Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie doesn’t seem to be getting any easier time even after becoming one of the world’s biggest online entertainers with more than 108 million subscribers on his Youtube channel, firmly placing him as the most subscribed individual creator and 2nd most subscribed channel on the platform.
As per a report from Input Mag, PewDiePie’s UK-based PewDie UK Ltd. is planning to move its base of operations from the UK to Cyprus.
According to the report, PewDiePie being the director of the company since April 2019 has appointed two new directors to the company — Andreas Menelaou and Kseniia Milevska — to help him reduce his tax bill. It is believed that PewDie UK Ltd. is looking to migrate its base to the newly elected director’s correspondence address of Andreas Menelaou LLC in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Tax expert Nimesh Shah, CEO of Blick Rothenberg, told Input Mag that PewDie UK Ltd. is likely moving to Cyprus to take advantage of the reduced tax rates of 12.5% — 50% lower than the UK’s 19% taxation.
“From a tax perspective, what I think they’re trying to do is they’re trying to migrate this UK company to Cyprus,” said Nimesh Shah. “If the decisions, the overall management, and strategic decisions are conducted outside the UK, you can migrate that company outside the UK for tax purposes, and therefore the UK lets go of it and corporation tax.”
However, it is not yet possible to point out the plans of PewDie UK, but it’s worth noting that this is not an illegal procedure and is incredibly common for companies earning a certain amount of money to register themselves in offshore accounts so as to enjoy reduced tax rates.
Although it is legal, this procedure is generally viewed as “tax stealing” by residents of the country and can damage the reputation of the company. So a lot of these companies try to keep it as secret as possible and never publicly announce these moves. It is unlikely PewDiePie or the PewDie UK will be announcing this move.
