Corporation Tax and VAT for e-commerce company operating in EU

Dear HMRC Team and community members! I trust you are doing great! Kindly suggest on the following: I’m going to incorporate a UK LTD company for selling products to EU countries using the dropshipping model. In our B2C model both Suppliers (China, EU) and Customers (EU) are located outside the UK . The Customer from the EU picks the product, gets an invoice from my company, and clears it, so my company gets an invoice for this product from the Supplier and orders it to the Customer's address. So the supplier ships the product directly to the Customer. Also, I’m not the UK nor the EU tax/physical resident. Here are the questions: ‌ 1) If my Company operates solely outside the UK, does it still have to pay 19-25% corporate tax from profits? 2) I'm going to start as a non-registered for VAT company, do I understand correctly, that under 85K GBP of turnover my company doesn't have to pay VAT to UK? Do you know if my company needs to pay VAT to the EU country of the Customer? 3) Which applications/tools would you recommend for bookkeeping and accounting? -- Best Regards, Nick

Hi Nick Firstly why are you wanting to set up a UK Ltd company if you are not trading in or with the UK? If neither you or your business premises or business activity is in the UK then it is not possible to register a UK Ltd company. As the UK is no longer part of the EU you will need to comply with your own country’s or EU requirements or both. VAT is due on all imports into the EU of any value.

Hi Nick,
 For Corporation Tax (CT):
If the company is registered in the Uk at Companies House then it will be required to file CT returns and pay CT here unless it is also registered abroad  and paying tax there on its foreign trading activities, and claiming a foreign residency. 
For VAT: 
If your goods never come in to the UK then the supplies will be Outside of the Scope of UK VAT and so vat registration in the UK would not be required.
However, there could be a requirement to register in the member state where your purchase from the supplier is deemed to take place as you will be making a supply of goods from that country
Thank you. 
 

Hello, HMRC Admin 25! Thank you for answering! Have a good day! -- Best Regards,