Founding from outside the United States: what changes for a remote founder
Where you live, where the company is formed and where customers are can be three different places. Delaware, UK and EU VAT examples, with questions for counsel.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. It was written on October 10, 2026. It reads government pages from the United States (Delaware and the Internal Revenue Service), the United Kingdom and the European Union as scoped examples. It does not rank places or recommend where to form a company. Ask your own counsel and a qualified tax professional what applies to you.
A founder who lives in one country, forms a company in another and sells to customers in several is dealing with at least three separate questions. Where does the company legally exist? Where do you, personally, live and pay tax? Where are the customers, and what do those places require of a seller? The three are easy to run together, and the answers can differ.
This article reads three sets of public pages, one for each of three places, and shows what each says that matters to someone who is not physically there. It stays within what those pages say. For anything beyond that, it lists the question to bring to counsel.
Three questions, kept apart
- Where is the company formed? The place of formation sets the company’s legal structure, its filings and the formal roles it must have. It is a different question from where the founder sits.
- Where do the founders live and work? That determines personal tax and legal obligations, which this article does not cover.
- Where are the customers? Selling across borders can bring local tax and consumer rules, even if the company is formed elsewhere.
Write the three answers down before reading anything else. A short table with one row per founder and one row for the company is enough. Keeping the three answers apart makes each later question easier to ask.
Example one: a Delaware corporation with a founder abroad
Delaware is used here as one example. This article makes no claim that it suits you.
A registered office and agent inside the state
Section 102 of the Delaware General Corporation Law says that the certificate of incorporation “shall set forth” a list of items. Among them is “the corporation’s registered office in this State, and the name of its registered agent at such address.” The corporation, then, needs an address and an agent in Delaware, whether or not any founder lives there.
The Delaware Division of Corporations explains the agent’s role on its list of registered agents. The legal requirements, it says, “are to maintain a street address and office located in Delaware and be open during normal business hours for the purpose of accepting service of process.” The same page states that “Registered Agents are not regulated by the State of Delaware”, and that “It is the consumer’s responsibility to exercise due diligence in selecting a Registered Agent for representation.” This article names no agent and makes no recommendation. The question for counsel is how to choose one, what the agent will and will not do, and how mail and legal notices reach you in your own country and time zone.
A federal tax number
The IRS describes how to get an employer identification number (EIN). Its online tool, the page says, cannot be used if “Your principal place of business is outside the U.S. If so, apply by phone, fax or mail.” The tool is also described as requiring the responsible party’s Social Security number or individual taxpayer ID number. The page was last reviewed on August 19, 2026. Questions for counsel: who counts as the responsible party for your company, how an applicant without either number applies, and how long that takes.
Example two: a UK limited company with a director abroad
The GOV.UK guidance on setting up a private limited company says that “Your company must have at least one director.” On residence, it says: “Directors do not have to live in the UK but companies must have a UK registered office address.”
The page also makes a point that applies to any founder who values privacy. “Directors’ names and personal information are publicly available from Companies House”, and directors must supply a service address that is also public. A remote founder who works from home may want to ask counsel what address to use and what the options are.
The page describes the rules for a UK company. It does not describe what a UK company’s tax or banking position would be for a founder who lives somewhere else, and neither does this article.
Example three: selling into the EU and VAT
The European Commission’s VAT One Stop Shop page describes changes to VAT rules on cross-border business-to-consumer e-commerce from 1 July 2021. In summary, “Online sellers, including online marketplaces/platforms” can register in one EU Member State, and that registration covers declaring and paying VAT on “cross-border supplies of services to customers within the EU.” The page also describes an EU-wide threshold below which supplies of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services may remain subject to VAT in the Member State where the seller is established.
Two cautions follow from the page’s own wording. It concerns business-to-consumer sales, so a SaaS company that sells only to businesses should not assume it applies. And whether a particular software product counts as a service of the kind the page names is a classification question. Put both to a tax professional, along with where your company is established and what its customers look like.
A map of what each example tells you
| Place | What the source says | A question to bring to counsel |
|---|---|---|
| Delaware | The certificate names a registered office and agent in the state | How do I choose an agent, and how do notices reach me? |
| United States (IRS) | The online EIN tool is not for a principal place of business outside the U.S. | Who is the responsible party, and how do I apply? |
| United Kingdom | One director is required; directors may live abroad; a UK registered office address is required | Which address do I use, given that director details are public? |
| European Union | A seller can register in one Member State for cross-border VAT on certain sales | Does this apply to my product and my customers? |
What changes day to day for a remote founder
Beyond the formalities, working from a distance changes a few habits. These are practical observations, not findings.
- Time zones. If your customers, your company’s agent and your team are in different zones, decide which hours overlap and put the customer-facing ones first. The operating rhythm for a remote team article describes a weekly structure for a team spread across zones.
- Customer conversations. Early interviews can be done by video, and the customer interview guide covers how to run them. Distance does not change the aim, which is to learn what customers do today.
- Paper trail. Formation documents, agreements with contractors and records of who built what should be kept somewhere you can reach from where you live. The IP, contracts and access article describes the records.
- Payments and banking. Which countries a payment provider or bank supports, and what it asks of a founder who lives abroad, vary by provider and change over time. Check each provider’s current published terms and ask counsel what they mean for your structure. This article names none.
The validate the problem playbook is useful wherever you sit, because it asks you to test the idea before you incur any of these costs.
What this article cannot tell you
This article reads five public pages from three places. It is not a guide to any country’s company law or tax, and it says nothing about immigration or work authorization, personal tax residence, employment of staff abroad, data protection, or the rules of places other than those named. It does not compare the three examples or suggest that any one is better. The pages change, and the Delaware and EU pages describe general frameworks, not your case. A rule that applies in one place may not apply in another, and an exception may exist that the page does not mention. Read the current version of each source, and ask counsel and a qualified tax professional before acting.
In the data
These figures describe U.S. businesses in general, not WE’s results. Each one names its source.
Show the data as a table
| Year | New employer firms (age 0) |
|---|---|
| 1978 | 488,103 |
| 1979 | 473,471 |
| 1980 | 439,667 |
| 1981 | 430,100 |
| 1982 | 418,627 |
| 1983 | 456,610 |
| 1984 | 529,584 |
| 1985 | 512,439 |
| 1986 | 517,516 |
| 1987 | 513,574 |
| 1988 | 507,091 |
| 1989 | 502,558 |
| 1990 | 493,080 |
| 1991 | 450,750 |
| 1992 | 438,701 |
| 1993 | 461,135 |
| 1994 | 475,989 |
| 1995 | 495,030 |
| 1996 | 493,289 |
| 1997 | 494,483 |
| 1998 | 477,206 |
| 1999 | 451,218 |
| 2000 | 446,204 |
| 2001 | 436,993 |
| 2002 | 455,162 |
| 2003 | 467,532 |
| 2004 | 505,056 |
| 2005 | 518,727 |
| 2006 | 541,317 |
| 2007 | 509,517 |
| 2008 | 471,285 |
| 2009 | 395,235 |
| 2010 | 379,145 |
| 2011 | 395,680 |
| 2012 | 408,546 |
| 2013 | 405,350 |
| 2014 | 411,948 |
| 2015 | 421,155 |
| 2016 | 442,414 |
| 2017 | 439,859 |
| 2018 | 442,078 |
| 2019 | 453,027 |
| 2020 | 455,725 |
| 2021 | 485,256 |
| 2022 | 521,312 |
| 2023 | 508,777 |
A startup here is a new firm with at least one paid employee; businesses with no employees are not counted.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics, firm age , 1978 to 2023
Retrieved 2026-10-16. Values are the published firm counts at firm age 0, copied as printed.
Sources
- 8 Del. C. section 102, Contents of certificate of incorporation, Delaware Code Online, State of Delaware . Accessed October 10, 2026.
- List of Delaware Registered Agents, Division of Corporations, State of Delaware . Accessed October 10, 2026.
- Get an employer identification number, Internal Revenue Service . Accessed October 10, 2026.
- Set up a private limited company: Appoint directors and a company secretary, GOV.UK . Accessed October 10, 2026.
- VAT One Stop Shop, European Commission . Accessed October 10, 2026.
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