VAT is a mess, though. definitely. but then you hire an accountant and you get VAT + all that other tax stuff "abstracted" away for a very reasonable cost.
Q: In function, how does the popularity-based sorting differ from feedly's current popularity algorithm?
The Idea behind my popularity algorithm is that I don't want to calculate what is popular among the Users of my service. Instead I want to estimate what is popular with the original User base of each Feed you subscribe to. I think the average User base of The New York Times is different from the typical reddit, twitter or facebook crowd. So this should be an interesting Differentiator.
Fingers crossed that you're also going to have an eye for security
If you need a legal presence in the US it's actually easiest to start two companies, one on each side of the pond, with one of them owning the other.
You should definitely go to a tax consultant knowing this stuff if you consider doing such things.
What the US does do, however (as I understand it), is tax you on the difference between the income tax you pay in a foreign country and what you would pay if you were in the US. In other words, living in a foreign country with lower income tax than the US won't let you avoid paying at least as much income tax as if you were still in the US. (And if you move somewhere with higher taxes the US won't charge you any extra (nor give you tax credits! :P).)
0 - https://www.irs.gov/Businesses/International-Businesses/Unit...
Note that Foratis does not do the VAT registration for you, like some other shelf corporation providers. I didn't realize this and it became a minor pain. Whatever you do, budget for a competent Steuerberater. DIY is nearly impossible unless you have strong German skills, and even my native business owner friends don't DIY when it comes to Finanzamt dealings :)
* No required minimum capital
* Different name (which signals business partners that you didn't put down the minimum for a GmbH)
* You have to leave 25% of the company's earnings in the company until you reach 25k
Everything else, including all possible agreements between the owners is the same.
Now Spain won't lose much by losing my business, but if everyone's as terrified as I was when trying to incorporate in Spain, suddenly it makes sense that they lack foreign investment.
IR35 is self employment (its a tax law not an employment law) and in the UK your first two years effectively at will.
Have you actually run a proper company (ie one that employs some one other than you) in the UK doesn't sound like it
* registration of a limited company is not that simple in some countries. UK is relatively easy, but in Germany you need to invest at least 25,000 EUR just to get started. Half of it upfront. Not to mention notary fees and other red tape.
* VAT is a huge pain since 2015, especially for digital goods and services. Look up VAT MOSS aka #vatmess
* language - if you want to cater to a wider audience, localization is still a major aspect and costs a lot in terms of development, content, support etc
* employment rules are usually much more strict. This is generally positive for employed individuals, but when it comes to a small business trying to work with freelancers (or freelancers themselves), they are massive hurdles. I'm familiar with IR35 in the UK, but there's pretty much the same thing here in Germany without having a fancy name... I'm pretty sure similar rules apply in other EU countries as well, but have no actual knowledge about other countries.
Source: being a small fish entrepreneur in Israel, UK and Germany.
EDIT I should also add currency support. Whilst the EUR covers a fair number of countries, there are still exceptions...