Tax-free havens & affiliate marketing

[Top banana]

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Hi,

I have been doing some research in ways to reduce my massive tax bills and stumbled upon the idea of moving to a tax haven.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_haven
http://www.zyra.org.uk/taxhaven.htm

Does anyone here know anything about this subject? If yes, can i move aboard and still make money from from "UK affiliate programme" or are they taxable only if you live in the UK?

Cheers,

[Mogga]

If you really object to paying more tax you should earn less money.

[MarkCo]

Yes, this is a very interesting area....

The key questions is if you earn your money via UK affiliate programs, do you need to pay tax if you are a non UK resident.

A mass affiliate exodus could follow this answer...

My bags packet.... and ready....

[Qui Gon Jinn]

This would be a nice subject to sink our teeth into.

It's a shame that the UK along with some other countries seem to tax you too highly for doing well. Wouldn't it be nice if they could relate back & carry forward tax relief for any tier thresholds not reached i.e. average them out over a rolling period.

If it wasn't for our kids education, we probably would have moved abroad.

[Flightmapping]

"If you really object to paying more tax you should earn less money."

Yeah, then who's going to keep the economy going to pay for all the takers?

I used to think I had some kind of "duty" to pay tax, but the fact is that countries are in the marketplace, just like companies. If company A provides bad service, I move to company B, and the same applies to UK PLC. After all, that's the whole idea of the single European bloc - we pay enough to be in this club, so if there are better opportunities elsewhere, why not take them?

Right now, I really object to having to hand over my hard earned cash to greedy Gordon, just at the time when things otherwise are starting to run smoothly. And I seriously dislike having to pay 40% income tax for the "privilege" of repaying loans which relate to debts ran up before the company got going.

Now I know people will say that the NHS needs to be paid for, people need an education, we need to keep invading countries for dubious reasons, we need to keep the country moving, yada yada.

That's all well and good, but in virtually all of these cases, the government is spending far too much, in relation to the quality of what they are providing. We all know that the NHS is really the National Sickness Service - and I have certainly found that in my experience, they only want to know when things get really bad. They aren't interested in keeping people well - after all, if they were, lots of hospitals would have to close

Education these days is all about joining the degree arms race - soon, bus drivers will need PHDs. Forget about teaching people how to think, there's an institutionalised answer the lecturer wants to hear, and goodbye to anyone who thinks otherwise!

However, I don't think the grass is really that greener on the other side! However easy it is to *****, there are also many things about the UK which are actually top notch, and to be honest, I've looked into tax havens, and haven't really found one yet I'd want to move everything to. Switzerland would be a nice place to bring up a family, but it really doesn't hit the spot yet for night time fun, and you need the former in order for the latter to happen . Besides, what's Switzerland's answer to Manchester?

So for now, I expect to be staying in blighty, unless I decide to rob a bank in order to find an excuse to escape to Brazil. But then again, we all know you shouldn't steal - Gordon Brown really hates competition .

[Aspirin]

I moved to Holland 3 years ago and recently set up a Dutch company just for my affiliate earnings, I do not pay tax in England but I obviously have to pay it in Holland.

So to your question, if you are not a UK resident as I am not now, you do not pay tax in England but have to pay the tax rate in the country you live in.

Yes, this is a very interesting area....

The key questions is if you earn your money via UK affiliate programs, do you need to pay tax if you are a non UK resident.

A mass affiliate exodus could follow this answer...

My bags packet.... and ready....

[MarkCo]

What about if you have an offshore bank account in a tax haven, you use that for your income and only actually bring a 'normal' basic wage into the country you are a tax resident in?

[Aspirin]

What about if you have an offshore bank account in a tax haven, you use that for your income and only actually bring a 'normal' basic wage into the country you are a tax resident in?

You have to declare all earnings if you want to be legit in the country you live in, an offshore account would have to be declared to your accountant/tax office also, only thing you do not pay is tax on your interest, but will have to pay tax on your income where ever you put it, even in paypal, neteller or under the bed.

[Flightmapping]

"I do not pay tax in England but I obviously have to pay it in Holland."

Sorry to be a pedant, but neither of these are tax jurisdictions. As we all know, after years of whinging from north of the border, not only do we subsidise that beached whale of a so-called parliament in Holyrood, but we have a Scottish chancellor stealing our cash, and Scottish transport ministers trying to tell us how to get around, even if neither of these characters get to make representations on many of the fiscal or transport matters which concern their own constituents.

To get back to the original point though (so uncharacteristic of me to digress, I know) - where you live isn't always the same as where you pay tax, there are rules regarding how many days you spend outside the country, and double taxation treaties covering issues such as working for the Amsterdam office of a British company, vice versa.....

Setting up one or more limited company will make tax affairs more interesting, but this really is heading into the realm of the professional tax advisers.

[KGP]

for me the best thing to do is setup a uk company and when you see this company doing very well setup a cyprus one -10% tax on profits- which will own the UK one and take advantage of the double tax treaties.

as both are in the EU there is no problem either way.

the wise thing to do is to setup a company for each web property you have although not an easy one to implement if each web property is not doing extremely well.

what i am in process of doing is to have all my web properties under on UK LTD "roof" by the end of may and then see how it goes for each and every one after that will try to split "spin off" each property that is doing well under its own "company roof" and have the main company as a holding one.

although its very easy to write about it will take according to my estimations approx 2-3 years for all the property i am expecting to have a "good time".

[cyberbird1]

Your company can be registered wherever you want, but if the day to day management is carried out in the UK then the UK tax people will want to tax you.

Most country's have dual tax agreements with each other which means there are rules in place to decide who taxes you where residence and company management span more than 1 country.

If there is no dual tax agreement between countries then you can end up getting taxed in both if residence/company management spans more than 1 country.

Make sure you get expert advice before taking this route. There are loopholes but it usually involves being resident outside the UK and being able to demonstrate it.

[Barry]

IMO, one reason why taxes are so much is that when companies/people start earning loads and thus asked for loads of tax, they start to trying to find loopholes to not pay tax.

I mean come on if the question of trying to avoid tax comes into the equation, then your obviously earning a might more than most the people in the country, come on each to their ability and all that - if you find yourself in the situation where you can actually earn a good living in this country isn't it time to start to pay a higher rate of tax to help the people who can't (and not who won't obviously)

[cyberbird1]

for the wise thing to do is to setup a company for each web property you have although not an easy one to implement if each web property is not doing extremely well.

This is not necessarily true for UK companies.

In the UK there is a different tax rate for small companies with profits below £300,000. However this threshold is split between all connected companies, so if you have 10 then the threshold is just £30,000.

The small companies rate of 19% is charged on the first £300,000 of profits where profits are between £50,000 and £1,500,000. However if you have 10 companies the main corporation tax rate of 30% is charged to any company that has profits of over £30K.

Nothing is straightforward with tax and it's always best to seek expert advice.

[KGP]

yes its true and i honestly recommend always looking for expert advice.

but i was more or less talking for properties and not merely the tax benefits of them run solely. its something that its widely used especially when it comes to the shipping industry. although it requires very good/vast accounting and legal resources

regarding the double tax treaties thats what its about the EU. although the other issue which concerned me a lot before setting up to UK is the business enviroment.

its a very important issue and not easy to overlook, for example i would never recommend greece for "our type/area" of business, especially when it comes to tax its totally unorganized and its very difficult not only to keep up with the taxman but also to know what tommorow will bring as there is nothing constant in relation with tax authorities.

the same can apply to many countries which i noticed while i was researching. ok the tax may be enormous in UK in relation with other countries -i am talking EU countries- but the business enviroment is one that's very difficult to find in other countries as well as proximity to finance and other business services.

[fisheddie]

Very intersting topic indeed.

I moved to Holland 3 years ago and recently set up a Dutch company just for my affiliate earnings, I do not pay tax in England but I obviously have to pay it in Holland.

for this, i have a question, dont most of the UK afiiliate networks refuse to make payments to accounts that are outside of the counuty?