
Ask HN: Where to Register a Company When Being a Traveling Digital Nomad? - dnohr
Do you have any recommendation on where in the world to register a company when being a traveling digital nomad and EU citizen in Asia?<p>I&#x27;ve been reading a bit about the Hong Kong and Singapore company structures, which both offer low tax and flexibility. I would like to hear more about it from experienced people.<p>Thanks.
======
Radim
You should be asking questions about your tax domicile, double taxation
treaties, your personal legal status w.r.t. to this company, cost of
extracting personal profits from this company, can you get a bank account as
non-resident, VAT rules etc.

Lots of variables there.

Tax offices in most countries have ways of ignoring cute little "bulletproof"
accounting setups, throwing the book at you even retroactively (money, even
jail time).

I mean, if you're a small fish, you may well slip under the radar. But
obviously you're asking for trouble if you set up a company somewhere, hoping
for the best, because someone on HN suggested "country XYZ, low taxes!".

For what it's worth, I "digitally nomaded" through Asia on tourist visas,
acting as my normal, home legal entity. No problems. But don't take that as
legal advice :)

~~~
driznar
Exactly.

For example you don't charge VAT for intra-EU invoices and in practically
every EU country you're liable to pay taxes there in case you stay there for
more than 183 days. There's just no blanket solution here - at least not at
the small-fish level.

------
qengho
Panama offers a super easy residence visa to citizens of 48 "friendly"
countries. If your primary country of residence is Panama, you don't have to
pay taxes on non-Panama-sourced income (as long as your country of citizenship
doesn't tax you on your worldwide income as a non-resident). Panama
corporations also don't pay taxes on non-Panama-sourced income.

From Panama City it's a 2.5 hour flight to Miami, 5 hours to New York /
Toronto, about 7 hours to LA / Vegas, 10 hours to Amsterdam. Copa airlines has
its base in Panama city and operates direct flights to many US and South
American destinations.

A lot of people in Panama speak English so it's fairly easy to get by even if
you don't know much Spanish. I found people in Panama City to be very friendly
and helpful. Panama City also has great infrastructure, Internet, roads,
apartments..

If you're a citizen of one of the 48 "friendly" countries you can be a legal
permanent resident in Panama is a matter of months for under $5000.

And if your profession / business is global and online, you can likely break
free of highway-robbery tax rates and the mind-numbing, time-wasting
accounting / reporting requirements of your home country by moving to Panama.

Unfortunately for US citizens, they're still on the hook for US taxes even if
non-resident in the US. But for citizens of 47 other countries, Panama is just
about the #1 easiest and most practical residence option on the planet at the
moment.

Search for "Panama Friendly Nations Visa".

~~~
ameen
What're the alternatives for those from other countries? Would getting a
Permanent Residency be the only issue?

~~~
diginomad2015
Do I really need residence somewhere? What if I live 3 months in each country?

Notice also that I left my home country 15 years ago, and have been a legal
resident of 3 other countries during that time. I wonder if I just forget
about residency altogether. I can't find a clear answer for that.

------
jMyles
I haven't checked on the state of e-Estonia in a few months, but I think
they're trying to be the place for this sort of thing? They're rolling out the
services later this year I believe.

[https://e-estonia.com/e-residents/opportunities/](https://e-estonia.com/e-residents/opportunities/)

~~~
kermorvan
The idea has merit, but it's not quite there yet. For one thing, you will have
to physically visit a police department in Estonia in order to get your
E-residency card - TWICE.

Once to file an application and then it will take up to 14 days for them to
perform a background check. After which you will again have to physically
appear at a police station in Estonia.

In the future this can supposedly be done through Estonian embassies but those
are not exactly everywhere either.

~~~
mrtron
They are changing the rules so you do not need to physically be there. I
believe that is already in place.

------
tiernano
Ireland? CRO[1] gives details about registering a company and the
requirements, and the New Companies Bill of 2014[2] will make things easier
for smaller companies.

[1]:
[https://www.cro.ie/Registration/Overview](https://www.cro.ie/Registration/Overview)
[2]: [https://www.cro.ie/New-Act-2014/Overview](https://www.cro.ie/New-
Act-2014/Overview)

~~~
driznar
I was told by a guy who used to contract in Ireland, that there's a heavy
crack-down on contractors working through their own Ltd's happening in
Ireland, since they want you to pay taxes as a normal employee. Something
worth considering, since it could also apply to foreign-generated income.

~~~
walterbell
Would that apply to group of contractors?

~~~
driznar
I'm not sure what you mean - this applies at least to IT contractors.

------
charlesdm
This depends highly on your country of citizenship, as well as country of
residence.

Americans have it different than most others, because they are taxed globally.

A true 'digital nomad' without set residency somewhere might also encounter
problems, because certain countries might challenge the tax treatment of
certain transactions. (depends on if you're selling your own stuff, or doing
consulting, for example)

Talk to a lawyer (or law firm), see legal500.com (-> tax) for some
recommendations. A firm in the country you're currently residing in is a good
starting point.

------
durdn
Derek Sivers has been working on providing this sort of data for a few years.
He created [https://woodegg.com/books](https://woodegg.com/books) first and
now apparently that effort is converging into
[http://gotolaunch.in/](http://gotolaunch.in/)

------
taxtaxtax
For Americans, what would an ideal structure be?

We're taxed on personal income worldwide, with small exemptions for living
overseas/based on tax treaties, etc.

But on the corporate side, can you incorporate in a 0% tax location, then
leave the money in the corporation? You'll be taxed when you pull it out, but
if you leave it in then you have a larger capital base to re-invest, and can
grow the money faster. Then worry about taxes when you take the money out.

Is this plausible? Can you own the corporation outright without any tax
implications, or would it be more ideal to put it in a trust or foundation
type of ownership structure?

And obviously a lot of here us are doing digital/mostly online businesses.
Could you open a US based LLC that is a subsidiary of the foreign company, for
passing through Stripe payments, and for managing your salary payments?

------
mariocesar
I can't give you and advice. But I'm observing a lot of foreign companies
(software agencies) getting full residence in Bolivia like Cochabamba y Santa
Cruz de la Sierra, I had friends working as full time programmers and doing
consulting for this companies, and I had heard a lot that the owners prefers
to stay here and pay taxes here, for what I know is useful for UK, Canadian
and France citizens.

Here in Boliva we typically complaint about taxes management and government
regulation, but looks like is a breeze compared to other countries.

------
decentrality
It would be extremely helpful to know what the company you wish to form does.
If it's product-based that's very different from service-based... and if it's
an intangible product that'll be very different from a tangible one.

If not legally, in practice. With the nomadic piece, you have a certain amount
of momentum that makes it hard to pinpoint your origin, so you might be giving
up freedoms by putting a flag in the ground when you don't need to.

------
g4k
Hong Kong incorporation is easy and not expensive. Tax regulations are
interesting, too.

You find a few more details here:
[http://www.guidemehongkong.com/](http://www.guidemehongkong.com/)

~~~
rahimnathwani
There is some info on this page about the various annual expenses for a Hong
Kong company. These include at least (i) virtual office, (ii) accounts
preparation and (iii) accounts audit. You could do (ii) yourself but you need
to pay someone to do (i) and (iii), unless you live in Hong Kong and are a
Hong Kong registered auditor.

------
kintamanimatt
Now? Estonia. Hands down, Estonia. Although I haven't done it myself yet, I
intend to, simply because it now makes an incredible amount of sense.

In case you don't know already, Estonia is offering an e-residency
program[-2]. For the time-being it requires a quick trip to Estonia to get
this (and it's open to everybody regardless of nationality), but afterwards
you can run and administer a company remotely with this smart card. (Bonus
points for the fact the smart card reader plays nicely with Linux as well as
OS X and Windows.) Soon you won't even need to show up in Estonia, but will be
able to register as an e-resident at one of their consulates.

Estonia have made it pretty straightforward to run a business there and it
doesn't appear to be especially expensive to start an Estonian company either.
To the best of my knowledge you can deal with the government entirely online
and IIRC in English too. (This is a big deal because some English-speaking
countries like the Netherlands have tax offices that are forbidden from
speaking English unless they come out to you in person, even though all the
staff are fluent. I hear this might change in the Netherlands in the future.)

Banking in Estonia appears to be awesome and developed. Stripe isn't there
yet, but Paymill is.

Estonians are fluent in English and just about everything the government,
banks, etc publish online is in English. The Estonian government even
translates some of their laws (like the ones pertaining to companies) to
English too. They might be translating others but I've just never looked.

Taxes aren't super low, but are pretty sensible and IIRC corporate profits
aren't taxed until they're distributed. [-1]

To the best of my knowledge, Estonia didn't really implement the EU cookie
directive. They got a slap on the wrist for it but no Estonian site (even big
bank and government sites) has those "y'all accept cookies?" banners. That's a
good sign.

The biggest downside to Estonia is its size. It's going to be a ghastly
nightmare to hire a decent number of staff if you want them to be all in the
same building in Estonia, but hey, why not just run a 100% remote company? But
cross that bridge if and when you come to it. You can always just open up
offices in other cities around Europe or other places.

[-2]
[https://e-estonia.com/e-residents/e-residency/](https://e-estonia.com/e-residents/e-residency/)

[-1]
[http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documen...](http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Tax/dttl-
tax-estoniahighlights-2014.pdf)

~~~
DocG
if you manage to get smart card,

Registering company ~186 euros. time ~15minutes online with smart card

bank account ~free first year, full online support with smart card

digital signature with smart card is equal with real one on all documents.

taxes, bookkeeping, hire local bookkeeper ~>30euros per month and use
skype/email

~~~
sarhus
how about corporate tax?

~~~
kintamanimatt
Have a read through the PDF linked in my comment. It summarizes the Estonian
corporate tax regime.

------
decentrality
Wow I was just thinking about this, having a cup of coffee next to a creek out
on the edges of town, after asking this:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8939426](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8939426)

Right now I'm in the United States and I'm forming a Nevada Series Limited
Liability Company. I needed a Registered Agent to do that, but the question
came up for me: how long do I need to be somewhere, and what kind of mailing
address do I need, to not even need a Registered Agent?

Nevada has no State tax, but there's still Federal. I'll be watching this with
interest on the tax piece... otherwise to me, in this country, it seems like
Nevada is the way to go.

~~~
silver1
Everybody talks about Delaware corp (as they've matured business laws) ..but
very few knowt hat when it comes to taxes then Nevada and Wyoming are the best
....

however recently I've heard that if you're selling stuff on Amazon or any
other e-commerce store then taxes are different depending upon where you're
located ... and you may not even be eligible for selling in few states - I
wish someone can explain this in a simple language ...?

~~~
desdiv
There's zero difference tax-wise between a Nevada corporation, a Wyoming
corporation, and a Delaware corporation when they're operating outside their
state of incorporation. In all three cases they pay no state taxes in their
state of incorporation.

~~~
zaroth
Delaware has a franchise fee, but it's not onerous, ~$500.

------
contingencies
Ultimately it depends what you want it for. I usually live in Asia so some
info there follows...

.sg = low corp tax (first 3(?) years waived). someone else here mentioned
capital gains scenario. stock market secrecy regime is designed for laundering
burmese drug money. US lapdog. its boring as batshit... see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_with_the_Death_Pena...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_with_the_Death_Penalty)

.hk = low personal tax (none, unless resident >3 months/year). can open
business and bank account within 2 hours (pay an agent). first world level of
service. less US-friendly and more fun than .sg.

.cn = low chance anyone will come looking at your balance. basically no tax.
nice forex trajectory for CNY at the moment. only way to really do business in
china. possible to convert inbound international SWIFT xfers to EUR/USD/RMB
cash, even without a bank account, with any foreign 'id' document. online
banking is crap. foreign banks are barred from providing most services despite
china signing to the contrary when joining the WTO. ~impossible to process
card not present credit card transactions. its bladerunner meets monkey magic
meets the land of opportunity. taobao is a big win if you ever do hardware
sourcing.

other countries in Asia tend to lack decent english or infrastructure, but may
provide interesting fringe benefits (eg. IIRC Philippines gives you permanent
in/out visa with a property purchase, has lots of good english speakers,
though they recently dropped their relative bank secrecy to US pressure)

------
mynewcompany
Ideally you'd want a business entity that is as inexpensive as possible to
maintain but provides liability protection in case you're sued. Then you need
to consider where you will be "registering" this business (apart from the
original country) as a foreign company because that will involve expenses,
tax, etc. Finally, if you're just one person, not really renting offices, not
really hiring employees in the country where you are operating you need to ask
yourself do you need to really register in that country as a foreign company
and who would know if you didn't.

My company has been thinking of creating a sort of "world company" package for
people like you: solid main entity (Wyoming LLC for example); globally
accessed banking, mail scanning/forwarding, etc. I'm curious if that would
appeal to you (or anybody else on HN). Email me mattknee at google's mail
system if so.

Here's our general information page for international clients that might be
helpful with other issues:
[http://www.mynewcompany.com/international.htm](http://www.mynewcompany.com/international.htm)

Good luck!

------
briggers
Well, in Singapore you'll need at least one SG-resident board member. Probably
not you if you'll be travelling constantly.

On the other hand, if you can manage this I've found forming and dissolving
companies in SG to be very easy, not to mention the tax and accountancy
processes.

~~~
urbannomad
Are there any other requirements to setting up/running an SG company?

------
softwarerero
I moved from Germany to Paraguay. When I work from Paraguay I have to pay 10%
income taxes (it does not matter if I do it as a person or a company) and if
it is for a local client another 10% of VAT (IVA). When I travel and do onsite
jobs in other countries the Paraguayan government does not demand any taxes.

To get permanent residence you need to visit Paraguay, proof that you have a
fortune of at least 5K USD and run around a few days between different
agencies. I helped a US citizen some month ago with his residency and we had
everything together in 4 days, it would have been 3 if we not had forgotten
one paper.

~~~
newaccountfool
Are there better benefits to becoming a citizen of Paraguay? Do you know how
long that would take?

------
jwilliams
Whilst Singapore comes up a lot as a company HQ - it's often not due to
company taxes (which are _rarely_ as straightforward as you pay x%, no matter
the domicile).

The big draw to Singapore is usually for the individuals - Singapore has no
Capital Gains Tax
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_gains_tax#Singapore](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_gains_tax#Singapore)).
At a personal level, if you're flipping a multi-million dollar business that's
a big deal.

As other commenters have mentioned, the company/personal/VAT picture becomes
more murky.

~~~
walterbell
Are there precedents where the Singapore company holds IP and licenses that IP
to foreign companies which hire and pay employees? Could a Singapore company
grant stock options to foreign employees?

~~~
jwilliams
I don't know specifically wrt to Singapore, but this is a common structure.

It used to be called a "Dutch Sandwich", but now called the Double Irish:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement)

~~~
walterbell
That now appears to be closed to new companies in Ireland.

------
unimportant
HK - easiest, cheapest and no taxes for income sourced outside of HK.

~~~
silver1
According to the following calculator there is around 16.5% tax (on $100K
income) ... you can compare it with bunch of company and it looks like
Singapore is the lowest.

[http://www.guidemehongkong.com/taxation/topics/hong-kong-
tax...](http://www.guidemehongkong.com/taxation/topics/hong-kong-tax-
calculator)

~~~
unimportant
That's for locally sourced income or if you have a real office in HK.

To pay no tax all your income needs to come from outside of HK in addition to
not having a local operation.

~~~
silver1
Very interesting - you seem to be right - more info on following page ...

[http://www.guidemehongkong.com/taxation/corporate-
tax/calcul...](http://www.guidemehongkong.com/taxation/corporate-
tax/calculating-taxable-income)

btw, do you have any info on any agent who can help with this? do you need a
physical address (even for opening a bank account)? Do you need to visit HK
for any reason to setup a company?

~~~
unimportant
I don't want to spam anything here, but there are tons of agents you can find
via google.

The registered address in HK can be provided by the agent. I'm not sure what
else you mean by physical address.

You'll need to visit HK to open a bank account in case you need one in HK, but
you could open a bank account in any other country as well if you can find a
bank willing to do so (tough where I'm from).

------
mangeletti
The answer is not, "um, it depends on X", which usually indicate a lack of
understanding of the problem as well as a lack of knowledge about the
solution. People, especially tech nerds which tend to have ego issues, need to
learn to just say "I don't know", or to simply not answer a question that they
don't know the answer to. It doesn't depend on anything. The best place to
register a business for international travel is the same as the best place to
avoid having to pay taxes on your income, while maintaining impunity. The
Cayman Islands, for instance, make for an interesting conversation. The only
real problem that you have to be okay with breaking a few laws. For instance,
if you are traveling in countries that require you to pay income tax for
income earned while in their country, and you are working for an American
company of the contractor, etc., technically you need to pay taxes there, but
most people in the situation would not. If you are okay with breaking those
types of laws, then your best bet is just to find a place that is willing to
hide your information, hence the Cayman Islands. Now, the Cayman Islands won't
work for everyone, because you have to have a significant investment to found
a company there, but you can do this and other places with little or no
investment, such a Belize, or any number of tax havens.

~~~
spitfire
> The answer is not, "um, it depends on X", which usually indicate a lack of
> understanding of the problem as well as a lack of knowledge about the
> solution. People, especially tech nerds which tend to have ego issues, need
> to learn to just say "I don't know", or to simply not answer a question that
> they don't know the answer to. It doesn't depend on anything.

Preach!

Boy do they go red when you simply say "If you don't know the answer, please
don't confuse people more."

------
seekingcharlie
I recommend Hong Kong.

There's a lot of people on nomadforum.io/ that will have first-hand experience
on this FYI.

------
martinald
The UK is pretty good. All filing can be done online, corporation tax rates
are pretty low (20%).

------
level09
Dubai is the place, Tax free, as low as ~4000 Euros/year for a single person
(FZE) company.

Nothing else is required (office/staff), virtual services are provided at
additional fees (secretary etc ..)

~~~
616c
Some friends and I have been discussing this. There is a current regime in the
UAE (not just Dubai) that has established a free trade zone that costs
approximately several thousand USD to incorporate and set up shop, including
basement prices for established visa(s) for you and a small group of
employees.

I have received an email. If I have time later I will dig around to find the
link to an official website from UAE commercial authorities.

Beware though, the GCC is notorious for renegging any niceness when you cause
them unniceties.

~~~
walterbell
Some zones can be as small as an office park, with different rules for each
zone, e.g. medical companies vs. software companies.

The Middle East in general has Internet firewalls, e.g. VOIP is often packet
filtered. Might be worth checking on those policies within the zone.

Some tax-free jurisdictions generate money from bureacracy and fees, which
impose substantial _time_ overhead, since penalties for noncompliance can be..
unexpected.

~~~
616c
As I said, there is a lot of risk and questionable reward.

Down the street in Qatar, they routinely have Enterprenuer This and That
coneferences and contests for recent college grads. I would love to see well-
wishers and gov't officials face scrutiny in the form of super obvious
questions regard bureaucracy and self-censorship as you described above which
are hilarious.

Again, I am still not sure if I see the value. I think about it daily.

------
dubeye
What about invoicing clients? If I move an established UK registered business
to Panama or Estonia, can I use the same UK bank account? What changes for the
client?

------
alltakendamned
Register your company where there is no corporate tax, be a citizen of a
country with no income tax.

As to the how and what, I'm willing to learn myself.

~~~
decentrality
Even then, if you do business in the US for example, unless you're 100%
digital ( possibly even then ) you'd be a foreign corporation that'd need to
register secondarily in that country, and vooala-- tax exception gone.

Unless someone has a way to prove that wrong?

~~~
tluyben2
I don't think you need that; I'm trying to find any proof of what you say and
cannot really find. If you have a company in HK/SG and live fulltime (6 months
+ 1 day) in Monaco for instance, I believe you can do business with US
companies/citizens while not paying taxes. The hell of living in Monaco
doesn't really make it worth the while imho however I know plenty of people
who do this.

No proof here but I cannot find the reason why you would need to do what you
suggest?

~~~
decentrality
Nonresident Alien withholding for Foreign Persons:

[http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-
Taxpayers/Forei...](http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-
Taxpayers/Foreign-Persons)

[http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-
Taxpayers/NRA-W...](http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-
Taxpayers/NRA-Withholding)

I would prefer this all not be fact, and I wish it were not true, but I put
this out there because I hope it isn't but it seems like it definitely is real
and effectual. This is the biggest difficulty I've hit myself.

------
eric_khun
"I am not a lawyer or CPA and this is not legal advice. It is for general
guidance only. You should work with an attorney and a CPA for specific
professional advice.

If you're American, this gets really sticky. The US taxes you on your
worldwide income. If you have a US corporation, it is also taxed on worldwide
income, so it can be double taxed. And foreign corporations in the US are
taxed on US-sourced income.

However, there is a loophole. If you own a company outside the US, and the
company earns money outside of the US, it's only taxed in the US when the
money comes back into the US. So, many people have companies registered abroad
(Hong Kong is a popular jurisdiction) and money earned offshore is accrued in
the foreign corporation. Expenses abroad are also paid by the foreign
corporation. So, you can effectively avoid the money being double taxed
(paying personal income tax only) if you earn money offshore and your offshore
corporation pays your salary.

Also, if you're working abroad, it's not a vacation. A lot of things you spend
money on are legitimately considered business expenses. So, if something is a
business expense, pay for it with company earnings that haven't been taxed.

Now, what about paying income tax in the jurisdiction where you were living
abroad? Typically, countries only tax income sourced within the country, and
many countries have tax treaties where income is only taxed once. So, for
example, if you're living in China, a country that has a tax treaty with the
US, and you're paid by a company outside of China, and you pay taxes in the
US, you don't actually have to pay taxes in China. Technically you are
supposed to file there (at least in Beijing), but this isn't actually enforced
unless you're on a Z-type visa and you are working for a Chinese company. And,
if you're on a tourist visa pretty much anywhere in the world, you won't owe
any tax in the country you were visiting. As best I know, no country in the
world charges tourists income tax!

One thing that WILL happen if you're living abroad, and have foreign bank
accounts: You will get audited if you claim tax exemptions that apply when you
live outside the US. In my case, this came in the form of a letter to my
Chinese address which basically said "prove you're really living in China,"
and gave me a list of documents to supply as evidence of same. There was a
list of 8 or so things, of which I had to supply 3. I just sent the IRS
everything on the list (not only 3 of the things, but all of the things),
mailed the package from Beijing, and I never heard from them again. I think
they just wanted to make sure I really was living abroad."

edit : this comment come from here [http://nomadforum.io/t/what-is-the-tax-
situation-for-perpetu...](http://nomadforum.io/t/what-is-the-tax-situation-
for-perpetual-travelers-like/186/13)

These links might be really helpful :
[http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-
Taxpayers/Forei...](http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-
Taxpayers/Foreign-Earned-Income-Exclusion) [http://flagtheory.com/digital-
nomad/](http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/) [http://flagtheory.com/nevis-
llc-formation](http://flagtheory.com/nevis-llc-formation)
[http://nomadforum.io/t/what-is-the-tax-situation-for-
perpetu...](http://nomadforum.io/t/what-is-the-tax-situation-for-perpetual-
travelers-like/186/)

~~~
dharma1
"If you have a US corporation, it is also taxed on worldwide income, so it can
be double taxed"

Does this apply to foreigners who incorporate in the US? Living in the UK, co-
founders (UK and India) want to incorporate in Delaware, I am looking into it
but don't want to be liable for anything unnecessary. None of us lives in the
US.

------
arfliw
HK and Singapore are both good options. Both also really good for offshore
banking.

~~~
desdiv
Singapore corporations need at least one Singaporean resident as a director.
Unless OP already has a close Singaporean friend or is willing to partner up
with a Singaporean co-founder I don't think it'll work for him.

~~~
arfliw
That's what nominee directors are for ;)

Law firms and others specialize in doing this.

------
return0
Malta

------
throwaway95847
HK is a decent choice. You do probably have to go there to open a bank
account. But regardless, far more important is the tax/domicile rules in your
own country.

Edit: Also judging by the comments so far you don't want to trust HN on this.

------
comrade1
Do you need to register a corporation? Or do you just need a legal entity
other than yourself to pass your earnings through? Will you have employees?
Partners?

If you just need something simple with no employees partners then you probably
only need the equivalent of a u.s. LLC which separates your business
income/debt from your personal income/debt. Find whatever the equivalent is
where you're a resident.

If you need an actual corporation then it's much tougher. Where I live
(Switzerland) you need to start out with a lot of capital, probably need a
lawyer and an accountant, etc.

It will get complicated if you need to register a corporation outside of where
you're a resident and paying your taxes.

~~~
dnohr
Hi, actually I just need a legal entity to pass my online earnings through, I
have a few online clients which need an invoice from a company and not a
private person. There will be no employees or partners involved.

After reading this incredible thread, I think either HK or SG would fit me
best for now, just need to know what will be most beneficial for me in the
long run.

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sixQuarks
I believe the first $100,000 in income is not taxed if you live outside the US
for at least 330 days out of the year. This is for federal tax. If you are
registered in a state with no income tax, then you would pay zero tax on that
first $100k.

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snitko
Do not register a company. Accept Bitcoin and provide great service people
want.

