Lawyers and accountants are giving conflicting information

[CyprusLaw]

A legal opinion is presented to a client and it presents both sides of a legal issue along with an opinion regarding the legal matter involved. A legal brief is filed with a court and provides only one side of the issue on behalf of the client's position. They both discuss the same law, just from different perspectives. Of course, I already stated this fact in my previous post, but you failed to acknowledge it.

Well, at least you have backed off from your earlier claim, which was utter nonsense:



That is exactly what lawyers do (exploring both sides of a legal issue and rendering an opinion), at least in the U.S.

I would prefer not to continue this argument. In any event the client getting a legal opinion in writing safeguards him to some extend as anything he does will be relying on this opinion.

 

[Golden Fleece]

In any event the client getting a legal opinion in writing safeguards him to some extend as anything he does will be relying on this opinion.

Yes, especially in regards to tax matters:

In a recent 2018 federal court case, a company, Alternative Carbon Resources LLC, was assessed $39 million in penalties despite the fact that the company called the IRS for advice, contacted their local attorney for advice, and even paid for a consultation with a nationally recognized tax attorney. Why would the court uphold $39 million in penalties despite all of the actions taken by the taxpayer in that case? Because the taxpayer did not get a formal tax opinion.

The federal court concluded that, because the taxpayer did not secure a Tax Opinion for a transaction involving a large sum of money, the taxpayer acted neither reasonably nor in good faith.

This is a warning to all taxpayers. You cannot use free consultations to get informal advice with the hope of relying on that to avoid tax penalties. Securing a formal written Tax Opinion is the only guarantee against tax penalties because that’s the exhaustive process by which we thoroughly analyze all relevant facts and law.

https://www.castroandco.com/blog/2019/january/the-necessity-of-tax-opinions/

 

[sujoe]

What you need is an international taxation expert because it involves multiple countries and treaties. US-centric lawyers especially accountants will give wrong advice. I have talked to many US lawyers and accountants as well, they are over zealous on their interpretation on USTB and ECI.

BTW what's your envisioned setup and problem that you think would have? Maybe you can write it here and see if anyone could help with it.

 

[CryptoIsFreedom]

What you need is an international taxation expert because it involves multiple countries and treaties. US-centric lawyers especially accountants will give wrong advice. I have talked to many US lawyers and accountants as well, they are over zealous on their interpretation on USTB and ECI.

BTW what's your envisioned setup and problem that you think would have? Maybe you can write it here and see if anyone could help with it.

Status:

• Employees are from all around the world, including USA & EU as independant contractors
• Need payment processor, Stripe, Paypal to sell digital goods
• Need 0% tax on corporate side
• Looking for a long term scalable solution, business will run 10+ years
• Business will reinvest profits into new products in later years
• Do not want to deal with sales tax, VAT, etc..
• Not related to crypto
• Singapore resident with offshore bank accounts

Setup:

• US LLC payments and operations company
• Can pull money from LLC to offshore bank accounts
• Digital products do not need to collect sales tax or VAT (Conflicting advice here)
• Not subject to federal income and state tax (Conflicting advice here)
• Hiring US citizens: Would hire them as independent contractors (Conflicting advice here)
• Risks: Can get sued. Tax, laws, future unclear

 

[Jerry1911]

Set up a billing company in Singapore and an offshore company somewhere else (principal-agent setup). Contact a tax advisor in Singapore to check what kind of substance you need so that the offshore company isn't resident in Singapore.

0% tax will be hard but keeping it below 5% will be doable. Also I would avoid the US if possible.

 

[sujoe]

Status:

• Employees are from all around the world, including USA & EU as independant contractors
• Need payment processor, Stripe, Paypal to sell digital goods
• Need 0% tax on corporate side
• Looking for a long term scalable solution, business will run 10+ years
• Business will reinvest profits into new products in later years
• Do not want to deal with sales tax, VAT, etc..
• Not related to crypto
• Singapore resident with offshore bank accounts

Setup:

• US LLC payments and operations company
• Can pull money from LLC to offshore bank accounts
• Digital products do not need to collect sales tax or VAT (Conflicting advice here)
• Not subject to federal income and state tax (Conflicting advice here)
• Hiring US citizens: Would hire them as independent contractors (Conflicting advice here)
• Risks: Can get sued. Tax, laws, future unclear

Digital Products. Where are you selling to? If Europe, Yes. US, depending on the states. You don't need advice from them here, just use quaderno or taxjar to calculate. Or even beter, use Paddle.

As for Federal taxes, it depends on the exact nature of the digital product, but generally no. There's a proposed regulation on digital content in 2019, which clarify up a lot of things. If you pm me, i will send you the notes. Although it has not yet been finalized, but it generally meant that is the stance taken by IRS and Treasury.

Hiring US independent contractors, incidentally i'm researching into this as well, but my inclination is no, would be better if there's a tax treaty between US and the other country, but since you want to do it in a offshore jurisdiction, so that's out of the question.

Bigger risks here I see here though is Singapore.

 

[CryptoIsFreedom]

Digital Products. Where are you selling to? If Europe, Yes. US, depending on the states.

Both Europe and all states. Basically a cheap but widely used worldwide product.

You don't need advice from them here, just use quaderno or taxjar to calculate. Or even beter, use Paddle.

I'll check them out. Are these usually only used while doing yearly accounting?

As for Federal taxes, it depends on the exact nature of the digital product, but generally no.

Freemium, subscription, buying extra features.

There's a proposed regulation on digital content in 2019, which clarify up a lot of things. If you pm me, i will send you the notes. Although it has not yet been finalized, but it generally meant that is the stance taken by IRS and Treasury.

I'll pm

Hiring US independent contractors, incidentally i'm researching into this as well, but my inclination is no, would be better if there's a tax treaty between US and the other country, but since you want to do it in a offshore jurisdiction, so that's out of the question.

Bigger risks here I see here though is Singapore.

What risks do you see?

 

[uplana]

To get back to thread title.

From my personal experience I can say that if you get the wrong lawyer or CPA you will get conflicting information from them, to give an example. I asked one CPA if it was okay to legally accept bitcoins (back 3 years ago) and he said, we don't know, better don't touch it since it is illegal.

I was surprised, then I consulted another CPA, it was a large firm, they knew about bitcoins and told me the way to accept them for my legal business.

As you can read, would I have lessoned to the first I would have lost business and money!