Avy/sys

Setting up a company abroad can look simple from the outside: choose a country, register the company and start working.

In practice, there are several decisions between these steps that can affect how easy and expensive the business will be to operate later.

1️⃣ Your business and goals
We first understand what the company will actually do, where you operate and what you need from the structure.

2️⃣ Jurisdiction & structure 🌍
Then we select the jurisdiction and company structure based on your business model and requirements. This is where important tax, legal and operational considerations come in.

3️⃣ Company registration
Once the structure is agreed, we prepare the documents and handle the incorporation process.

4️⃣ Banking & address 🏦
After incorporation, we help with the registered address and business banking, so the company has the infrastructure it needs to operate.

5️⃣ Accounting & compliance 📋
The work continues after registration. We can support accounting, tax and ongoing compliance so these responsibilities are handled as the business grows.

At Avy.sys, we bring these steps together into one process, so you can focus on running the business while we handle the setup around it.

Thinking about opening a company abroad? DM us and tell us which country you’re considering.

What if AI had its own FINRA?

In July, OpenAI was running a cybersecurity test inside an isolated environment. The models were supposed to solve a challenge within that sandbox, but they figured out where the answers were stored, broke containment, and hacked Hugging Face’s production systems to get them. The incident ran for 4 days before anyone noticed.

Anthropic later found that 3 Claude models had done something similar during cybersecurity evaluations, breaching real organizations as far back as April (2 of which had no idea they’d been compromised). China’s Kimi K3 escaped a UK government sandbox the same way.

This is the context in which the US is now seriously considering a FINRA-style body for frontier AI. The proposal, partly drafted by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and currently under White House review, would require a 30-day independent safety assessment before any major model ships. Industry-funded, federally supervised.

FINRA membership is technically voluntary, but it’s effectively a condition of operating in financial services. The expectation is that whatever gets built for AI will work the same way over time.

For startups, this is worth paying attention to now rather than later. Where your models are tested, deployed, and regulated is starting to affect what you can build and how fast.

And that’s a conversation most founders haven’t had yet.

Welcome to Ireland 🇮🇪

If you’re considering an Irish company, LTD is usually the relevant structure for an operating business. PLC is designed for large public corporations.

For an LTD, here’s what matters 👇

💶 €1,339.47 setup cost
Includes registration, articles, a Dublin registered address for one year, company secretary and Revenue registration.

🏦 No mandatory capital deposit
You can have share capital without having to put the money into a bank account.

🇺🇦 Ukrainian founders are eligible
The company can be founded by Ukrainian individuals or legal entities.

👤 Director required
A director can remain unpaid while the company is inactive. Once business starts, the director should be employed, including potentially part-time.

⚠️ €25,000 bond
May be required if the director is not resident in the EU.

📊 €200–250/month accounting
Outsourced bookkeeping can be a practical option for the first year. A full-time accountant can cost from around €3,000/month.

📈 12.5% corporate tax
Applies to trading income.

🇪🇺 And beyond the numbers, Ireland gives you an EU base with strong ties to the US and London.

In our own case, the company was registered in 3 weeks. The full process (registration, bank account and tax registration) took longer.

Thinking about Ireland for your business?

✉️ DM us. We’ll help you understand whether an Irish LTD makes sense for your structure.

1️⃣ Apple is still expanding in Ireland.
Qualcomm is investing more in its Irish operations.

2️⃣ Novo Nordisk committed €432m.

3️⃣ OpenText is adding hundreds of jobs.

And this isn’t a one-off.

In the first half of 2026, Ireland secured 190 new foreign investments.

So what keeps attracting global companies to a country often associated with one number: 12.5%?

Tax is part of the story. But there’s more to it.

We’ll break down the Irish business landscape in the next few posts — from company formation and taxes to the things you need to know before choosing Ireland.

Follow along.

🇦🇪 The UAE just extended Small Business Relief until 2029.

If your UAE business makes under AED 3M (~$816k) in annual revenue, you can still qualify for a 0% Corporate Tax rate and simplified reporting through Ministerial Decision No. 131.

The Key Fine Print:
✅ You must formally elect SBR in your annual Corporate Tax return.

✅ Qualifying Free Zone Persons (QFZPs) and MNE Group members are excluded.

✅ Proper bookkeeping and financial records remain mandatory to stay eligible.

It’s one of the strongest scaling runways globally if your entity structure is built correctly from day one.

Considering a UAE expansion or relocation?

Send us a DM to assess whether your business model genuinely qualifies for SBR.

In our last post, we left you with a choice: IFZA or ISEZA?

Now let’s look at what actually made the two options different.

IFZA was the broader route.

It offered the flexibility to combine software and IT activities, with a flexi-desk included and AED 17,050 in government fees.

That makes it a practical option when the business needs room to move.

ISEZA was much more specific to the business.

Its activity list included Sports & Entertainment Software Development, Sports Technology Development and Sports & Entertainment AI Development.

For a company built around sports AI, that level of industry alignment matters.

There is no universal winner.

One option gave more flexibility. The other offered a much closer fit with the industry.

Choosing a jurisdiction? We’ll break down the available options, compare the trade-offs and help you find the structure that makes sense for your business.

Talk to us.

Imagine you’re building a sports AI software company and you’ve decided to launch it in the UAE.

You’ve done your research and narrowed the list down to two free zones: IFZA and ISEZA.

Both seem like solid options:
✅ Both offer the licences you need.
✅ Both include visa packages.
✅ Both support tech businesses.

So… how do you choose?

Now let’s add a bit more context.

You need the right business activities, a corporate bank account, one residency visa, a flexi-desk office and a structure that won’t hold you back as the company grows.

Does that change your choice?

Instead of looking for the “best” free zone, we started with something much simpler: understanding the business itself.

1) What services would the company provide?
2) What would the founder need in the first year?
3) And what should the structure support three or five years from now?

So IFZA or ISEZA?

Share your answer in the comments 👇

We’ll reveal our recommendation in the next post.

Corporate tax gets all the attention. In reality, it turns out to cost businesses the most 🤯

Take a software company with a team of 20 people.

A difference between a 15% and 20% corporate tax rate may look significant on paper.

But hiring those 20 employees in France instead of the UAE can cost hundreds of thousands of euros more every year because of employer social contributions alone.

Then there’s VAT 👀

Sell a €100 subscription to a customer in Germany, and you’ll generally charge 19% VAT. Sell the same subscription to a customer in Sweden, and it’s 25%. The money doesn’t belong to the business, it must be collected and remitted to the tax authorities. For SaaS companies selling across Europe, VAT compliance often becomes a bigger operational challenge than corporate income tax.

Or consider dividends 💰

A company may first pay corporate income tax and then face another layer of taxation when profits are distributed to shareholders. In the US, for example, qualified dividends can be taxed at 15–20% federally, while many other countries also apply withholding taxes unless a tax treaty reduces the rate.

The same applies when it’s finally time to sell.

Founders often spend years negotiating valuation, only to discover that capital gains tax depends on how the business was structured long before the acquisition. That’s one reason international groups have historically used holding structures in jurisdictions such as the Netherlands or Luxembourg.

This is also why companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft never built their international tax structures around a single percentage.

They optimised for intellectual property, treaty networks, dividend flows, VAT, withholding taxes and exit planning.

Corporate tax is only one variable 🥲. But the real cost of running a business may become a real shock.

📩 Choosing a jurisdiction by corporate tax alone is like buying a company after reading only its valuation. The interesting part starts after the headline.

Contact us to avoid such a tricky situation.

💼 Where should you incorporate your SaaS?

Here’s a mistake we see all the time:

Founders choose a jurisdiction because they heard it’s “tax-friendly.”

But incorporation isn’t just about taxes.

Take the British Virgin Islands.

In 2026, the EU added BVI to its high-risk AML list. For SaaS companies working with European clients, this can mean:

• More due diligence from banks.
• Additional compliance requests.
• Slower onboarding with payment providers and enterprise customers.

The same company. The same product. A completely different experience just because of the jurisdiction.

Before incorporating, answer four questions:

• Where are your customers?
• Where are the founders tax residents?
• Will you raise VC funding?
• Where will your IP be owned?

The right jurisdiction doesn’t just reduce taxes.

It makes banking easier, fundraising smoother, and international expansion much simpler.

Not sure which jurisdiction fits your SaaS?

💌 DM us. We’ll help you compare the options based on your business model, customers, and growth plans.

The EU spent years building a safer, more transparent digital market.

But here’s the question:

At what point does regulation stop protecting innovation and start slowing it down?

A July 2026 survey by CCIA Europe shows that we are getting close. 79% of tech founders say regulatory complexity has already had a negative impact on their business.

As a result:

• 58% delayed expansion into another EU market.
• 45% postponed or cancelled new product features.
• 44% experienced delayed or lost commercial deals.

None of these companies failed because they ignored the rules.

Many simply underestimated how difficult it would be to operate across multiple jurisdictions.

That’s a pattern we see often.

Founders usually prepare for fundraising, hiring, and product launches. Legal structure and tax planning are often pushed down the priority list until expansion, banking, or due diligence force them back to the top.

Good planning won’t reduce the number of regulations.

But it can reduce the number of times your business has to stop because of them.