Website Business - Anywhere!

[Drew Aitch]

Hi Business Forum

I’m seeking advice that at the time of writing is but a reality in the planning.

To summarise my queries:

> Say I have a dot com website that offers a service. There are no physical products to buy or sell.

> That website sells advertising space in the form of banner ads & classifieds.

> I live in Thailand and the advertisements are mainly placed by Thai individuals and companies.

> It’s purely a web based business and there are no company premises or staff to consider.

> Being a web business, I could actually operate it from anywhere in the world.

My questions then are as follows:

1. Say the site should generate cash. Who would I pay taxes to and how would I go about registering such a business?

2. In fact, which country would I have to register the business to as I may be moving around the region as I work the site?

3. Additionally, I may try to sell advertising space to businesses and individuals in other countries.

To summarise then: I, Joe Bloggs, have a website that sells advertising space. I move all over the region although I do have an official place of residence. My web hosting is in the USA and the Domain name is registered with a UK company. Are there any tax implications and or legal issues involved in such a business?

Thanks

Aitch

[LivinLOS]

Depends entirely on your residency and how long you stay within Thailand (and if your resident country has a dual tax agreement with Thailand)..

Personally I would incorporate an offshore company (easy and not so expensive) and have that own the website and all aspects of it (domain, etc) so it is not in your name.

You then can be 'employed' by that company when you choose and take salary at whatever level suits your direct needs for cash (pocket money) or need to come under tax band / levels of whichever country you are (or are not) paying taxes in. This company can also provide you with an expense account on credit card for costs if you decide on a very low salary and hold other 'profits' corporation tax free.

I would be doing this no matter what country I was living / residing / travelling in anyway.

Then you come to the issue of legality in Thailand. There are quite a few threads and posts on here stating that if you have a online activity, thats not thai related or has no Thai clients, and you accept no money from Thais, you do not need a work permit to manage that activity (even legally).. To me it sounds like wishful thinking but thats what embassies and consulates seem to have said.

The route of setting up a Thai company with 2 mil paid up capital and 4 Thai employees to get a work permit and paying min wage of 55K per month and the taxes that this entails seems cost prohibitive for a online advertising operation.

Without wishing to encourage questionable practices this is the sort of case where I would say keep your head down and dont ruffle any feathers and just bring small amounts of income into Thailand (from above company) as tourist spending money.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...801&hl=telework

http://www.thaiimmigration.com/inv/index.p...=46&hl=offshore

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...ndpost&p=181499

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...ndpost&p=181722

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...indpost&p=81506

[desi]

Personally I would incorporate an offshore company (easy and not so expensive) and have that own the website and all aspects of it (domain, etc) so it is not in your name. 

How does one go about this? I did a brief look around but wasn't really sure who to go with. And the offshore bank account I looked into wanted £300 per years.

[udon]

Register or transfer your domain name to godaddy.com and make it Private for only $7.95 a year extra, that way it cannot be traced to you unless you fall foul of the local authorities in a big way.

Good luck

[cdnvic]

Register or transfer your domain name to godaddy.com and make it Private  for only $7.95 a year extra, that way it cannot be traced to you unless you fall foul of the local authorities in a big way.

Good luck

But a well branded domain name can be a valuble asset, why sign it over to someone else?

As for where to pay taxes, that would depend greatly on where the proceeds of any sales are banked.

cv

[LivinLOS]

Offshore banking is not so hard but does not require much more paperork than it did pre 9/11 especially for corporate accounts.

Look into the big names such as Barclays (Jersey / IoM reccomended, cheap online banking personal accounts) etc.. Swiss accounts and other high security / privacy would not be required in your field..

I would assume you pay more than £300 per annum taxation ?? Yes there are some costs to getting things right but once you have one offshore company it can then be the holding company for many many ventures.. I intend to operate this security solution lifelong. I even let it own my cars and any property back in Europe (cant here) as it then makes me a man of straw and effectively unsue'able.. You can then also use paying rent to the offshore company (yourself) as a tax credit / cost if you work from that location.. Really one your accomodation is paid and you have an unlimited expense account (on offshore credit card) and perhaps car payments how much more 'earnings' do you need ??

If you wanted to talk to Barclays Personal Banking, I could get my relationship manager to give you a call.. However these services are geared for mimizing tax liabilities and as such may not be cost effective (in the effort to set up) for a small account and small liability.

Perhaps just ignore the offshore incorporation angle (perhaps 2k GBP set up and 750 - 1k Per annum maintainance) and use an offshore personal bank.. Get paid outside of Thailand and bring your money in when you need it.

[udon]

But a well branded domain name can be a valuble asset, why sign it over to someone else?

You don't lose your domname, check it out. www.godaddy.com "private"

You remain admin, tech contact etc.

It also stops trawlers from getting your email address

[yuyi]

udon: yes, the godaddy privat option is a very good tool to keep spammers from getting your email address, and curious people from knowing who the owner of the website is, but you are still the owner.

LivinLOS: very good advice, indeed! This seems to be a good solution.

Where would you recommend to you have the offshore company. Not all locations are so good anymore. Also, can you recommend a trustworthy company to set it up?

[LivinLOS]

Depends on where your current residence is.. For many US people caribian havens present interesting options.. Personally I find the seychelles to be perfect, minimal annual costs, 100% privacy of the beneficial owner and directors, can have bank accounts fairly easily. Low cost of initial incorporation. What more could you really look for.

For company formation OCRA worldwide is rolls royce service.. Of course service like that is not the cheapest out there but the service and advice is first class. You can actually make a lot of desiciions with thier product literature. Many other bargain operations that will be down to about 50% of OCRA's costs but you get what you pay for.

Banking in post 9/11 world has become a lot more paper to organise.. Always follow through what is wanted in one go and provide them everything first off.. Once you get the accounts set up it all gets easier but it can be a bit of a struggle in the beginning. I like Barclays simply due to thier size and brand but I suspect most big name banks (ABN / Citybank / Lloyds / Etc) would give comparable service.

All of these costs add up but then so do taxes.

[yuyi]

Thanks for sharing this info! Very helpful!