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Should I move my business?

Four genuinely different moves, what each one costs, what your tax office requires on the way out, and a checklist you can work through in order. Nothing here is a promise of a lower bill.

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Your country, the move you actually mean and what you leave behind, then a checklist built around that, free on screen. Create a free account to keep it, with your answers and ticks, on any device.

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First, which move do you actually mean?

Most of the cost and nearly all of the tax depends on this one answer. People use the same words for four very different things.

You move, the company stays where it is

You become resident somewhere else, while the company keeps its home country registration and tax residence.

Suits: Owners who want to live elsewhere but keep existing contracts, banking and registration untouched.
Watch: If you run the company from your new country, the company itself can become resident or taxable there too, because tax offices look at where a company is really managed and controlled, not only where it is registered.

The company's management moves abroad

Directors, board meetings and real decision making move to the new country, so the company's tax residence changes.

Suits: Businesses genuinely running from the new country, with people and decisions there.
Watch: This is the move that triggers exit charges and a formal notice to the home tax office. It is not a paperwork exercise, and directors staying at home can undo it.

A new company abroad, the home one stays

You open a company in the new country for local trade or local customers, and keep the home company running.

Suits: Selling into a new market, hiring locally, or needing a local entity to invoice or to hold a licence.
Watch: Two companies means two sets of accounts, filings and audits, plus transfer pricing rules on anything the two charge each other.

Close the home business entirely

You wind the home business up, settle its final taxes, and trade only from the new country.

Suits: A complete, permanent move with no remaining customers, staff or property at home.
Watch: Final returns, final payroll, deregistration and record keeping still apply for years after closing, and assets sold or kept on closure can be taxed.

What it costs to move

These are the things you will be quoted for. We do not put prices on them, because they change completely with the country, the adviser and the size of the business. Get a written quote for each line that applies, in both countries, before you commit.

Paid once, to make the move

Company formation in the new countryRegistration fee, registered office and, in many countries, a local director or agent.
Cross-border tax adviceAdvice in both countries, since neither adviser can answer for the other's rules. Usually the largest single cost.
Exit tax on unrealised gainsWhere the business's tax residence changes, assets can be treated as sold at market value on the way out.
Legal work on contracts and termsCustomer contracts, supplier terms, data protection wording and employment contracts under new law.
Moving or re-registering assetsEquipment, stock, vehicles, intellectual property transfers and any stamp or registration duty on them.
New banking and payment processingOpening accounts as a new business, new merchant terms, and currency conversion on money moving between countries.
Visa or residence permitsFor you, family and any staff you move, including any required investment or income threshold.

Paid every year, once you have moved

Local accounting and filingBookkeeping, annual accounts, local tax returns and sometimes audit, in the new country's language and format.
Payroll and social contributionsEmployer contributions in the new country, which are often a very different percentage of wages.
Two sets of filings while both existIf the home company stays, it keeps filing even with little or no trade.
Substance in the new countryOffice, staff or directors actually there. Tax offices and banks both increasingly ask for evidence of this.
Transfer pricing documentationWhere the two companies trade with each other, both tax offices expect the pricing to be defensible and documented.

The yearly column is the one that decides whether a move pays. A one-off saving on formation means little against local accounting, payroll contributions and two sets of filings repeating every year.

What your own tax office requires

Pick where the business is now. This is the leaving side of the move, which is the part people discover too late. The arriving country has its own rules on top.

United Kingdom, with HMRC and Companies House

Where the company is resident is decided by more than the register
A company is UK resident if it is incorporated here, or if the central management and control of its business is here. Moving the register without moving the real decision making does not move residence.
You must tell HMRC before you cease to be UK resident
HMRC must be notified of the intention to cease UK residence and the date, given a statement of tax liabilities, and must approve the arrangements for paying them. A guarantor is usually required.
Exit charges on the way out
When a company ceases to be UK resident, its assets are treated as sold at market value immediately beforehand, which can create a corporation tax charge on gains never turned into cash. Similar deemed disposals apply to loan relationships, intangibles and trading stock.
A payment plan may be available
Eligible companies can apply for an exit charge payment plan to spread the tax rather than pay it all at migration.
Leaving something behind keeps you in the UK net
Trading on in the UK through a permanent establishment, or holding UK land, keeps those profits and gains within UK corporation tax even after the company becomes non-resident.

Read it on the authority's own pages

Sources checked on 2026-09-20.

Your moving checklist

0 of 29 ticked

Work through it in order. Ticks are kept in this browser. Sign in if you would like your wider plans saved to your account and available on any device.

Before you decide

Work out whether the move is genuinely worth it, on paper, before anything is signed.

Before you move

The paperwork that has to happen in order, and mostly before the move date.

The first three months

What tends to be forgotten, and what tends to cost money when it is.

Keep it true afterwards

A move only holds up if the facts keep matching the paperwork.

What a move does not do

Registering abroad does not move your tax home

If you keep making the decisions from where you live now, your home tax office can still treat the company as resident there, and your new country may tax it too.

A low headline rate is not the whole bill

Social contributions, payroll taxes, local filing costs, audit requirements and dividend or withholding tax on getting money out can more than reverse a lower corporate rate.

Getting the money to you is a second tax question

Profit taxed lightly in the company can still be taxed when it reaches you personally, in whichever country you are resident.

Nothing here removes reporting

Accounts held abroad are reported back to your home tax office under international exchange agreements. Moving a business is a commercial and tax planning decision, not a way to become invisible.

Banks ask the same questions tax offices do

A company with no real presence in its country of registration is one of the most common reasons an application for a business account is refused.

Work out the numbers next

Before you act on any of this

This page is general guidance built from the authorities' own published pages, not advice on your business. A cross-border move is one of the few decisions where paying for advice in both countries first is almost always cheaper than fixing it afterwards. Your plan builder gives you the current figures to take into that conversation.