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Posted: Wed 1st Jul 2026
Last updated: Wed 1st Jul 2026
9 min read
Going global sounds like the natural next step. Your UK customer base is solid, demand is growing and an enquiry lands in your inbox from a buyer in Dublin, Amsterdam or Dubai.
Then the practical questions start. Which country do you actually set up in? Who handles the tax? Can you open a bank account remotely? What happens to your IP the moment your product crosses a border?
Most founders I talk to don't trip on the strategy, but the admin.
This checklist walks through the practical steps that get missed, so you don't end up paying twice to fix something you could have planned for.
Before you do anything else, ask yourself why you're expanding.
"Because we can" isn't a strategy, but "Because three customers in Germany keep asking" is the start of one.
If you haven't already worked through the question of where, Enterprise Nation has a good walkthrough on identifying the right market using the signals already in your business.
Once you've got a target market in mind, the checklist below kicks in.
Here's where a lot of founders take the wrong turn. They assume "expanding to Germany" means setting up a German company, which can sometimes be the case but often isn't.
Choosing a jurisdiction is really about choosing a home for the legal entity that will hold your overseas operations.
That might be the country you're selling into, or it might be a third country that offers a better mix of tax, legal certainty, talent, language and ease of incorporation for what you're trying to do.
For UK SMEs, the shortlist usually involves a few familiar names:
Ireland: English-speaking, common law, EU access, established hub for tech and services
The Netherlands: Strong EU logistics base, English widely used in business, well-developed corporate structures
Estonia: E-residency programme, fully digital incorporation, useful for online and digital-first businesses
Gibraltar: Common law system based on English law, English-speaking workforce, fast incorporation, low corporate tax, popular with financial services, fintech and gaming businesses
None of these is "the right answer". The right answer depends on where your customers are, where your team is, what kind of product or service you sell and how you want profits to flow back to the UK.
The point of looking at the options side by side is to make sure you're choosing on substance, not on whichever country your accountant happens to know best.
Each of these jurisdictions works differently in practice, and the published guides from local firms are usually the fastest way to get a feel for what setting up actually involves.
Hassans' overview of setting up a business in Gibraltar is a useful example, walking through entity types, licensing, banking and the tax regime in one place.
Once you've picked the jurisdiction, you have a second decision to make – what kind of entity to set up.
Subsidiaries, branch offices, local limited companies and partnerships all behave differently for tax, liability and reporting.
A branch is usually faster and lighter, but it doesn't always shield your UK parent from liability. A subsidiary takes more setting up but tends to be cleaner once you're trading at any scale.
If you're hiring, raising money locally or signing material contracts locally, a properly incorporated subsidiary is usually worth the extra paperwork.
Get advice before you decide. Unwinding the wrong structure later costs more than getting it right at the start.
Founders tend to fixate on the corporation tax rate.
It's the easy number to compare, but it's only one of about six tax considerations that actually matter.
You'll also need to think about:
VAT or local equivalent: Registration thresholds, who collects it, how you reclaim.
Withholding taxes: On dividends, royalties and interest moving between countries.
Transfer pricing: The rules if the UK parent and the overseas entity transact with each other.
Permanent establishment risk: Understanding how a UK company can be dragged into foreign tax even without a formal local entity.
Double taxation treaties: Between the UK and your chosen jurisdiction.
Employer-side payroll taxes: These can vary widely between countries.
For the customs and export side, GOV.UK's step-by-step guide to exporting goods is the universally recognised reference.
For corporate tax, you'll want a local accountant in your target jurisdiction working with your UK accountant.
This is where expansion plans can stall. You can incorporate in days, but getting that company a working bank account can take months.
Banks have tightened up on anti-money-laundering checks for overseas entities, and many won't open an account remotely.
If your business is in anything they consider high-risk (crypto, gaming, certain financial services), expect the process to take longer.
Plan for this early:
Ask, at the jurisdiction-selection stage, which banks will actually take you on.
Build banking timelines into your launch plan, not the other way round.
Look at multi-currency providers (Wise, Airwallex, Revolut Business and similar) as an interim or permanent option.
Decide how money will flow back to the UK parent, and what that costs in FX and fees.
If you're hiring overseas, you're now an employer in a country whose employment law you probably don't know.
Notice periods, holiday entitlement, statutory benefits, dismissal rules, employer social contributions – none of these mirror the UK.
Hiring through an Employer of Record (EOR) is one way to test a market without setting up a full local entity.
An EOR is a third-party organisation that legally hires and manages a workforce on your business's behalf. It's grown into a sensible bridge option for businesses that aren't ready to incorporate yet.
A few practical checks before your first overseas hire:
Are you legally required to have a local entity to employ someone in that country?
What are the employer-side costs on top of salary? (Often 15 to 30% more than the UK.)
Who handles local payroll, pensions and benefits?
What are the rules on terminating an employee if it doesn't work out?
Your UK trademark doesn't automatically protect you in France, Germany or anywhere else.
Intellectual property (IP) rights are territorial, which means the moment you start trading in a new country, someone else could legitimately register your brand name there before you do. This catches founders out constantly.
Sort out a basic IP plan before you launch:
Audit what IP you actually have (trademarks, designs, patents, copyright, trade secrets).
Decide which markets matter enough to register in.
Look at international filing systems like the Madrid Protocol for trademarks, which let you apply across multiple countries through one application.
Get specialist advice for higher-value IP, especially patents.
The UK Intellectual Property Office runs an International IP service with country guides and an attaché network. It's free, it's official, and it'll save you a lot of guesswork.
The last item on the checklist is the most market-specific.
Whatever sector you're in, your target country will have its own licensing regime, product standards, labelling rules and consumer protection laws.
Financial services, food and drink, health products, cosmetics, children's products and digital services all carry significant regulatory weight in most jurisdictions.
Don't assume CE marking or UKCA marking covers you everywhere. Check the rules specific to your sector and your target market, and build approval timelines into your launch plan.
Regulatory delays are the single most common reason a "Q2 launch" becomes a "Q4 launch".
Going global isn't a single decision. It's a stack of smaller ones, and the founders who do it well treat the admin with the same care they give the strategy.
Pick the jurisdiction on substance.
Get the structure right at the start.
Plan for the tax that isn't on the headline rate.
Sort the bank account before you need it.
Protect your IP before you launch, not afterwards.
Get those right, and the rest of the expansion is the fun part.
For a broader view of the obstacles waiting in new markets once you start trading, Enterprise Nation's piece on the common barriers UK businesses face when expanding into foreign markets is a useful companion read.
