Ask HN: Where to incorporate a European startup?
Mostly concerned about tax and governance, ESPECIALLY if I choose to switch jurisdictions later.
Would appreciate any people's opinions and experience. Estonia e-residence program[1] is worth looking Estonian business climate and taxes are attractive, and it's possible to handle the paperwork almost remotely. But in the end it does not matter. If you live and run your business from country X, then that country is going to treat your business as a local one no matter where it is registered. Depends on where you live and where you have to pay taxes at the moment. Usually, incorporating in a country that's not your country of residence isn't worth the trouble. For certain business models some countries make more sense than others. For instance, many franchises are based in the Netherlands because of low taxes on licence fees. However, I wouldn't worry about that in the beginning. Those potential future benefits are likely offset by the additional hassle of essentially having to run a company in two legal systems simultaneously. If you are making incorporating decisions based on taxes, you should probably not incorporate. How will you address CFC rules in your home country? Should mostly consider who you'll be raising money from. Rasing American pre-A money with a European incorporation is going to be tough. Be careful with CFC rules. If you own more than 50% of the company you'll be liable to pay taxes in your country of residence. Ireland with the UK as runner up. UK is a bad idea considering Brexit. You should really choose country that you are living in. If you want to go trough a trouble of company in another country you can look in to Malta, Ireland, Austria or Estonia. A lot of people here in Israel incorporate in Cyprus. Where are you based now?