

Ask HN: Offshore company - JosephCKing

Hi Hacker News,
    I'm in the process of doing a start-up which has just started generating revenue. I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with the process of registering an offshore shell corporation in one of the finance centers. Are there any pitfalls of doing internet related business through an offshore corporation? Please share your experiences.<p>Sincerely,
Joseph.
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osipov
Here's an example of the approach used by Microsoft:

"Ireland Subsidiary

Typically, he said, a company like Microsoft develops a product like Windows
in the United States and deducts those costs against U.S. income. It then
transfers the technology to a subsidiary in Ireland, where corporate tax rates
are lower, without charging licensing fees. The company then assigns its
foreign sales to the Irish subsidiary so it doesn’t have to claim the income
in the United States."

[http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a...](http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=amBiYGyHOkZ8)

Let us know what you find. This is an interesting topic, although it is
possible that the playing field will shift quickly after the current US
administration makes some legislative changes.

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JosephCKing
I am from the US, as many of you are.

I have heard good things about Panama and there are also online credit card
processing and merchant accounts which you can sign up for.

I'm thinking that by channeling all my sales to an offshore financial center,
I can avoid a lot of liabilities associated with operating a US based company.

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mahmud
At least one HNer is in the business of setting up foreign legal entities. I
know Pageman (Paul) is:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pageman>

For my business I decided to register in my home state of Virginia, mostly for
sentimental reasons :-)

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lionheart
I would say that this is probably a very bad idea. The IRS doesn't take kindly
to shell corporations even if what you're doing might technically not be
against the law.

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bwd
The issues greatly depend on which country you are from. Your best bet is to
speak to a lawyer because the issues are very complex, at least for US
citizens.

