Bulgarian company establishing a UK presence

NoviP

Hi All:)

A lawyer friend experienced a great deal of hassle organising a UK business account for his UK registered business, without a UK permanent home address - like me he is living in BG (Bulgaria), and is a BG citizen. Although, I have residence in BG, I am a British citizen, though not quite sure that will make any difference to the following query;

A BG registered company exporting BG manufactured products to the UK.

We intend to establish a virtual office, and I intend to spend a couple of weeks every month in the UK, soliciting business for our new venture.

We would like to extend our image of a UK presence (beyond a virtual office and receptionist) to operating a UK business account, so clients may feel more 'comfortable' sending payments to a recognised bank - our current business account is with Italy's Unicredit, and I am assuming they are relatively unknown in the UK.

So my question is - Can we (as a foreign legal entity) open a business account with a high street bank to conduct our UK business operations? No credit facilities/cards etc, simply a deposit account in GBP.

Thanks for reading, hope you can help!

prowla

It is extremely easy to set up a UK company.
It is also very easy to set up a UK bank account - just go into a bank and ask them for details.
Transferring money abroad may be subject to more scrutiny and also money laundering regulations.
Setting up and doing business in the UK may be subject to UK tax laws.

paddyrg

If you are going to be a real business and are unsure about getting properly started, I suggest spending a couple of hundred quid with a decent accountant will pay off - for instance if you VAT register from the off, you will not have to pay VAT on the imports if properly managed which will help your cashflow

NoviP

Thanks for the replies guys - I think speaking to an accountant is the first step.
We are an established business, VAT registered with a EORI number, in Bulgaria. With the corporate tax 10% and dividend 5% we really want to transact business through this entity, setting up a UK co is straightforward I know and relatively easy/cheap, but my concern about maintenance costs (accounting/reporting etc) really puts me off.

paddyrg

I think you'd be very well advised to seek proper advice then - get it right from the start so you don't end up with double taxation or whatever. Annual accounting/reporting costs for a ltd company are about £1000-ish but this may be worth it to have a more trustworthy/professional 'look'