Self-employed to Company

[Jura]

Hello,

I’m looking for some advice on whether to change from operating as self employed to opening a company in Japan.

The business is currently set up with my Japanese spouse registered as self-employed with myself as a salaried employee. We both work equally on the business.

We plan to expand the business more this year and estimate in 2022 to have a turnover of more than 10 million yen.

Some benefits to opening a company that I can see are:
1. Can work together easily with other Japanese companies
2. Reduce liability
3. The structure is fair for both my spouse and I
4. Tax rate may be lower compared to self employed
5. Rate for project work might be higher (We’ve been told before by some Japanese companies, if we are a company they pay more)

Downsides to setting up a Japanese company:
1. The fee I have been quoted by my accountant is 800,000 yen to set up the company and manage it for 12 months (200,000 yen to set up the company and 50,000 yen monthly fee).

Another point to note is that this business is 100% online and can be operated from anywhere. With the high tax rates in Japan, language challenges and crazy expensive accounting fees compared to my experience of running a company in the UK, I am also considering opening a corporation in a different country with a lower corporation tax rate and operating the business through that. Does anyone have any experience with this while being a resident of Japan?

I’m interested any insights or advice. Also if anyone knows of an English speaking Japan-based business consultant, it would also be helpful.

Thanks!

[captainspoke]

Hopefully, there'll be some responses here, but this sounds like a good question for:

https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/

[mikele3]

I'd be interested as well in finding an English speaking Japan-based business/tax consultant, in fact I have been actively looking for one for quite some time now.

I have been running a KK in partnership with my wife for a number of year now.
In my experience, you are right about the expected benefits.

Also, the accountant fees you mention seems in line with my own experience.

I can't comment on running the business through a company registered in a different country, it sounds complicate.

[Jura]

Hopefully, there'll be some responses here, but this sounds like a good question for:

https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/

Thank you for sharing this, I wasn't aware about that reddit community. So much helpful information on there!

[Jura]

I'd be interested as well in finding an English speaking Japan-based business/tax consultant, in fact I have been actively looking for one for quite some time now.

Thank you for sharing about your experiences. If I do happen to find someone, I'll post again on here