Key takeaways
- Incorporating an LTD costs around £200 through a basic formation agent. But incorporation is only the entry ticket.
- An LTD that actually works adds up five line items: the UK accountant, the registered office, the service address, annual compliance and international tax advice.
- Assembled separately, these items commonly reach €3,000 to €6,000 a year for a non-resident, with four providers to coordinate yourself.
- The most expensive item is also the most profitable one: tax advice, the item that decides what you actually pay in tax.
- That is the whole point of an integrated package at €4,000/year all inclusive: the same scope, one contact, and a pre-year-end review that often pays for everything.
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The "£200" myth
The ads are not lying: you can incorporate an LTD for around £200, sometimes less. Reduced official Companies House fees, an online form, a certificate within 48 hours. What is misleading is the suggestion that the company is then "ready". At that point you have a shell: no bank account, no compliant address, nobody to produce your accounts, and no idea what your structure will cost you in tax. Everything that matters starts afterwards.
The full breakdown, line by line
1. Incorporation: around £200, once. The only item everyone knows.
2. The UK accountant: annual accounts (FRS 105 or FRS 102), the CT600 return with HMRC, and depending on your case VAT and PAYE. For a small non-resident LTD, commonly observed fees run from £800 to £2,000 a year, more if your situation is non-standard. Beware of very low teaser prices: the add-ons (VAT, payroll, HMRC letters) pile up fast.
3. The registered office: the company's official UK address, mandatory. Typically £50 to £300 a year depending on the provider and bundled services (mail scanning in particular, essential when you are abroad).
4. The service address: the director's correspondence address, which keeps your home address off the public register. Often billed separately, in the same range.
5. Annual compliance: the confirmation statement (official fee plus handling), deadline tracking, the PSC register. Cheap in money, very expensive in penalties when forgotten.
6. International tax advice: the item that low-cost packages simply do not offer. How to pay yourself (salary or dividends), how your country of residence treats your income, when to distribute, how to prepare the year end to reduce Corporation Tax. By the hour, an international tax adviser commonly charges €200 to €500; an initial structuring quickly runs into thousands. Yet this is the item that determines whether your LTD saves you tax or makes you overpay.
The total, and what it does not show
Assembling these items yourself across four different providers, a non-resident commonly lands between €3,000 and €6,000 a year as soon as real tax advice enters the picture. And the total does not show the hidden cost: you are the coordinator. The accountant does not talk to the address provider, nobody holds the full picture of your personal taxation, and every question falls between two stools. Chasing four providers in two languages is time taken from your business.
Our answer: the outsourced tax department
We built the opposite offer: €4,000 a year, all inclusive. 48-hour formation, registered office and service address, full accounting (annual accounts, CT600, confirmation statement, VAT and PAYE where needed), guaranteed bank account opening with a backup plan, an onboarding tax session to structure your remuneration for your country of residence, a pre-year-end review to reduce Corporation Tax, and unlimited 7-day support. One contact, one full picture, zero coordination on your side.
So the honest comparison is not "€4,000 versus £200": it is €4,000 all-in versus the real total of every line item, plus your time. And the pre-year-end review often flips the sign of the calculation: a few thousand euros of tax saved, in some cases down to 0% Corporation Tax (case by case, under conditions), and the package has paid for itself.
A worked example
An expat freelance developer bills €110,000 a year. Self-assembled: accountant £1,400, addresses £250, formation £200, and 4 hours of tax advice at €300 to structure his remuneration, roughly €3,500 in year one, with nobody watching the whole picture over time. The pre-year-end review he never did would have saved him €4,200 left on the table (undeducted expenses, badly timed distribution). Real cost of the apparent saving: negative.
Frequently asked questions
Why not take a cheap UK accountant and handle the rest myself?
Viable if your situation is simple and you master your residence country's tax rules. The risk is not accounting, it is tax: the UK accountant produces your accounts, he does not tell you how to structure your remuneration internationally. That is where the real money is won or lost.
Are there hidden fees in your package?
No: €4,000/year covers the entire scope described. If a need falls outside it (a dispute, an exceptional transaction), we tell you before, never after.
What about year two?
Same price, same scope: recurrence is the heart of the model, because compliance and optimisation are annual topics, not one-offs.
Next step
The right calculation is done on your situation, not on an average. On one call, we price what your LTD would cost and, above all, what it would save you, down to 0% personal tax depending on your profile.
