I had US citizens in mind when I said that. However, no one really knows what the exact fraud algorithms used by the US government actually are. Keep in mind that you can't spend your American company's money as if it is your own personal money the way you can with a Dubai company. Like Au999 said, no employees, no infrastructure, even spending the American company's money to travel to the US could get you in trouble if someone at the IRS decides you're using the funds in a way that goes beyond reasonable business expenses and has a quota to meet. The US is a great offshore choice, but everything has to be exactly right. What you ask here should give you things to consider before going over your specific situation with an American attorney that specializes in this kind of thing. You're better off paying an attorney a few grand to make sure everything is done right than having everything blow up in your face.
Potentially. The US and various state tax codes are needlessly complex and at times nebulous. I've never personally run into an issue with an expense paid to a foreign company not being deductible, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. It could also be a situation where your customers would have to fill out an extremely simple form for it to be deductable and their people are too incompetent to do it. Apparently a real reason a lot of American companies won't ship overseas is because filling out a basic customs declaration form (what is in it, how much it is worth, is it a liquid, fluid, cash or cash equivalent) is too Herculean a task for their feeble-minded employees.
