Expats who have figured it out

[woopwoop]

Originally Posted by JMOT

Why ask for advice if you are not going to listen and think you know best?

Having just sat thru a meeting with my accountants about moving domains, IP etc between companies etc its actually quite a pain in the arse if the domains etc have a book value or trading worth because depending on how your domains have been treated by your accountant they will have a "worth" and that is open to quite some interpretation.... You cant just move them willy nilly without creating intra company liabilities. Indeed as far as i understood you cant just transfer them into your own name without creating a personal gain as again, depending on how they were accounted for, the "worth" of those domains even tho your company might not be profitable or trading could trigger a gain for you. The domains are also the property of the Ltd company if paid for by and registered under its name. Not yours personally even tho you might own all the shares in the Ltd co. Unless you licensed the domains to your company yada yada eyes rolling gone all glazed its complicated shit get someone proper to handle it for you.

GO SEE A PROPER ACCOUNTANT/TAX SPECIALIST before you do anything because you will open up a shitload of complications with a US LLC or Inc... again, part 2 of my recent meeting was involving US corporate tax planning etc.

JMOT I appreciate you taking the time to reply and offer advice but theres no need to turn this nasty. The thing i was mainly asking about was pensions and NI and ongoing tax (meaning foreign income).

I'm not sure if you misinterpreted a the tone of my last message but nothing will be willy nilly, so no need for CAPS or telling me I shouldn't bother asking for help. Again I appreciate your help.

Originally Posted by Edwin

As a related aside, if I had the choice of anywhere in the world to incorporate, my LAST choice would be the US. Their tax system has some of the furthest reaching tentactles of any jurisdiction.

Edwin not through choice (definitely nothing to do with tax avoidance - just geography). The LLc technically isn't an incorporated business, there's the limited liability but you can elect for taxes to be paid as a corporation or for the profit/loss to be treated as personal income (sole trader).

If anyone has has experience with the NI/pension side of things would be grateful for your advice - although the link given above is really helpful.

[Edwin]

Originally Posted by woopwoop

Edwin not through choice (definitely nothing to do with tax avoidance - just geography). The LLc technically isn't an incorporated business, there's the limited liability but you can elect for taxes to be paid as a corporation or for the profit/loss to be treated as personal income (sole trader).

You've lost me. Anyone's free to incorporate in dozens of jurisdictions around the world with virtually no or indeed zero restrictions. So why pick the US when it is known to have one of the furthest-reaching, longest-lasting tax regimes? (For example, it takes at least a decade for US citizens living and working outside the US to "break" their tax liability back home - and it's far from an automatic process, with a large number of hurdles)

[woopwoop]

Basically the new business will be related around selling a product, so being based in NY it is easier for me to be treated as a domestic llc (non incorporated) rather than incorporate or have a business created in a different jurisdiction and trade in NY (because I'd have extra formalities for just trading here).

This may be just because of my particular operation or size of it but my research and US accountant (who wasn't able to help with UK tax /ni) made me think the set up I'm going for is correct.

I don't have anything to hide so am not worried about some of the stuff you mentioned it's also more practical having a NY llc if the business is located in NY (cheaper and less hassle in filing for my set up).

Forgot to mention but there are other tax benefits too: such as using business losses to reduce the tax liability on regular employment income.

[Edwin]

Your problem will most likely come if you decide to move away from the US (although you're going to have all sorts of sales tax issues as well) as the US tax authorities will probably want to keep their claws into the revenue stream for many, many years afterwards.