Cheapest jurisdiction for a partially dormant company?

[lacomaco]

I'm not 100% sure but i guess they are managing the company from Malta without having any Maltese employee. I don't see how Maltese tax administration could verify if the director is actively working for the company. They could guess "well you don't have any employee, you are managing the company from Malta so surely you are doing all the work" but they need to prove it, do they have the manpower to go after you? They are getting 5K tax without doing anything.

Also, all businesses need a help from somebody, you can't do it all alone so you could pay a freelancer to help you out and show invoices to anybody that question the fact that you are actively working from Malta.



That's 100% true.

Just found it - Resident, non-domiciled companies - Corrieri Cilia

 

[blubb]

So what's your plan now, then?

I'm still pondering the options. Still like the UK Ltd for these benefits:

1. Ease of incorporation
2. Cheap maintenance while dormant (especially no audits)
3. And last but not least, potentially better reputation
4. Less dependency on Malta if the local government finally gives in to external pressure regarding tax refunds

The drawbacks of a UK Ltd with a Malta branch would be:

1. Much greater overhead once the company is actually active (the Malta branch will have all the obligations of a Malta company including the darn audits, and the UK company will of course still need to file everything in the UK according to UK rules)
2. Risk of paying corporate taxes in the UK (even though the DTA clearly states profits made by a branch in Malta are taxable only in Malta, this does of course needs to be properly attributed and filed)
3. Getting the Malta tax refund once dividends are paid may be more complex, and there may be the risk of not getting it at all
4. EU customers might prefer an EU company

For now, it seems the list of drawbacks is longer and includes greater risks, so maybe a Maltese company is the way to go.

Let me know what you think

 

[FantomOffshore]

Let me know what you think

If you are doing software development only, you could consider starting an agency on Upwork. It works almost the same as a normal freelancer account, you could try to find additional software dev jobs and outsource them to cheap Indians while also doing development work yourself still. This would allow you to make the case that you are managing an agency instead of doing all the work from Malta (although this strategy still carries risks).