71–80 of 402 posts
Is there really a market for this? Why would anyone outside the US want to open a US company when you can just as easily open a company and bank account in a tax-free country with little/no oversight?
I think participating to a YC batch requires to be incorporated in the US.
Stripe Payments was Exhibit A of overcoming Schlep Blindness to come up with a killer value prop; looks like Stripe Atlas is Exhibit B. http://paulgraham.com/schlep.html
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 1. It's ridiculous to incorporate in the US, due to ridiculous tax policies; and What are these ridiculous tax policies? I've often heard complaints about US taxes for citizens/residents, but nothing yet for companies... (I realize that many companies choose to incorporate in tax havens to evade taxes; but I'm mainly interested in knowing how is incorporating in the US worse than incorporating in e.g. UK, Switzerla…
High corporate taxes + global taxation of profits. For example, any profit coming from lower taxed subsidiary (i.e. a dividend) will be taxed at the difference between the local rate and US corporate tax rate. So if you pay 20% in the UK, you will have to pay an additional 15% (35%-20%) in US tax. Second, the US is very aggressive when it comes to withholding taxes (FATCA and all) - if you’re a shareholder living in…
To me, this makes sense. Is this different to what other countries do? Although the corporate tax does seem rather high...
This is huge. As someone who is involved in the digital nomad community here in Chiang Mai, Thailand - getting incorporation and processing set up for a lot of people here is very difficult. Although places like Thailand are a great place for independent bootstrapping and there’s a solid network of entrepreneurs - one of the biggest hurdles is incorporation, banking and acquiring. This is taken for granted when you’r…
For digital nomads in Thailand I think the bigger problem is that they can't get long term visas and are effectively breaking the law unless they somehow work for a local company which isn't easy as those need 4 Thais employed for every foreigner. And even if you could get a corporate bank account here, the banks usually don't have good connections to other countries and the systems they use are not exactly flexible. Plus the bank staff usually doesn't know jack shit about anything.
Thailand is great for the food, climate, cheap living costs and culture. But it's really bad for foreigners who want to start a digital business.
We are a global marketplace, so we have to charge people from everywhere, and stripe still doesn't cover Brazil.
Opening a Delaware company is a must have as we are starting a series A fundraising.
And the network, wow!
BUT... I wonder how achievable is the direct application as a way for getting in the beta. We are not part of any accelerator by choice (except YC that rejected us on the interview phase). We have a great company, just not important friends.
So, a question to the community: What is the better aproach: Direct application or look for someone to refer us?
Stripe Payments was Exhibit A of overcoming Schlep Blindness to come up with a killer value prop; looks like Stripe Atlas is Exhibit B. http://paulgraham.com/schlep.html
That said, I'm pretty sure there are a ton of hidden problems in incorporating abroad (e.g. if someone sues you, you have to travel).
This is huge. As someone who is involved in the digital nomad community here in Chiang Mai, Thailand - getting incorporation and processing set up for a lot of people here is very difficult. Although places like Thailand are a great place for independent bootstrapping and there’s a solid network of entrepreneurs - one of the biggest hurdles is incorporation, banking and acquiring. This is taken for granted when you’r…
I live in Algeria, and we can't use credit cards here, my bank account doesn't support debit cards transfer and if I veer receive 10$ from outside the country, then I'm in for 1 day of questioning the resources for those money, This is a great use case for my country and great initiative from Stripe, Thank you.
Wow this is simply amazing! I would love to be able to use Stripe in Brazil and that seems to make it possible! Must be a headache legally tho
You will need a lawyer, or at least a good accountant, to get the taxes right: pay what you owe in the US and in BR, avoiding at all possible double taxation.