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Questions regarding Delaware LLC

#21
#23
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#24
zeeoffshore said:
Hello,

I'm a non-US resident based in Beirut and I'm looking to incorporate an LLC in Delaware. The nature of the business is consultancy services targeting the Middle East and Africa region i.e. all our clients are outside the US and we won't have any business activity in the US. Could you please provide me with the information below?
1- Can I own the LLC alone without having any partner who is a US resident?
2- What are the total annual taxes and fees to pay?
3- Do we have to pay any income tax if we don't do any business activity in the US and all our income is coming from other countries?
4- Can we open a corporate bank account remotely without travelling to the US?
5- Can we open the bank account in any state or it should be in Delaware?
6- Can we easily send money from our bank account in the US to our bank account in Lebanon? Are there any restrictions?

Please advise.
Thank you.
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I'm not an expert in this area, but will answer to the best of my knowledge, so additional research is likely required for you.

1. Yes
2. I believe in the hundreds of dollars
3. Yes and no. Not in America, but Yes for Lebanon or wherever you are a tax resident of
4. Possibly, but my understanding is that there is a crackdown for the banks. This will depend on the size of the money you intend to move. You are a Lebanese person. You come from a country where the average banker thinks terrorist financier, Hezbollah or something like that when they see your passport/name person. They will have to do a bunch of due diligience on you to ensure you aren't a terrorist or you are not a front for Hezbollah washing their money in the US financial system. This means extra cost, this means you better have at least 20-30k USD+ for them to want to even take the time and effort to mess with your account.
5. I believe any state. But you may run into problems. Other posters who are American may clarify this for you, but my preliminary research suggests many banks will not want to open a bank account for a foreign national LLC, they know nothing about, especially if you come from a terrorist hotbed (no offense intended). Now add on that you have an anonymous LLC, how are you even going to prove ownership or that you are the director?
6. This is the worse part. You have an anonymous LLC, your bank in Lebanon is likely to stop the money because of anti-terrorism and anti-laundering rules. The bank is going to see an anonymous company sending you 30k a month. That just screams terrorism laundering. They will then ask you for more and more documentation and demand to know who is this person sending you the money, they will demand more and more information until you basically give them everything. At this point, it is 50-50. 50% chance they are happy with your documents which won't show you as the director or owner from an anonymous business they cannot prove you own or are even tied to. 50% chance they shut your account and deny the transaction.

This also makes it useless for purposes of dodging taxes. I get the feeling you might be trying to use it for that purpose. This is not 1979 anymore, you cannot just stick your funds into a foreign account or under a different name and not get caught. Even if you kept your account transfer under the 10k reporting number, they might still flag you for consistently receiving 2k-9k a month = structuring. There are ways to legitimately reduce your taxes down to zero, but hiding it in a US LLC and then wiring it back in a manner you are all but certain to be caught doing it, is not it. Also, once the tax authorities flag your wires, the next step is going to be to go to your bankers and pull all the documents the bank demanded you turn over in #6 to prove you own it. See, they will call you and pretend they don't know, so they can catch you on the record lying, then, even if you beat the tax case, they will catch you for sure for lying to investigators and misleading them, perjury etc.

If you are going to dodge your taxes your better bet would be to just put the money into the USA LLC, and buy a "stash house" in USA in a good neighbourhood, withdraw your money from the account and buy a safe and bury it under your basement floor. You know, like that Chinese drug king ping in Mexico did. You'd not owe uncle sam anything as you don't live in usa, didn't earn the money there, so they'd probably not touch you.

Essentially, by sending the money back to Lebanon, you defeat the main possible tax advantages you could gain from the LLC. Why don't you just relocate to Dubai?
 
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#25
Fajosst said:
1) Yes, you can.

2) If you create a single member LLC, you do not have to pay any tax. But you must fill out the forms (I don't remember which one specifically). Fill out the form for information purposes and avoid problems. But there are no taxes to pay with a non-US and non-resident single member LLC.

If you open a multi-member LLC you must pay taxes (Forms 1065, 1040NR, 8804,8805,8813,etc), then open a single member LLC to avoid taxes.

3) If you open a single member LLC, you do not have to pay taxes, just fill out an information form. If you open a multi-member LLC, or a corporation you need to pay taxes on revenues from any country.

4) I have had an LLC-Delaware for 3 years, I could not create a bank account. The only option I found is Mercury, look into this new EMI.

You can open a bank account with Stripe Atlas, but if you create a company with Stripe Atlas, you will have to pay corporation tax and you will lose the tax benefits I mentioned in 2).

So if you want a bank account, travel to the United States. Or try TW, Payoneer and Mercury.

5) I believe in any state. But I'm not sure.

6) It depends on which bank you create the bank account, you should ask them. If you use TW (Transferwise) for example, there will be no problems.
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Why couldn't you get a bank account with your Delaware LLC?
 
#26
Hi,
I am not the guy who opened this thread but I have the same problem as him. We both have lebanese passport and living in Lebanon.
Regarding your question "Why couldn't you get a bank account with your Delaware LLC ", do you mean personal account? It is much more difficult to open a personal account than a company account as far as I know.

Any way, you said in your answer of the point 4 above that it is not easy to open an account for the company in US. I beleive it is the same or worse for personal account. Also, I opened a thread under "Offshore Bank Accounts & EMI Accounts" (offshore bank account with a passport from middle east) and I had a confirmation that it is not easy to open an account neither in normal bank nor in EMIs when we are in the following case :
Delaware LLC + lebanese passport + Lebanese Residency
Please have a look on this thread.

Any way, I decided to contact different EMIs explaining the situation and see if they would accept to open an account for me. I've alreadt got the answer from Mollie. They don't accept this configuration even if I replace delaware US by an european country.

Regards
 
#27
FRANCO said:
Hi,
I am not the guy who opened this thread but I have the same problem as him. We both have lebanese passport and living in Lebanon.
Regarding your question "Why couldn't you get a bank account with your Delaware LLC ", do you mean personal account? It is much more difficult to open a personal account than a company account as far as I know.

Any way, you said in your answer of the point 4 above that it is not easy to open an account for the company in US. I beleive it is the same or worse for personal account. Also, I opened a thread under "Offshore Bank Accounts & EMI Accounts" (offshore bank account with a passport from middle east) and I had a confirmation that it is not easy to open an account neither in normal bank nor in EMIs when we are in the following case :
Delaware LLC + lebanese passport + Lebanese Residency
Please have a look on this thread.

Any way, I decided to contact different EMIs explaining the situation and see if they would accept to open an account for me. I've alreadt got the answer from Mollie. They don't accept this configuration even if I replace delaware US by an european country.

Regards
Click to expand...
I mean a business account not personal.

I was talking about corporate LLC business accounts and how hard/easy it would be to open such an account for a foreigner in the USA.

So Mollie bank said no?

I'm surprised no banks are really that open to permitting this. Like are there really that many criminals in the financial sector seeking to wash funds.
 
#38
dvm said:
What is the account owner verification procedure at this EMI?

Also, do you know if they allow receiving incoming transfers in a currency other than USD with automatic conversion to USD in the middle?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure, but I think Mercury agrees to receive transfers in EUR. I think you could create a balance in EUR and another in USD, but it would be better to confirm this information.

Keep in mind that you need to have a business with revenue from the US to be accepted at Mercury. My account was approved but when I tried to receive the first transfer I knew this and they rejected the transfer because my ecommerce has no US customers.
 
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