Atlas customer here - I filed for an LLC myself in 2013 and then helped some entrepreneurs sign up through Atlas in 2018. While the up-front cost is higher ($160 for filing yourself vs $500 through Atlas) you get access to cheaper tax preparation and have no chance of being hit with pesky fines for not filing paperwork on time, and the cost is negligible compared to the minimum tax. Most importantly, you get access to some great support for all the ancillary stuff to running a business that is otherwise hard/expensive to come by on your own. If I had used Atlas in 2013 it would have easily paid for itself in time saved and fines avoided.
patio11, I have a bunch of questions about Stripe Atlas (sorry that this is long):
- Should a subsidiary of a foreign company be an LLC or C Corp? I've read https://stripe.com/atlas/guides/llc-vs-c-corp and if I were to own the company directly, I certainly would go for a C Corp to avoid having to report the company's taxes on my personal U.S. tax returns. But it's not clear to me whether it's better for a subsidiary to be an LLC or C Corp. (I'm leaning towards C Corp, but don't want to miss out on any benefits of having the subsidiary be an LLC.)
- Can I transfer 100% of my U.S. subsidiary's revenue to the foreign parent company, and write off the entirety of that amount as a business expense? So, my U.S. subsidiary's income would be zero, with everything that was repatriated to the parent company subtracted as a fully deductible business expense. Is this okay under U.S. tax law? Or would this be considered tax evasion? (Would the U.S. company even have to file a state or federal income tax return, since its income after business expense deductions is zero?)
(Note: The sole reason I want a U.S. company via Stripe Atlas is because Stripe is the best payment gateway out there. It makes receiving money from customers a lot easier, which is to put lightly, quite important.)
- If I directly own a C Corp, will I ever have to report anything connected to it on my personal U.S. tax returns? (I assume with a subsidiary I never would have to.) Also, will Stripe ask me to disclose my U.S. Social Security number, or would a foreign passport be sufficient? And, does Stripe Atlas transmit any data on company ownership to the federal government? Since temporary work/other visa holders are prohibited from running a startup on the side, there can't be anything (that's discoverable by the Dept of Homeland Security) tying me to the U.S. company. (It's just that people have been deported for selling apps, receiving ad revenue, among other things: https://www.murthy.com/2014/01/28/home-based-businesses-inad...)
- How does succession for intellectual property work for companies? If the company is shut down, can I designate myself as the "inheritor"/beneficiary of all the property that the company held prior to its dissolution?
- Can I convert a subsidiary into a normal company that is directly owned by me? There is a high probability that I will dissolve the foreign parent company once I get U.S. permanent residency (but that could take a few years).
At the risk of seeming unduly negative, I'd like to take a swing at this last question of yours:
> is the email address info at stripe dot com the best email to reach out for further questions such as these?
I do not work for Stripe, never have, but I can state with near-certainty that the answer to this question is "absolutely not."
Stripe are not going to give you advice on how to violate U.S. immigration law and not get caught. If you are living in the U.S. on a visa that does not allow employment beyond the terms of your visa, you are asking Stripe to give you advice on how to break the law and there's zero chance that any business--especially one so deep into financial services like Stripe are--will be OK with doing that.
If you have to ask questions with a caveat like this:
> there can't be anything (that's discoverable by the Dept of Homeland Security) tying me to the U.S. company.
then you are playing with fire, particularly under this administration, running the risk of being deported and receiving a 10-year ban on reentry at all (to say nothing of destroying your chances at ever getting a work permit again) and I strongly suggest you reconsider what it is you are considering doing.
I've found out Stripe wasn't even necessary to begin with. There are plenty of payment gateways (double-digit number of them) in the jurisdiction where the foreign parent entity would be located. Moreover, Stripe is actually offered in a lot of countries besides the U.S.! The post https://hackernoon.com/stripe-atlas-is-not-for-everyone-cave... made some really good points, including this:
> Unless you have a really crappy situation with respect to payment processing, regulations etc., that are real roadblocks for competing internationally, I do not recommend setting up company for the romanticised notion of using a particular gateway.
I made that mistake of romanticizing Stripe. I was too hasty, and didn't bother to do some basic research. Customers just want an easy way to pay, and definitely don't care what gateway you choose to use. As far as setting up an American company/subsidiary goes, it's not worth the trouble. Reading https://stripe.com/atlas/guides/business-taxes alone was eye-watering and migraine-inducing. The plethora of complicated tax rules are absolutely not worth enduring just to use one particular payment processing system.
I hope you realize that your post looks super sketchy. It seems like you are walking the fine line of potential tax evasion as well as potential immigration violation(s).
I strongly encourage you to see an accountant and/or lawyer -- it would strike me as cavalier if anyone answered your questions completely in a public forum such as this.
If there are holes after reading them, we'd love to hear about them.