Today’s set-up of the European companies are by far different even from the last year cases. The proposals for easy set-up of the Austrian GmbH, obtaining advanced tax ruling for the Swiss company or remote account opening at the UK bank seem hardly real in today’s life. However, your business still needs to function accordingly. Thus the clients are still in need of the following features:
EU company location
EU VAT number
EU bank account
Nominee Director services
Moreover, there might also be a demand for Tax Residence Certificate or Tax optimization.
If you have already faced obstacles on the way to opening Dutch or Danish bank account, or registering VAT in the UK, then you will more likely agree with the bellow rules, which probably have to be taken nowadays:
Consider alternatives among the EU companies. Bulgarian, Polish, Lithuanian or Estonian companies are not that prestigious as Swiss or Austrian GbmH, but on the other hand not as notorious as Cyprus companies. Moreover, you can easily purchase a ready-made company with EU VAT number and open a bank account.
Nominee Director controls the bank account. If you are consistent in your wish to have a UK bank account (and you are not a UK resident and will not trade within the UK), then consider purchasing a UK ready-made company with an active bank account. The UK nominee director will have control over your bank account. You should take it for granted. But this is the only way. Note that such proposals have been developed on the market for the last few years. Thus, there is already a good choice of reputable companies offering professional director services.
Do not disregard Cyprus. Even if Cyprus sound to notorious, we have to admit that there is hardly a jurisdiction as flexible as Cyprus. Here it is possible to use tax optimization, VAT trading schemes, double taxation treaties and EU directives. If direct structures are not acceptable, try to couple a Cyprus company together with another EU company.