Seeking a strategy for my online business

[dav19e]

Good afternoon everyone,

I am new to the forum, I'm here to learn, and I subscribed to the Mentor Group thinking that maybe I could get some advice based on my needs and current situation. I am a Canadian resident with a Canadian operating and holding company. I am selling legal (non-restricted) goods from my website, and I currently use PayPal & Stripe as payment processors to collect sales revenue. I have customers in Canada, USA & EU, and my business model is strictly B2C. Therefore, some of the goods I sell may be subject to copyright infringement & intellectual property claims down the road.

My first intention was to operate from an offshore Nevis LLC, until I came to understand how hard it may be to deal with banking & payment processors afterward. Then, I concluded that forming an offshore Nevis LLC & Trust would rather be great as a holding company, to serve as an end-point to store my liquid assets. So here I am right now, in Nevis, for the company formation and creation of the corporate bank account.

Now that an offshore Nevis Holding LLC & Trust is formed, any recommendations on which jurisdiction I should be operating from as a non-resident company? While banks & payment processors are the most important part in terms of flexibility, I would want to be operating from a jurisdiction where copyright infringement & intellectual property laws aren't really enforced or make it hard to engage a lawsuit against a company... I need a recommendation on what my options are and where I should go from here.

Thank you, David

Last edited: Mar 6, 2020

 

[Martin Everson]

I think it will come down to the payment processor you plan to use and which jurisdiction and company structures they will accept. Then work backwards to analyse which of those jurisdictions that are permitted has weak enforcement of any IP or copyright claim.

You can't select a jurisdiction only to find no payment processor would ever work with that jurisdiction.

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Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.

 

[dav19e]

Martin Everson said:
I think it will come down to the payment processor you plan to use and which jurisdiction and company structures they will accept. Then work backwards to analyse which of those jurisdictions that are permitted has weak enforcement of any IP or copyright claim.

You can't select a jurisdiction only to find no payment processor would ever work with that jurisdiction.
Click to expand...

Not a bad idea, thanks for the advice!

 

[onemansomewhere]

You need a little sophisticated structure:

For selling to US customers - UK LLP + Revolut
For selling to customers outside of the USA - US LLC + US Bank account
Both LLP and LLC has to have 2 members. One of them has to be a company in a country with a territorial taxation and one has to be a foundation in a country with a territorial taxation.
Company in a country with a territorial taxation has to be owned by foundation.

It will be easier, if you can obtain also a residence permit in country with a territorial taxation.

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 30, 2020

 

[dhl711]

onemansomewhere said:
You need a little sophisticated structure:

For selling to US customers - UK LLP + Revolut
For selling to customers outside of the USA - US LLC + US Bank account
Click to expand...

Did you say this right or you miss the order? I mean, for selling to US customers - UK LLP? not would be better with the US LLC?

I do indeed want more info about this set up with the via foundation

 

[onemansomewhere]

If you will sell to US customers via US LLC, all profiti will be taxable in the USA: If you use UK LLP for selling to US customers, profit will not be taxable in the USA.
My order is absolutely correct. Usualy is used Canadian LLP for selling to US customers. But you are a canadian. And using a Canadian LLP would men to have all profit generated from US customers having taxed in Canada...
Structure which I showed you is just a front line.
You need a structure in a backend. You need to entities. One corporation and one foundation. Why 2 entities? You need 2 partners for LLP and LLC. That one corporation will be owned by foundation...

In some cases, there will be needed to obtain residence permit in a more tax friendly country that Canada..