EU Business registration recommendations
Discussion
Hi guys.
I am looking for some advice, we are UK VAT registered but have a lot of suppliers and dealers in the EU.
Smaller orders (£1000 - £20,000) we can import and export from the UK quite easily and ship them back out in multiple boxes however we have another potential order coming in which will be around £150k+.
Currently we are having to import the pallets of goods, then re-send back out to the EU. Import costs, customs agent fees, shipping etc all add up plus it pushes our delivery times from a few days to 2+ weeks.
Our main supplier has suggested getting an EU entity, a country we dont often deal with and that way they can use the triangulation method and ship direct to my dealers.
Has anyone done this, if so what would be a cheap option?
We would mainly use this business for the bigger orders so there might only be 5-10 invoices per annum to deal with. No other trading would be done for it.
The smaller orders we can still bring to the UK and sometimes these need checking or sending to multiple dealers but the export costs and times for EU shipping parcels is fine.
Any tips welcome? My initial thought was Malta due to the lower taxes but also that we dont do any business there. However set up fees and on going costs were quite expensive.
I am looking for some advice, we are UK VAT registered but have a lot of suppliers and dealers in the EU.
Smaller orders (£1000 - £20,000) we can import and export from the UK quite easily and ship them back out in multiple boxes however we have another potential order coming in which will be around £150k+.
Currently we are having to import the pallets of goods, then re-send back out to the EU. Import costs, customs agent fees, shipping etc all add up plus it pushes our delivery times from a few days to 2+ weeks.
Our main supplier has suggested getting an EU entity, a country we dont often deal with and that way they can use the triangulation method and ship direct to my dealers.
Has anyone done this, if so what would be a cheap option?
We would mainly use this business for the bigger orders so there might only be 5-10 invoices per annum to deal with. No other trading would be done for it.
The smaller orders we can still bring to the UK and sometimes these need checking or sending to multiple dealers but the export costs and times for EU shipping parcels is fine.
Any tips welcome? My initial thought was Malta due to the lower taxes but also that we dont do any business there. However set up fees and on going costs were quite expensive.
I'm not sure you need an EU entity.
In my previous business, our accountant registered us for VAT in the EU, and we got an EU authorised rep to be "our" entity on the ground (see here: https://www.compliancegate.com/european-authorised... - this is not who we used, but this is a good explanation of the concept).
We would then ship directly from our supplier in China to an EU warehouse/3PL, and send onto EU customers from there.
From memory, the authorised rep was about £700 per year and the accounting was around £1k. Whatever it was would be dwarfed by you paying double import duty and freight on a £150k import.
There was some other nuance which I can't quite remember, but was something along the lines of importing via the Netherlands meant movement across borders within the EU was cheaper/easier...
In my previous business, our accountant registered us for VAT in the EU, and we got an EU authorised rep to be "our" entity on the ground (see here: https://www.compliancegate.com/european-authorised... - this is not who we used, but this is a good explanation of the concept).
We would then ship directly from our supplier in China to an EU warehouse/3PL, and send onto EU customers from there.
From memory, the authorised rep was about £700 per year and the accounting was around £1k. Whatever it was would be dwarfed by you paying double import duty and freight on a £150k import.
There was some other nuance which I can't quite remember, but was something along the lines of importing via the Netherlands meant movement across borders within the EU was cheaper/easier...
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