mostlikely going with belize...but a few questions...

[SilviaH]

Greetings everyone,


I'm thinking Belize for now, because complete privacy will not be needed; and I prefer something close rather than far away.


I'm still very new to all of this, but do want to do things legally. My eventual plan in case my business is very successful is much more complex, but for now I'm seeking something simple that is cost efficient, close rather than far away, that will do two things:


- help me keep a global focus and presence; rather than just having a USA company.


- help me avoid double taxation. I'm still going to be paying personal income taxes because I live in the USA right now on money I personally make with my offshore company; but I'd rather not be double taxed. (corporate and individual income tax) .


- protect my assets for when I travel in the future and avoid me being tied down to one country.


So here are my questions:


- From what I understand Belize does not charge corporate tax on the companies that are operated and owned by people outside of Belize.


- I believe if the company is outside of the USA the USA won't charge corporate tax on it either.


Is that true?


- I know that I still have to pay individual income tax on earnings (salary) from the company here in the USA while I live here. But what about dividends and other forms of compensation? Are those taxed too?


- I know there is a problem with using some payment processors with an offshore company -- but what if I create a USA branch of operations through my home office? Would that help with the payment processing...? Would that make the income brought through that local office / payment processor be subject to USA corporate tax? Would I have to re - register the business here in America to have a local branch for my offshore company? Would I be able to use the offshore account to legally purchase things for my company here in the USA to help set things up over here? Would customers here in the USA be distrusting of a main office/company registered overseas?


The company will be a membership website with some offline presence and events that will occur offline too. There will be affiliate/sales commissions paid to those who help sell the memberships.


So Confused! Please Help :0 .


SH ---

 

[JohnLocke]

- From what I understand Belize does not charge corporate tax on the companies that are operated and owned by people outside of Belize.

Correct, if a company is registered as IBC in Belize / Offshore it dosen't pay any tax there, so most are companies in Belize are registered offshore.

- I believe if the company is outside of the USA the USA won't charge corporate tax on it either.

I will assume you get income taxed personally on the profit earnings in the company by the US Tax auth.


I hope someone else can supply with US tax laws, I'm not very strong in that... but for the payment processing issue, you are right, it is almost impossible to get any reliable payment processing option for a offshore company regardless if it is located in Belize, Seychelles, BVI, Panama etc. what you will want to look into is to register a US company and apply for a merchant account for credit card processing for this company, that may give you the most reliable and cheapest rates and fees, also your options are more, for instant authorize net is a great payment gateway to use in the US and you will find lot's of MAP's supporting this gateway.

 

[SilviaH]

Greetings everyone,


Admin Said:


>I will assume you get income taxed personally on the profit earnings in the company by the US Tax auth.


Yes, income taxes here in the USA are a given. That's not something I'm trying to avoid, as it's easy to go to a tax person and have them do it for me. I even know the basics of ways to legally reduce personal tax owed via Charity contributions and some Schedule C write-offs but the tax code in the USA is very complicated. For that aspect I'll be looking for a good tax person here in the USA. It's the actual corporate set up that's very confusing; I was seeking for one that would avoid the heavy corporate tax and sheer amount of headache of paperwork and red tape of setting up a USA company. I did a Non-for-profit here once and it was an utter headache; even with help, two additional officers AND a hired lawyer! All it did was cost me multiple thousands of dollars, months of my time and more aggravation than anything else I ever did in my life. Then when it didn't make it, somehow I ended up being responsible for the non profit's debt; still to this day have no clue how the heck that happened; since we had been incorporated. This time I won't have additional officers and will be trying to conduct business worldwide; which will be much more complicated than that was. So, no I'm not keen on going through *ALL* that again, which was why I was seeking offshore opportunities that have much easier reporting and paperwork requirements so I could focus on actually creating a quality product and service and focus on the customer serving of the business side of things.


I sure hope the payment processor issue won't make it impossible to set up offshore.... but I have a feeling it will just make things slightly more complicated in the initial set up.


If anyone else knows more about this, please let me know.... I'll be looking more into the payment processors issue in the meanwhile...


SH ---

 

[stuntbiker]

First look for the payment processor and payment gateway and then look for the offshore jurisdiction, that is the right order to do things