Being "Self employed" instead of being employed directly by my employer

icebergx

Hi all,
A quick question for you all.
I'm a Brit currently living in Denmark.
I've been offered a position with a Danish company and they've given me the option to be employed directly by them or, set myself up as a small business and invoice them for my Salary.

I presume I won't have as many rights if I'm employed on a self employed basis, but this isn't really a problem for me.

My questions are:

1) would I better off if I set myself up as a small business (Ltd or other) and employed myself as a consultant?
2) would I be better of setting up the business in Denmark or the UK?
3) How would Tax returns, etc. work if I set myself up as a UK business? Could I claim flights, apartment rent and living costs to offset my tax liability?

Thanks for your help!

paulwf

Have you found any forums for ex pats living in Denmark? A few years ago there was one for Brits and Americans living in Sweden which was a mine of information as most people moving to Sweden did so for work so there was a lot of help with tax issues.

I suppose one important question is how long do you intend to spend in Denmark? You don't want to be setting up limited companies only to disband them in 6 months time for instance.

hippyadam

If you set up a Ltd co and only have one "customer" the Inland Revenue could attempt to get you under IR35 (its to close a tax "loophole" but it also punishes independent contractors) there's a link here...

Other than that an expat forum is a really good idea, paulwf is full of em generally For more in depth advice ask around for a personal recommendation to an accountant, generally they may give you a free advice session if they think there's some new business in it

fengirl_2

We need to know where the work is being carried out and whether you are resident for tax purposes in Denmark before was can advise.

krustylicious

You can ofcourse look at being a sole trader.. The other thing is if you went the "ltd" would the work you do be sellable in other positions and if you did become "ltd" could you supply another person under your "ltd" company ...

Make this work for you and not your employer !

martindow

I doubt whether many people on this forum will be able to advise as few here are experts on Danish tax law. I think you need to follow Paulwf's suggesting of finding a Danish forum on tax and employment matters or a Danish expats forum.

Here are a couple to try

http://expatindenmark.com/Pages/Default.aspx

http://www.alloexpat.com/moving_to_denmark_forum/

Good luck!