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I'm still a little confused on whether or not this is better than incorporating in your own country. Is this more geared to accelerator startups who are thinkin

by pbreit 11y ago

I'm still a little confused on whether or not this is better than incorporating in your own country. Is this more geared to accelerator startups who are thinking of moving to the US? Certainly US incorporation is not required (or even all that helpful?) in establishing a US presence?

zekevermillion 11y ago
This is all about access to US bank accounts.
andreasklinger 11y ago
It's not so much about entering the US market imo as it is about being investor standard ready. This is essentially the step 0 to standard investment contracts
michaelschade 11y ago
Great question! I've learned a lot about this as I've gotten to hear from entrepreneurs that tried to setup in their own country, but ultimately came to the US. The video on our site gives some glimpse into the problems these entrepreneurs run into: https://stripe.com/atlas#stories https://stripe.com/atlas#stories The gist is that certain countries have a better business and banking infrastructure than others for entrepreneurs looking to establish a global company. This isn't necessarily specific to the US—and we'll be expanding Atlas to more countries—but the US is a solid starting point, based on what many entrepreneurs in emerging markets already do. For example, incorporating in a place like Delaware allows companies to issue stock to employees, makes it easy to raise money from global investors, and provides the stability of clear corporate rules and case law. (Most Fortune 500 companies are established in Delaware). Getting started with a US incorporation also makes many more services accessible to you, that might not be available if you incorporated in your own country with less support for new businesses. It's a personal decision, for sure, but if you're in a country where you're finding your business constrained by the lack of particular banking infrastructure or access to business services, we think Atlas can help.
- flashm 11y ago
  This only really works for people that aren't already setup as a company though. You can't just open a new company in another country and expect to start moving your revenue to it, it just doesn't work like that. For instance, I'm registered in the UK and would have a tough time telling HMRC 'oh that's my US company, nothing to do with you'. It's a completely different problem if you already run a business and want to open a US branch. That's the same for pretty much anyone in the EU. I think that needs to be made more clear in the schpiel.
  - bgaluszka 11y ago
    > oh that's my US company, nothing to do with you Can you expand on this? I don't understand a problem here.
    - flashm 11y ago
      Check chrisdew's answer above. It just doesn't work like that in the UK, or most places in the EU. If it was a totally different company, doing a totally different type of business, then you could argue the case that it was nothing to do with it. You would still have to pay income tax on any money you remitted into the UK though from your US or other earnings abroad. In much the same way as the US treasury want's a piece of US citizens worldwide earnings, I believe. You really do not want to mess with HMRC in the UK. They will chew you up and spit you out without a care in the world if you don't play by the rules.
  - phillmv 11y ago
    >You can't just open a new company in another country and expect to start moving your revenue to it, it just doesn't work like that. It kind of does work like that? Granted, it depends on how you structure it. I confess I'm not privy to how taxes work in the UK, and that further I'm not an accountant but: I too am responsible for a US and non US corp. You may have to declare your US corp as an asset in the UK, for all I know. That said, if you have a US legal entity that is booking revenue then HMRC doesn't have any jurisdiction. That USCorp pays US corporate taxes just like any other. If you move any of the US income to your UKCorp or your UK resident person then the Crown will happily takes its cut.
tn13 11y ago
I run an independent business in India and all my clients are in USA. I would rather setup a US based company where the regulatory certainty is much better in India. Keep and invest money within US to the extent taxation is not a problem. I am pretty sure there are many more people like me.
- ameen 11y ago
  As a fellow Indian, but without a business atm, I'd love to connect.
briandear 11y ago
Try incorporating in India. Massive headache. Same for banking in many countries. Atlas solves a very painful problem for many founders.
kijin 11y ago
Ease of payment processing alone might be worth setting up a US corporation. In a lot of countries where Stripe et al. are not available, PayPal (shudder!) is the only way to collect payment from customers all over the world, and even PayPal isn't available all the time. For example, in my country of citizenship, I can use PayPal to collect payment from foreigners but not from people in the same country, so I would be forced to maintain two payment processing systems (a domestic-only gateway as well as PayPal for the rest of the world) and add a lot of friction to the sign-up process if I incorporated there.

by pbreit 11y ago

zekevermillion 11y ago

This is all about access to US bank accounts.

andreasklinger 11y ago

It's not so much about entering the US market imo as it is about being investor standard ready. This is essentially the step 0 to standard investment contracts

michaelschade 11y ago

Great question! I've learned a lot about this as I've gotten to hear from entrepreneurs that tried to setup in their own country, but ultimately came to the US. The video on our site gives some glimpse into the problems these entrepreneurs run into: https://stripe.com/atlas#stories https://stripe.com/atlas#stories The gist is that certain countries have a better business and banking infrastructure than others for entrepreneurs looking to establish a global company. This isn't necessarily specific to the US—and we'll be expanding Atlas to more countries—but the US is a solid starting point, based on what many entrepreneurs in emerging markets already do. For example, incorporating in a place like Delaware allows companies to issue stock to employees, makes it easy to raise money from global investors, and provides the stability of clear corporate rules and case law. (Most Fortune 500 companies are established in Delaware). Getting started with a US incorporation also makes many more services accessible to you, that might not be available if you incorporated in your own country with less support for new businesses. It's a personal decision, for sure, but if you're in a country where you're finding your business constrained by the lack of particular banking infrastructure or access to business services, we think Atlas can help.

flashm 11y ago
This only really works for people that aren't already setup as a company though. You can't just open a new company in another country and expect to start moving your revenue to it, it just doesn't work like that. For instance, I'm registered in the UK and would have a tough time telling HMRC 'oh that's my US company, nothing to do with you'. It's a completely different problem if you already run a business and want to open a US branch. That's the same for pretty much anyone in the EU. I think that needs to be made more clear in the schpiel.
- bgaluszka 11y ago
  > oh that's my US company, nothing to do with you Can you expand on this? I don't understand a problem here.
  - flashm 11y ago
    Check chrisdew's answer above. It just doesn't work like that in the UK, or most places in the EU. If it was a totally different company, doing a totally different type of business, then you could argue the case that it was nothing to do with it. You would still have to pay income tax on any money you remitted into the UK though from your US or other earnings abroad. In much the same way as the US treasury want's a piece of US citizens worldwide earnings, I believe. You really do not want to mess with HMRC in the UK. They will chew you up and spit you out without a care in the world if you don't play by the rules.
- phillmv 11y ago
  >You can't just open a new company in another country and expect to start moving your revenue to it, it just doesn't work like that. It kind of does work like that? Granted, it depends on how you structure it. I confess I'm not privy to how taxes work in the UK, and that further I'm not an accountant but: I too am responsible for a US and non US corp. You may have to declare your US corp as an asset in the UK, for all I know. That said, if you have a US legal entity that is booking revenue then HMRC doesn't have any jurisdiction. That USCorp pays US corporate taxes just like any other. If you move any of the US income to your UKCorp or your UK resident person then the Crown will happily takes its cut.

tn13 11y ago

I run an independent business in India and all my clients are in USA. I would rather setup a US based company where the regulatory certainty is much better in India. Keep and invest money within US to the extent taxation is not a problem. I am pretty sure there are many more people like me.

ameen 11y ago
As a fellow Indian, but without a business atm, I'd love to connect.

briandear 11y ago

Try incorporating in India. Massive headache. Same for banking in many countries. Atlas solves a very painful problem for many founders.

kijin 11y ago

Ease of payment processing alone might be worth setting up a US corporation. In a lot of countries where Stripe et al. are not available, PayPal (shudder!) is the only way to collect payment from customers all over the world, and even PayPal isn't available all the time. For example, in my country of citizenship, I can use PayPal to collect payment from foreigners but not from people in the same country, so I would be forced to maintain two payment processing systems (a domestic-only gateway as well as PayPal for the rest of the world) and add a lot of friction to the sign-up process if I incorporated there.