A Case Study By MacIntyre Hudson LLP

We were approached by a US computer advisory company with approximately 100 employees. The company wanted to establish an office in Birmingham to service a significant new UK customer. We were asked to help choose between establishing a branch and a UK company. In this case, what was important to the client was maintaining confidentiality over financial information and avoiding the cost of an audit. A decision was made to register a branch because there is no requirement to prepare and disclose accounting documents under the parent law, so no requirement to deliver accounts to Companies House. Tax savings or deferral of tax might have been achieved by registering a UK company, but that was not regarded as important. By making use of the Companies House same-day service, we registered the UK branch within 48 hours of making the decision. We registered the branch for VAT and gave advice on how to raise VAT invoices to customers. The client decided that it would maintain accounting rec