Citizen of non EU, living in EU, Estonian or UK company?

[camurabi]

Hey everyone, thanks for having me,
I am looking for the best solution for my amazon fba business in Germany: I am a citizen of non-eu country where income taxation is legally avoidable but I live and work in Germany fulltime for now.
We will be selling in first Germany and then in the EU and we will be looking to re-invest most of our revenue in the beginning. What is the fastest and the most logical solution?
Should we form an LTD in the UK or Oü in Estonia?
And the most important question, in case I decide to pay a salary to myself to my home country, can Germany have any interference or tax claim in this?


Thank you

 

[Sols]

Form a German company. All said and done, it will be both cheaper and simpler.

UG is a popular company type, if you don't have or want to put in the capital requirements for AG or GmbH.

If you live in Germany, any company you form abroad becomes tax resident in Germany and has to pay German tax. To avoid paying double tax, you also need figure out a way to use a double tax treaty. Hours and hours later, thousands and thousand out of pocket, you will come to the conclusion that no time, taxes, or costs were saved compared to just forming a local company.

The tax authority will rain hellfire upon you if (or when) they detect your UK/Estonia/whatever company hasn't been complying with German tax law. I think your visa might also be at risk, if you're a non-EU citizen.

Save yourself time and money. Form a German company. Work with a good accountant who can help you optimise deduction and benefits. You can outsource all the accounting and filing work to them, too, so you can focus on growing your business into a great success.

 

[camurabi]

Well, thank you and yes, you are %100 right about everything. However, I am not also planning to sacrifice almost half of my earnings to a variety of taxes here + I am only allowed to have this as a side income and the threshold is too little for this.
I will look into getting the company on someone else's name from my home country.
Apart from this, would you rather go with UK or Estonia?

 

[blubb]

If you see any option to move out of Germany to a more tax-efficient EU country, I'd strongly look into doing so, and doing that *before* starting the business.

Otherwise, go with a German UG as Sols said. Or even start as a sole trader (Einzelgewerbe) unless you already have some significant turnover, as this will save on cost and also give you a EUR 24,500 exemption (Freibetrag) on Gewerbesteuer which you don't get as a UG.