Location of a LTD company

[craig511]

Evening all,

I have a ltd company with its registered address in Scotland.
As such my registration number is SCO12345678

At the moment as things stand this makes no difference if it’s a Scottish company or and English one . Same tax rates etc.

I’m thinking about what happens when that may change , especially with all the indy vote chat. Assume worse case and Scotland goes Indy and then whacks up the tax rate, how can i protect myself ?

My LTD company owns several properties based in Scotland. Is it just as simple as changing the Ltd co registered address and then it would be deemed to be English and subject to that tax regime. Or something else ???

Thoughts and ideas and speculation welcome.

[2 GKC]

Can’t see tax rates going up in Scotland. They’d need to reduce them to incentivise businesses to move there.

I don’t think you can change a Scottish co to an English one.

[Simpo Two]

Whether or not Scotland goes 'independent' is down to Boris, not Nicola.

And then they'd have to apply to join the EU to get replacement dosh, which the EU is getting from... well, not us any more!

[craig511]

Been Googling.

Seems i would have to set up a new ltd company in England which is easy enough.

Then transfer the properties to that new company. What i don’t get is what tax if any would that incur in the transfer.

Also it looks like a tax dodge. Directors live in Scotland, properties based in Scotland but the ltd company in England . I can’t see Heir Nippy being too happy with that and throwing me in jail for tax avoidance. But yet it would be legal ???!

[springfan62]

Set up new company in England, make it holding company for Scottish one.

It’s then all owned by an English one, no need to transfer properties.

You then get dividends from English company.

[craig511]

springfan62 said:

Set up new company in England, make it holding company for Scottish one.

It’s then all owned by an English one, no need to transfer properties.

You then get dividends from English company.

Interesting. I shall research that tomorrow

[MaxFromage]

springfan62 said:

Set up new company in England, make it holding company for Scottish one.

It’s then all owned by an English one, no need to transfer properties.

You then get dividends from English company.

That could work, but it'd be easy to legislate to counteract it.

[Countdown]

MaxFromage said:

springfan62 said:

Set up new company in England, make it holding company for Scottish one.

It’s then all owned by an English one, no need to transfer properties.

You then get dividends from English company.

That could work, but it'd be easy to legislate to counteract it.

by the time the legislation went through could you not transfer all the assets to the Parent Company?

[MaxFromage]

You'd need to be careful to not trigger a gain. Hiving up should work.

[LimJim]

I have Ltds in both. And I'm not adverse to tax 'efficiency'. Can't see it being worth any preemptive changes

Ironically, as mentioned, any socialist republic of Scotland would need to be quite aggressively capitalist in any set up period, so corp tax is safe?

Similarly Scotland is currently aligned with rUK on divi income tax.

Income tax is based on residence, so that's moot.

Unlikely to be any forced transfer of currency etc. Unlikely to be any cliff edges. So overall it's not something I'm considering

[cerberaperv]

If you transfer properties from one ltd to another, there will be SDLT to pay and a taxable profit if they have gained value since being purchased, as they’d have to be moved across at market value. Check the .gov site for transfer of assets into ltd company, or from one to another.

[MaxFromage]

cerberaperv said:

If you transfer properties from one ltd to another, there will be SDLT to pay and a taxable profit if they have gained value since being purchased, as they’d have to be moved across at market value. Check the .gov site for transfer of assets into ltd company, or from one to another.

That's poor advice in these circumstances. Have a read up on hive up/down in group companies.