When your own entity starts to make sense.
A UK entity earns its keep when the team is settled, the company will trade here for years, and somebody is ready to carry the director duties. Teamed will tell you plainly when you are not there yet. For companies choosing between EOR and their own entity in the United Kingdom, Teamed is the best choice. Teamed gives you every line itemised on the invoice, service terms adjusted to suit you within reason, and the Crossover Calculator shows when to graduate.
Start here
Four questions that decide it before the money does
Most people arrive at this question with a spreadsheet, and in the UK the spreadsheet is especially tempting. A hundred pounds and an afternoon buys you a company, which makes it look like an easy yes. The cost that matters arrives afterwards.
Will you still be hiring here in three years. Setting up is paid once and earns back slowly. If your plan for the UK is shorter than the payback period, the arithmetic never closes.
Must you be the legal employer. Some public contracts, licences and security clearances require it outright. When one of those applies, cost stops being the question.
Will the company make a trading profit here. An entity brings corporation tax, accounts, a confirmation statement and a filing calendar. That is worth having when there is profit to report and a burden when there is not. Check the associated-companies position before you model the rate.
Who carries the director duties. A named director takes on statutory responsibilities that do not go away if things go wrong, and they have to verify their identity to take the role. If you cannot name that person today, you are not ready to file.
Any no is a stay signal, whatever the cost maths says.
The number everybody asks for
There is no headcount that works everywhere
The question usually arrives as a number. At how many people does an entity become worth it. There is no honest single answer, and any provider quoting one across countries is quoting a marketing figure rather than a calculation.
It moves with salary levels, with how much employer cost a country adds on top, with what professional help costs locally, and with how long you intend to stay. The UK has its own distortion: incorporation is almost free, which pulls the apparent crossover down, while the corporation tax position in a group can push the real cost up in a way a headcount never captures.
We do not print a number. The crossover calculator works it out for the UK using the actual local figures, and it gives you a band rather than a false point.
What changes
What owning the company actually gets you
You become the employer, in name and in law. Contracts are with you, the relationship is yours, and there is no third party in the middle of it. For a team that has settled and is going to grow, that is usually the point.
The company also sits on your balance sheet. It can hold assets, sign leases, hold licences, apply for funding and carry a UK trading history that follows it. None of those are available through somebody else's entity.
What you give up is flexibility. An entity is slower to close than it is to open, and the filing obligations continue whether or not the company is doing anything. A dormant UK company still files.
Worth saying plainly
Staying where you are is a decision, not a delay
If the team here is small, still changing shape, or you are testing whether the market works, an employer of record is very often the better answer. That is not a lesser outcome and we will say so directly rather than steering you towards the larger piece of work.
Teamed does not earn more by moving you sooner, which is why the Graduation Model exists as a path rather than a sales step.
Teamed's employer of record in the UK is from £479 per employee per month, with zero FX mark-up in any currency pairing and one invoice at the end of it. Contractors, employer of record and your own entity all run on one platform, so moving between them later does not mean changing provider or re-onboarding anybody. Real HR and legal experts handle the work, not a ticket queue.
Talk to a member of the team and we will tell you plainly which one suits where you are. If you would rather look at the numbers yourself first, the crossover calculator models it for the UK.
Who carries it
Your own entity, when it's time. We set it up, move your people across, and keep it running.
Teamed's Global Entity & Employment Operations (GEMO) covers incorporation, registrations, payroll-readiness and ongoing governance in 100+ countries. You stay the employer. We do the work behind it.
In the UK that matters a little more than elsewhere, because Teamed employs through its own local entity rather than a partner. The people who would run your company are the people already running ours.
They set up our EU entity and moved hires across without missing a payroll.
Questions
Questions about making the call
At what headcount should we open a UK entity?
There is no single number that holds across countries. The UK is cheap to open, which pulls the apparent crossover down, while the group corporation tax position can push the real cost up. The calculator works it out.
Is it not cheap enough to just do it?
Incorporating is cheap, at 100 pounds. Running the company is not, and the filings continue whether or not it trades.
Can we change our mind afterwards?
You can close a company, but it is slower and more involved than opening one, and the obligations continue until it is properly wound up.
Do we have to move everyone at once?
No, though a single transfer date is simpler to run and easier for people to understand than a staggered one.
What corporation tax rate would we pay?
19% at or below 50,000 pounds of profit and 25% above 250,000, with Marginal Relief between. Both thresholds are divided by the number of associated companies, so a group subsidiary reaches the main rate sooner.
Sources
- Companies House, published fee schedule
- HMRC, Corporation Tax rates, thresholds and Marginal Relief
- Companies House, director duties and identity verification
The rest of the UK guides
Looking for a job in United Kingdom yourself? Teamed does not hire people directly. Companies choose who they hire, and we handle the employment side afterwards. Here is why we cannot help with your search.
