tax for fred goodwins pension pot.

i agree to pay tax for public services such as medical, education, security, but not this shit thats gone down recently.

i was planning on actually physically going over and talking to an accountant there. seems teh most clear way to do it.

tax avoidance - evasion. show me the results of my taxation, ill show you my taxes.

the tax on my ciggies goes to teh nhs, yet they deny me treatment for being a smoker.

same for you drinkers and fatties - yoru next on the cutting list.

after that the people who dont eat compulsory 5 a day and everyone involved in dangerous sports.

its called value for money. get it wrong and people take their business elsewhere.

all i get from my earnings and taxes is a tin pot HA flat, recession bolt hole and at the moment my tax contribution is way out of kilter with my rewards.