Hacker News Reader

Comment by davidw | Hacker News Reader

In Italy, you have to have thousands of Euros available to start a limited liability company and it sucks. It's just a complete and total negative in my opinion.

We can all argue about the ideal level of taxation, but don't tax companies until they're actually making money.

View on HN

In the UK setting up a limited company is extremely easy - here is one site offering limited companies for £2.99 in 3 hours:

http://www.eacbs.com/

I've set up my company (Stochastic Technologies) using one of these services and I can attest to it. I paid about 15 GBP, not 3, but it was ready in half an hour. The HMRC (the equivalent of the IRS) people are as polite and accommodating as people who take your money should be, and everything was very straightforward to do.

Can I just ask something on an unrelated note, since you've been down this road: what are the costs of a Limited Company, in the long run? I've read that when tax time arrives, it's nearly impossible for a non-accountant to do, and so it'll cost a minimum of £400 for even the smallest company. Not a crazy amount, of course, but it'd put a dent in the profits of a young startup or side project. What's your experience been like?

That is accurate, I had accountants quote me £1,000 or more for ten invoices a year. It's absolutely crazy for something that takes two hours a year to do, and it seems to me like the space is ripe for disruption.

Fortunately, I found a much, much cheaper accountant. I don't know if it'll come back to bite me in the long run, but it was the only way to keep the company profitable.

By cheap, is that near to my £400, or even less?

And with some tax planning no company would pay any tax... It's pretty easy to hide profits in the books

I said 'making money' which is a bit ambiguous. At the very least, I think that if there is no income, there should be no taxes. After that... sure, it's complicated.

Point being, thousands of euro to open a company is ludicrous and harmful to aspiring entrepreneurs who are not already wealthy.

Where does this money go? I opened a company in Cyprus and paid a few thousand Euros, but it turned out that this was all for lawyers and accountants, and what was actually necessary was only filling out a few forms and 10 euros, if I recall correctly.

Minimum 10,000 euros of capital, although you can sort of get around that and "get away" with 2500. Yes, you can invest that in your company, but it's still sort of stupid to have to do it. Also, a notary must be involved, and they have a pretty hefty fee. Also, you must have an accountant involved, and then there are various taxes and fees to pay.

Oh wow, that's... bad.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com