We (a couple living in Denmark. husband is danish, wife is Pakistani citizen) are a startup that has now a few customers using our SaaS (Web-based Expense Management System). Our customers are outside of Denmark mostly from USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa etc. These customers have been using the system for a few months now and its time to send them invoices. As a startup, we have chosen paypal for now for invoicing. Sending invoices directly from paypal and have received a few payments.
The all above was happening without opening a company in Denmark. No payments were transferred to any bank form paypal yet. Now we believe that the software has potential, we would like to open a company here in Dk.
I have been struggling to find out which company type suits us best. Have been reading about Enkeltsmand / Iværksætterselskaber (IVS).
Some more Facts and concerns
- We have a very very low budget to open a company therefore are trying to avoid the lawyer fee for opening a company.
- Software deals with financial data (does expense management) servers are In EU but none in DK.
- In case of money loss / data loss / hacking, we do not want to be responsible as an individual but company (to be opened) should be responsible. Basically we want to be more safe here as an individual / private person.
- Is there any tax on goods selling outside Dk? I know tax needs to be paid on profit we earn.
Questions:
Based on the above concerns, which company model will suits us better, and why?
Advise or guidlines need based on the above and/or
Pleae share your experience on SaaS selling outside Dk
Hello.
I guess the type of company which suits your needs best would be an IVS. Specially since if you haven't behaved totally reckless with regards to the management of the company you can't loose more than your IVS's capital.
So basically what the above means is that as long as you've kept the platform (i.e. if it's a linux server you must keep linux updated) up to date. And has secured the code (your SAAS platform) to the best of human ability. You can't personally be held accountable for any loss your customers might incur.
However here is another buggy man. You can''t just go to the bank and burrow like a billion kroner and then pay em all out as a dividend to yourself either. (Not saying that's something you would do just giving a good advice)
First of all; you need to set of time to understand the basics around having a company, doing accounting, paying taxes etc. It's your own responsibility to get an understanding of this.
At the moment, you are taking payments and acting as a company, therefore by danish law, you're actually already subject to the same rules. It does not matter if your money is in a Paypal account or in a bank account.
So get going fast, get help from an accountant!
An IVS seems like the best option for you (ApS if you have 50k).
And here is a tricky thing; VAT. You need to register for both normal VAT and "One Stop Moms" if you have any customers in EU other then Denmark. Because you are selling SaaS, then you have to use different VAT rates for each EU country. See more here: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/telecommunications-broadcasting-electronic-services_en (I also sell a SaaS product from Denmark to customers in the whole world, so I've been though this)
I am also concerned about laws compliant with regards to data storage / transfer between EU and other countries while operating from DK. Not sure what needs to be done as a minimum to become compliant.
I have been to the free lawyers in the city but they cant help much with commercial cases like this.
Where should I start from? Lawyer, accountant / bank?
It would be very helpful to know where to start first.. and so on..steps.
Do you know any good / cheap lawyer / accountant that can help with all this?
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