www.e-malaysian.org

[casper77]

Setting up a business in UK is very very simple indeed although some other associated regulation may be slightly more challenging.

1. Anyone who wishes to trade in the UK can either set themself up as a sole trader, partnership, Limited Liability Partnership or a Company (Ltd or PLC).
They can also register their, say Malaysian company as a foreign branch in the UK. Often, it is probably simpler to setup a subsidiary 100% owned by the parent company in Malaysia.

2. Sole trader and partnership are reserved for those with rights to work in UK so does not apply to most malaysian entrepreneur wannbe.

3. A company can be setup by ordering online (Search: UK Company formation). The company is then ready to be used within 1 - 2 working days and the relevant company formation document and certificate will be emailed to you.

4. You will need a UK address and most company formation agent will give you an address in UK for a fee of between £50 - £100 per year

5. OK, now you have a UK company. In most cases, you will be the shareholders also.

6. Assuming that you trade purely e-products (games download etc) by setting up a .co.uk website and accept PayPal, you can pretty much start trading straight away (yes, malaysian have further problem to draw out paypal fund because it currently does not have a Malaysian presence, but has a Singapore presence).

7. In most cases, one will want to open an account in the UK. To do this, you will need to come to UK to open the account (although from observation, there appeared to be agent that can open bank account without the Directors have to come into UK. More once I find the information )

8. If you need someone to represent the business, you can either hire somebody who have the rights to work in the UK. Alternatively, you can ge t a Malaysian who represent your company in the UK as sole representative. A work permit can be isssued under this category which leads to settlement in the end.

9. You will also need to register with the UK HMRC to pay Value Added Tax (if applicable) and corporation tax (if you pay UK Corporation tax and then remit any profit back to Malaysia in the form of dividend, there is no further tax to pay).

The article is still in draft, but feel free to ask questions..