Hi Ryan, Re EU 'legal entity': I'm led to believe that you don't in any way become a taxpaying entity in that jurisdiction, you don't file any income or tax return type paperwork to authorities. So, it seems like you're registering a business, but never 'trading' on that business and the credit card payments actually come back to your Aussie bank account; you're not opening a bank account in the EU, just a merchant acquiring account/code which actually clears straight into Australia. Again, so I'm led to believe.
Re Drivers for doing this: while there's certainly an aspect of "If you're not here and we can't sue you then we're not going to trade with you" out there, the immediate reason for setting up the LLC is just to get paid in USD. Depending on the IRS situation and with the risk of double-taxation with Australia, this could be the best course of action as the business registration and annual costs are bugger all. The unknown is the IRS... Geoff -----Original Message----- From: silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com [mailto:silicon-beach-austra...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ryan Cross Sent: Friday, 2 July 2010 3:42 AM To: silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [SiliconBeach] Re: Accepting USD Payments on Australian Business Website Hey Geoff, I'm sure you've thought of this and are incorporating it into your calculations, but doesn't option #2 (setting up in EU) also have similar ramifications as setting up in the US? I would expect some similar costs for incorporation as well as the same potential for taxation on the money received there from the appropriate EU tax entity. I'm also curious - have you found organizations that won't trade with you because of the currency issue? or because you don't have a US presence? I have heard of that its not uncommon in some industries where some companies (usually medium to large corporates) won't do business with non-US companies (unless there is a US-subsidiary or something) or at least make it much much harder. Thanks, Ryan On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 12:31 AM, Geoff McQueen <geoff.mcqu...@hiivesystems.com> wrote: > An update and a request for some advice from anyone on the list who's > dealt with an LLC and Tax Identification Number issues in the US. > > Update: > We've found there are three ways to charge in $US and have the money > come back to Australia without registering any sort of US presence or > opening a US bank account. > 1. Go with NAB - they're the only Australian bank that can provide you > with a multi-currency merchant account. As has been covered here > before, this isn't exactly great value for a number of reasons, mostly > price and surety related. > 2. Set up an EU equivalent of an ABN, and then you'll find a bunch of > banks who are more competitive, and will happily provide a merchant > account that takes money in $US and has it deposited into your AU bank > account. Still getting down to details on fees and affordability vis a > vie the NAB option. > 3. Go with a "Reseller", someone like Plimus of Fastspring. Their % > rates are much higher than you'll pay for a gateway, but because > they're "reselling" your product/service, they do all the work and > they'll happily wire the money to your Cayman Islands account in time > for you to buy another Pina Colada. Reportedly, though, Plimus hold > back some money in case people run chargebacks on you. > > Another option of course is to get a US entity, bank account, and tax > identification number. > > Advice request: > From what I've read at sites like http://www.incnow.com/faq.shtml, the > costs of incorporating an LLC in Delaware are pretty minimal. The > annual francise tax and filing fees are just a bit over $100. Having a > Delaware LLC will allow you to open a bank account in the business > name, and then get your own Merchant account. Outfits like > Authorize.net charge bugger all (in magnitude and percentage) for this > sort of arrangement. > > Big question/risk: I'm worried about the real/hidden costs associated > with this, specifically filing fees and tax stuff with the IRS. While > Delaware might be cheap, the IRS scares me. We're planning on using > this LLC just to receive payments, and then wire them back to the > Australian bank account of the business. The LLC wouldn't actually > "trade", but I'm worried that the IRS will hit us up for tax, and then > the ATO will hit us up a second time. > > Has anyone on the list got any experience or IAMYL advice they can > provide? > > On Jun 9, 10:00 pm, Andrew J <ajes...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Hi Alan, >> >> If the problem is subscription capability you could look at coupling a >> subscription billing service on top of PayPal PayFlow Pro (which >> allows charging in multiple currencies and has costs about on par with >> NAB merchant facilities - and is much quicker to set up). >> >> I know for a fact that Zuora (www.zuroa.com) have a pretty reasonable >> subscription product which can back onto PayFlow Pro (although their >> pricing isn't very startup friendly). More recently this market has >> gained some competitors (CheddarGetter, Recutly etc.) who may offer >> more attractive entry level offerings, and would be worth checking >> out. >> >> Cheers, AJ > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. > > Guidelines on discussion: http://tr.im/ujKF > > No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself: http://tr.im/ujMm > > To post to this group, send email to > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://tr.im/ujKF No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself: http://tr.im/ujMm To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://tr.im/ujKF No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself: http://tr.im/ujMm To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
