Category: Start-ups

UK Trade and Investment Initiatives to support business ventures to and from Poland


logo of UKTI
A message from UKTI

Martin Oxley sent this out for the Foreign and Commonwealth office and we are pleased to assist in its propagation.

Dear Quoracy.com subscribers,

Poland presents an attractive nearshore growth opportunity for Britain Plc. In line with the new UKTI strategy presented to government recently by Lord Green, Minister of State for Trade and Investment we are introducing a step change in the way UKTI supports British business growth.

We are taking a very proactive approach on behalf of government to provide a range of bespoke services to enable British SME’s to significantly enhance exports and also work with large corporations to win major overseas contracts and expedite their growth in market.

With our new Ambassador HMA Robin Barnett and the Embassy team we are engaging to support strong growth oriented business agenda in Poland.

With this in mind I am pleased to attach a brief outline of the services which UKTI has developed to support British business in Poland. I very much look forward to meeting you over the course of the coming weeks to discuss with you how we can assist you with your specific company needs.

I am very happy to visit you or alternatively you would be most welcome to visit us and I will provide you a tour of our excellent event facilities at the Embassy.

Kind regards

Martin Oxley

110715 EVR Expand your Business with UKTI Poland.pdf

Quoracy.com would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate our dear friend Martin Oxley on his recent new appointment to the FCO in Warsaw, and to wish him every success working with Her Majesty’s new Ambassador to Poland, His Excellency Robin Barnett. We wish you and your team many successes and a lot of fun.

Is your business in the “ivy league”?


variegated ivy leaves
'Hedera' of reference?

I was recently reminded of something my old gardener told me about ivy. I had been surprised at how slow some lovely variegated ivy that had been planted by my fence was coming on, and his words were as follows:

With ivy, the first year it is put in, it does nothing, it just sulks at having been put in a new place. The second year is starts to spread out horizontally along the ground by the bottom of the fence, and in the third year it starts to grow upward, like a curtain.

Wise words, from someone who knew his onions. And his ivy. It seems to me that this is a great analogy for many new businesses. Entrepreneurs obviously look for a rapid return on capital employed. They want their profits and the cash back to invest in the next thing. But nature takes its course with some businesses just like it does with the ivy, and you cannot rush it.

The first year, you have set up costs, people are getting used to each other in a new team with a new product, new identity. This is like the ivy “sulking” – just establishing a new root system and adapting to the chemistry of the soil and the direction of the light.

The second year you start to see sales pick up but the prices are not that good yet and also the volumes don’t allow the contribution to cover fixed costs. You get growth but you don’t get the profit. It is like the ivy growing along the ground by the bottom of the fence. It is obviously going somewhere, but you aren’t getting the effect of it yet.

The third year you reach a certain critical mass, you break even you start to nudge into profit, your cash flows turn the corner and you start paying back your seed finance. This is like the ivy making its curtain up the fence.

If the ivy survives at all, it will certainly produce the coverage in time. The same with these new businesses. They simply need to be nurtured and for nature to be allowed to take its course. If the soil is right, the light is there, and the water, the plant healthy, then it will do what it is programmed to do in its own time. Micro-managing it will not help. Restructuring the team which is only starting to gel will not help. it will be like transplanting the ivy at the end of the second year for failing to raise – it will only go through its sulking and creeping years all over again in the new position.

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Something to think about


image

I think I’ll let the map speak for itself. It was the main story in the weekend edition of Rzeczpospolita newspaper.

Article par David James et Lucia Rablova dans l’Entreprise, Decembre 2010.


Golden Charles of Praha
"Golden Charles of Praha" by Éole via Flickr

David James et Lucia Rablova de Baker Tilly Tchequie ont ecrit cette article avec Mme Valerie Malnoy de Baker Tilly France, qui est apparu dans l’edition de decembre 2010.  Nous esperons que ce contient sera interessant pour nos lecteurs francophones.

Les firmes associes de Baker Tilly sont a meme de servir des clients francophones en francais dans le plupart de la region de l’Europe de l’Est.

2010-12-08~1527@L_ENTREPRISE Rép Tchèque

Et ici vous trouverez le site de Baker Tilly Republique Tcheque en francais.

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So you want to start a business in the Czech Republic? What do you set up, a Company or a Branch?


The main considerations are grouped under headings

LEGAL

• The scope of business of the branch may not be broader than the scope of business of the foreign entity.

• The branch must publish the financial statements of the foreign company in the registry of documents kept by the Commercial Register, which effectively means getting the whole report of the company the branch is part of and translating it into Czech, and publicising it even if the accounts were not liable to be made public in the jurisdiction of the Company.

ACCOUNTING

• In general the same statutory obligations apply for both branch and legal entity from accounting and financial reporting point of view, i.e. every corporate entity doing business in Czech Republic must keep the books in Czech language and must file the financial statements to the Commercial Register.

• The only difference we can see is that the statutory financial statements of branch are to be incorporated into the statutory accounts of the founder whereas in case of legal entity financial statements stands alone and the financial asset (i.e. investment in the subsidiary) is to be shown in the accounts of the parent company.  Branches do not really have separate equity, as they are not legal persons, but in order for the balance sheet to balance the capital employed needs to be shown as if they were, on a pro-forma basis. Likewise purchases of goods by the branch from the company it is part of is legal nonsense, as there is no tranfer of ownership to a branch, but still in order to give a picture of the performance of the branch as well as to be above board with regard to international transfer pricing, again branch accounts should be done with these intra-company “sales” and “purchases” included as pro forma. Remember that the branch has its own tax life in the country where it is.

AUDIT

• The same statutory obligations apply for both branch and legal entity to have its accounts audited.

• The general rules are as follows:

1) joint stock companies One of the following criterions is met for two consecutive accounting periods: a) gross assets of 40.000K CZK b) revenues of 80.000K CZK c) average number of employees over 50.

2) other legal entities (limited liability companies, branches, etc.) Two of three above criterions are met for two consecutive accounting periods.

 TAX

• From the Czech corporate taxation point of view the branch must register for corporate income tax only if having taxable income in the Czech Republic through a permanent establishment, the legal entity must register in any case.

• In case of the branch the income and costs need to be allocated to branch activities, however keeping in mind transfer pricing and substance-over-form principle that are applicable under both structures, i.e. under both branch and legal entity constructs.

• Profits/losses will be included in profits of the founder of the branch taking into consideration double taxation reliefs.

• From the VAT perspective in case of the branch the VAT payer is actually the headquarter that has Czech VAT registration while in case of the legal entity it is actually the entity itself being Czech VAT payer.

• Profit repatriation in the case of the legal entity must be taken into account, however, if the parent company being an EU entity with more than 10% shareholding for more than 12 months dividend payments are tax exempt.

  Subsidiary Branch
Tax registration obligatory Only if taxable income from sources in the Czech Republic
Tax at operational level 19% CIT 19% CIT
Tax at parent/headquarter level in respect of subsidiary’/branch’s profits Participation exemption or tax credit (in cases of dividend distribution) Tax rate of the headquarter (note: double taxation relief ® participation exemption or tax credit)
Withholding tax (dividend, interest, royalties) Often (note: EC Directives and tax treaties) Rarely
Loss settlement with foreign parent company/headquarter In principle no Yes (unless exempt under headquarters’ domestic tax law)
Liability debt (claims) at operational level Local operating company (=subsidiary) Headquarter

The above was based on the amiable co-operation of TGC Corporate Lawyers and Baker Tilly sro in Prague and Brno.