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Running a company offshore

11 points by dannyanders ↗ HN
Does anyone have any experience running a company offshore? Especially as strategy as a tax haven. I'd like to know the pros and cons. e.g. How did it impact taxes? How did it impact payment processing? Did it make it difficult to find providers of services (hosting for example)?

What other challenges did you face?

10 comments

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FN0rdique
Have you considered the option of actually paying taxes like a respectable member of society?
nodemaker
Have you considered being on point?
FN0rdique
Offshoring is despicable. I think it's germane.
dannyanders
I'm not try to avoid paying taxes. I'm simply trying to understand if its cheaper to do business elsewhere. A web site can be hosted anywhere; especially if your visitors are global. Just as people choose to incorporate in a different state, I am wondering why you wouldn't do the same on an international level.

BTW, my combined federal, state, and city tax is over 40% of my income, so please don't preach about being a respectable member of society.

kgc
Pros: You get to travel. Overseas human resources tend to be less expensive if you are outsourcing to a developing country.

Cons: You still have to pay taxes if you're a US citizen. If you really want to avoid tax, you might have to give up your US citizenship.

dannyanders
No, not trying to avoid tax all together;definately not personal taxes. Just trying to understand the savings vs hassle.
limeblack
I haven't done this, but I'm under the impression you can discount a lot of the profits of US business provided the business is done outside the US and you living outside the US for at least 300 of 365 days in a year. Now this is with a standard US business (maybe an LLC even).

Unless you have oversea connections family (maybe really close friends) I have been told the costs don't represent the hassel. It's cheaper to go with an LLC in state with no corporate tax, then to deal with all the costs overseas.

Apple and Google are big they can justify the cost(additionally the use several loop holes).

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gopi
If you are a US citizen and planning this for tax purposes then forget it.

As a US citizen you have to pay tax on your worldwide income. Even if your offshore company don't pass the income to you, you have to pay tax because of something called Subpart F income (google it).

So tax wise the best you can do is to relocate to a no-tax state like Florida or Texas and save the state income tax!.