Amazon Affiliate and Display Ads - Best Set Up?

[shinkansen]

Hey everyone!

First, massive thanks for all the fantastic advice a lot of you have been providing on this forum. Just by reading some of the topics here I really feel I got tons of value and knowledge that I am super grateful for.

I could really do with some help because merely googling about these taxation issues gives me one heck of a headache and takes time that I would rather spend on actually thinking about the actionable steps to grow my business.

My background:

EU citizen. I haven’t lived in my home country already for more than several years. I have been bouncing mainly around SE Asia in recent years.

My source of income:

Everything comes from Affiliate and display ads on my own websites.

Mainly Amazon Associates, Adthrive etc. All 100% legit niches. Privacy is not a concern then.

I don’t earn anything from my country of citizenship or the countries where I normally spend time in (South East Asia).

I don’t have any actual clients anywhere.

My yearly revenue would be around 100K USD.

Low running costs not exceeding 20K USD, most of that goes into reinvesting into growing my affiliate sites via outscouring content creation, getting domains, links etc.)

How I get paid: Wire transfers

How I pay for services: Wire transfers + card payments. EMIs like Transferwise are fine for this.

Which solution would you recommend in 2020 for my circumstances？

I have considered the following:

1. Bulgaria LTD - decent tax regime, inexpensive accounting, works fine with EMIs like Transferwise. But then - for my business, I really wouldn’t like to worry with a burden of any external accounting whatsoever etc. (maybe I am wrong on this one)
2. US LLC - The simplest solution by far. Possible to open the actual remote bank account with Mercury. No need to hire anyone to do accounting. Easy regarding taking money out of the company (owner's draw). Transferwise works fine (unfortunately, they don’t provide the borderless card as of now).
   However, since it’s a disregarded entity, what I would have to worry about is the possibility of being taxed as an individual based on my current tax residency (which residency sometimes may be hard to prove since I swap locations frequently).
3. Georgia IT Zone - 0% CIT, outside of EU, so no VAT registration requirements. So far so good. Would it be possible to set it up 100% remotely? Any possible issues with banking, reputation etc I should be wary of?

Just to make it clear - I do not want to bring my total tax liability to 0% at all costs.
I am too much of a good guy for this and in 2020 it just doesn’t seem to be worth a hassle anyway. If I had to, I would rather pay a little tax and sleep well at night knowing I paid what I had to pay, that my accounts are intact and voila. (But then of course, if it's totally legally possible in my case to bring it to 0% then sure, why not). What I want to make sure though is that I do not overcomplicate things, don’t fall into trouble with any authorities, or choose a bad (read: shady or unnecessary expensive) jurisdiction.

Thank you very much for any advice!

 

[CaptK]

Option 1 is good but you need to do a lot of accounting and you still need to registered somewhere for tax.

All EU payments are VAT applicable unless you are paid from a PSP outside the EU. Might incur a problem if your customer claims back the VAT.

Option 2
Good place to start so long as your PSP is not American based.
Have this as a short-term solution as things can get very complicated with the IRS.
Your tax residency would be the issue as roaming around you could have multiple agencies after you.

Option 3
Banking is a nightmare!! Sending payments is hard work and quite expensive. Pasha and Haylk used to open remotely but they are slow at everything. Also the compliance department at Halyk are so antiquated its brain numbing.

UAE Freelance is your best bet. About 5k set up and 4k running costs per year. Tax residency and with a big push on IOT sector in the UAE a great place to bed your business. Tax free residency, so a total solution to your problem with the small stipulation of going there once every 170 days.

If not option 2 would be your best fit but change US LLC for UK LLP. By using EMI's your dont have to worry about tax notification. You just have to choose the best country for your tax residency.

 

[shinkansen]

Wow, fantastic answers, CaptK, how I wish you posted them earlier!

If not option 2 would be your best fit but change US LLC for UK LLP. By using EMI's your dont have to worry about tax notification. You just have to choose the best country for your tax residency.

That LLP option was something that would have never crossed my mind. Doesn't it require two members to register though? I could ask someone trusted just to put their name or perhaps register an LTD as the second member? What do you think?

Hi, I’m kind of in the same situation Like you. May I ask you what juridiction did you chose ?

As for now I'm going with the US LLC. The problem was the massive delay in the issuance of EIN numbers making it impossible to open the account with Mercury. Eventually, Mercury rejected my application too because my business is "not trading in the US" or something like that. Bummer. Might try again with different answers or simply go on with the LLC + Transferwise and look for another option for the debit card. Payoneer? Or ask someone running their company to pay for these things I need the card for.


As for Bulgaria - accounting is actually pretty straightforward, I only have around 10 invoices a month so it's not a massive PITA. What bothers me though is the whole substance thing. Without a proper office and employees in Bulgaria I am a bit anxious I could run into problems with some tax man eventually. Maybe I'm exaggerating. I also don't live in the EU so I highly doubt this could be a massive deal and I'm positive Bulgaria would happily take my money.

Option 2
Good place to start so long as your PSP is not American based.
Have this as a short-term solution as things can get very complicated with the IRS.
Your tax residency would be the issue as roaming around you could have multiple agencies after you.

The great news is that the country where decided to settle down is super welcoming and understanding regarding foreign tax structures and they are certainly not that aggressive as EU states.

FYI this country is Taiwan. I love it. Nomad lifestyle over for a while.
If I wasn't in Taiwan, I would stay in Thailand. Both excellent choices.

 

[shinkansen]

Oh, an one more thing I did wrong - I should haven't gone with Wyoming especially since privacy is not a big concern for me. It was just the most popular choice among a lot of fellas so I followed the herd. However, for my use most serious benefits of Wyoming don't really apply and the whole privacy thing actually caused me some minor headaches later (eg I tried opening the bank account with Paysera - FAIL). A friend had recommended me Florida - should have chosen that option. Or New Mexico.

Does anyone know which banks these days open accounts or -most importantly-provide debit cards for those states?

Thank you!

 

[CaptK]

Oh, an one more thing I did wrong - I should haven't gone with Wyoming especially since privacy is not a big concern for me. It was just the most popular choice among a lot of fellas so I followed the herd. However, for my use most serious benefits of Wyoming don't really apply and the whole privacy thing actually caused me some minor headaches later (eg I tried opening the bank account with Paysera - FAIL). A friend had recommended me Florida - should have chosen that option. Or New Mexico.

Does anyone know which banks these days open accounts or -most importantly-provide debit cards for those states?

Thank you!

You could use a company to be the general partner, the choice of this will determine what banks you can approach, you could use your US LLC.

 

[lory]

Do you talk with your self?