Cheapest jurisdiction for a partially dormant company?

[lacomaco]

Just found it - Resident, non-domiciled companies - Corrieri Cilia

 

[blubb]

I'm still pondering the‌ options. Still like the UK Ltd for these benefits:

1. Ease of incorporation
   
2. Cheap maintenance while‍ dormant (especially no audits)
   
3. And last but not least, potentially better reputation
   
4. Less dependency on⁠ Malta if the local government finally gives in to external pressure regarding tax refunds
   

The drawbacks of a UK Ltd with a Malta branch would be:

1. Much greater overhead once⁤ the company is actually active (the Malta branch will have all the obligations of a⁣ Malta company including the darn audits, and the UK company will of course still need⁢ to file everything in the UK according to UK rules)
   
2. Risk of paying corporate taxes︀ in the UK (even though the DTA clearly states profits made by a branch in︁ Malta are taxable only in Malta, this does of course needs to be properly attributed︂ and filed)
   
3. Getting the Malta tax refund once dividends are paid may be more complex,︃ and there may be the risk of not getting it at all
   
4. EU customers might︄ prefer an EU company
   

For now, it seems the list of drawbacks is longer and︅ includes greater risks, so maybe a Maltese company is the way to go.

Let me︆ know what you think 🙂

 

[FantomOffshore]

If you are doing‌ software development only, you could consider starting an agency on Upwork. It works almost the‍ same as a normal freelancer account, you could try to find additional software dev jobs⁠ and outsource them to cheap Indians while also doing development work yourself still. This would⁤ allow you to make the case that you are managing an agency instead of doing⁣ all the work from Malta (although this strategy still carries risks).