UK “nominee” or “agency” companies can be used for international trading in goods or services for non-UK resident beneficial owners. The most important consideration to bear in mind is that these arrangements cannot and must never be used if UK resident beneficial owners or UK situs goods or assets are involved.
An example might be South African resident beneficial owners who might wish to import goods from say China to sell to various EU countries other than the UK. A nominee or agency agreement is set-up between an overseas company and a UK company under which the UK company is not beneficially entitled to the income or profits of the trade but merely acts as a nominee or agent to perform limited and administrative activities such as invoicing customers, for example. Therefore the UK “agent” is entitled to say only 1{e68217344b855fcd608ed2c4c41f83644da7cd41ea524fbfa2ad06c632d3255d} of the overall profits under the agreement and it would pay tax on that profit share. The business must managed and controlled by the overseas or offshore company.
The commercial benefits include the credibility that a proper jurisdiction like the UK brings to the international trading arrangements and a tax-efficient solution overall. There are many variations of this structure for goods and services. Please contact us for details.