

Ask YC: Has anyone incorporated as a Vermont Virtual Company? - iamelgringo

I'm setting up an online store, and I need an merchant account to accept credit cards.  I've thought about  incorporating as a Vermont Virtual Corporation or LLC, I don't know any one else that has done this.<p>Anyone here done this?  Tips, tricks, caveats?
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blurry
If your goal is to simply set up a merchant account, you don't need to
register a corp/LLC. You can just go to your local city hall and obtain a DBA
(doing business as). The DBA will allow you to open a bank account, which in
turn will allow you to open a merchant account.

Long-term, I would advise to register an umbrella corp/LLC and obtain a DBA
for each of your websites. In my experience, most banks do not understand that
a single company can operate multiple domain names so eventually you end up
with multiple corporations and LLCs just so that you can maintain multiple
merchant accounts. DBAs are a much simpler and cheaper way to get around this.

The main benefit of this setup is that you can still do offline work (e.g.
consulting) where you live. Since you are required to foreign-quality in every
state you do business in, it wouldn't help you to incorporate in Vermont if
you have local clients in another state - you'd just be doubling your
paperwork, yearly filing fees, taxes, etc.

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thepanister
I am selling online, and I am not even American, and I never been in America
before!

Apply for Employr identification no., and then apply for PayPal Payments pro.
It will cost you around $30/mo.

Also you can have it hosted on Yahoo! stores/ small business - which is
invented by PG - former known as viaweb :D

I think this is a good, fast and reliable solution for you.

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dchest
Did you get a bank account in the US? If so, how?

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thepanister
Good question!

I asked my best friend - which is American - to do it using her personal info,
so she created a bank account specially for it, and she applied for EIN, for
the taxes.

I am from Egypt, and Paypal is not even enabled for Egyptians, so it could be
impossible for me to do it, without the help of "someone American".

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dchest
Thanks for info! For the same reason (PayPal for businesses is not available
in Russia), I have a reseller contract with a company that accepts payments,
including PayPal.

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thepanister
I think that Godaddy offers a service for international merchants who want to
sell online. I am not sure if their service is reliable or not, but it's
expensive anyway.

If you know someone American who trust you so much and vice versa, then you
can do the same I did. Believe me, I never met that friend in real life,
because I never been in America!

