Comment by SkyAndSand
2 years ago
Thanks for the offer. Will get in touch later but I think that public replies could hopefully be helpful for others.
The setup sounds great! I assume that you flipped to a C-Corp? Are most of the founders in the US or are you living abroad? How long did it take to flip the UK LTD? Do you force your contractors to set up companies or is it up to them?
At least if the contractors are in Germany and are working full-time for you then I think they would get issues with “Scheinselbständigkeit” if they don’t have a company, that’s why I am asking.
(Sorry for the delay, on the road.)
We're a US C-Corp. Our founders are spread out over the US and Europe. I'm not one of them myself, but rather joined later.
The flip from UK to US took 2 months end-to-end and cost close to $100K all-in. This might seem like a lot, but we had a working company with contracts and needed to be careful to avoid creating a taxable event. We also had to arrange transfer payments as we kept the UK company as a subsidiary to avoid the aforesaid event. (A real headache--it's better to keep just the US company if you can, post-flip.) If anybody is coming out of the UK I strongly recommend Ashfords LLP on the UK side and Wilson, Marshall, Taylor on the US side. They are both super and guided us well.
As far as staff--we don't force them to do anything in countries where we don't have a legal presence. We leave it up to them to make whatever arrangements they find reasonable and route payments accordingly. In general having your own company seems to be the best route across many companies. I used that myself in the US before we flipped, because I was being paid from the UK.
I can't speculate on German labor law as I've not had experience with it. Our approach is to take things a day at a time and work things out as they arise. It has worked well so far.
To be honest we've probably had more issues with US jurisdictions than non-US. The state and local tax regime in the US is very complicated and requires accounting and tax advice on a regular basis. I was surprised how much attention it needs.
Happy to answer more questions if it helps people.