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For LLCs in EU/Romania: * Incorporating cost is probably about 150 euro if you pay someone else do it, maybe even less if you want to waste time yourself. You

For LLCs in EU/Romania: * Incorporating cost is probably about 150 euro if you pay someone else do it, maybe even less if you want to waste time yourself. You need an actual residence. * Minimum starting capital is 50 euro. * An LLC doesn't have the notion of "shares" only owners (there may be multiple owners) that get dividends. Changing the owners is expensive (about the same as re-creating the company) and takes time nowadays (30 days). If you want shares you need a share-based company which has a minimum starting capital of about 22.000 EUR and needs at least 2 initial owners. Romania's advantage is the 16% flat tax and disadvantage is everything else (bureaucratic, always changing laws, high cost of hiring people -- social taxes, some corruption). Generally I think it's bad to view incorporation through US lenses if you aren't doing business in US. The US economy uses shares much more as they basically use the stock market as a way to finance the company and shares as a way to loyalize some employees. An English LTD is probably as close as you can get cheaply but unless it's also worth tax-wise, do take a look at the fiscal implications. You really want to spend time coding in a startup not playing ping-pong with the IRS (and accountant from) 2 countries.

ashconnor 16y ago
Ireland's corporate tax is 12.5% with less bureaucracy and minimal corruption. The company director needs to be a resident of Ireland but there are services which can provide this.
- dublinclontarf 16y ago
  This is true, and the cost of Incorporating is about 60 Euro if you do it yourself, or around 150 to get someone else to do it. You can also file your annual returns etc. online for free (not all form submissions are free though, but most are). See www.cro.ie(company registration office) for more details.
- fierarul 16y ago
  Hiring a dummy company director just to have some Ireland company seems a lot of trouble straight from the start. I've also always looked funny at the companies providing these "services", they are almost similar to companies selling offshores in Pacific or something. Not being able to sign something for your own company seems really restricting, especially when you basically don't even know the director. PS: On a personal note, the only unpaid invoice I ever had is from an Ireland company but then again it was also the only Ireland-based company I worked for, so it's not statistically signifiant.
- tonf 16y ago
  The law was changed lately as far as I know. The company director has to be EU resident only.
  - ashconnor 16y ago
    If that's true then since the OP is located in Italy then this could be a perfect solution. However I know that laws in the UK state that a company is located wherever it's director resides; Italy may have similar laws.
prs 16y ago
As for some corruption, I might add that Romania ranks on the last place for EU member states according to the Corruption Perceptions Index 2009.
- fierarul 16y ago
  That's just Corruption Perception. (We also don't have vampires roaming at night, etc.) Corporate-wise it's quite simple: you pay your taxes and there aren't that many things to imply corruption since numbers are numbers. Of course, the law still has a lot of holes in it which are interpreted by the IRS at their discretion so you might still get fined, etc. But overall, I would say that a company that uses mostly capital and little assets (like a software company) has a lower exposure. If you exploit some natural resource (let's say, timber) and have a lot of industrial equipment and a lof of employees your exposure is greater as it's proportional to the number of institutions that may verify you and the regulations you need to follow (Environment, IRS, Natural Resources, the local Work inspectors, etc). Regarding everything else, yes, it does feel like corruption is abundant. But this is mostly a media product, you don't really get into it daily.

ashconnor 16y ago

Ireland's corporate tax is 12.5% with less bureaucracy and minimal corruption. The company director needs to be a resident of Ireland but there are services which can provide this.

dublinclontarf 16y ago
This is true, and the cost of Incorporating is about 60 Euro if you do it yourself, or around 150 to get someone else to do it. You can also file your annual returns etc. online for free (not all form submissions are free though, but most are). See www.cro.ie(company registration office) for more details.
fierarul 16y ago
Hiring a dummy company director just to have some Ireland company seems a lot of trouble straight from the start. I've also always looked funny at the companies providing these "services", they are almost similar to companies selling offshores in Pacific or something. Not being able to sign something for your own company seems really restricting, especially when you basically don't even know the director. PS: On a personal note, the only unpaid invoice I ever had is from an Ireland company but then again it was also the only Ireland-based company I worked for, so it's not statistically signifiant.
tonf 16y ago
The law was changed lately as far as I know. The company director has to be EU resident only.
- ashconnor 16y ago
  If that's true then since the OP is located in Italy then this could be a perfect solution. However I know that laws in the UK state that a company is located wherever it's director resides; Italy may have similar laws.

prs 16y ago

As for some corruption, I might add that Romania ranks on the last place for EU member states according to the Corruption Perceptions Index 2009.

fierarul 16y ago
That's just Corruption Perception. (We also don't have vampires roaming at night, etc.) Corporate-wise it's quite simple: you pay your taxes and there aren't that many things to imply corruption since numbers are numbers. Of course, the law still has a lot of holes in it which are interpreted by the IRS at their discretion so you might still get fined, etc. But overall, I would say that a company that uses mostly capital and little assets (like a software company) has a lower exposure. If you exploit some natural resource (let's say, timber) and have a lot of industrial equipment and a lof of employees your exposure is greater as it's proportional to the number of institutions that may verify you and the regulations you need to follow (Environment, IRS, Natural Resources, the local Work inspectors, etc). Regarding everything else, yes, it does feel like corruption is abundant. But this is mostly a media product, you don't really get into it daily.