Visa form from ibill

[Bear]

Hi all,

My friend just received the email from ibill for the new registration. But I still don't know whether I need to incoropate in US or not. Actually, it seems they don't send to all webmasters, when my friend ask them, they just return this email. Here is the email:


Dear iBill client,

In order to be compliant with the new Visa regulations announced Oct.
4, we will need you to complete our online registration form. Visa will
use the data you provide on this form to process your registration.

Please use the following steps to complete the form by Wednesday, Oct.
23:

Step 1: Link to login page for the online form.
www.ibill.com/signup/re_signup_login.cfm

Step 2: Enter the following information to access the form:
Email address:
Password:
Sponsored Merchant ID:

Step 3: Review and agree to the iBill Terms of Service.

Step 4: Complete the iBill Sales Agreement. The agreement contains the
following fields:

Change Password: You are required to change your password to one of
your own choosing
Merchant Name: This is the legal name of your company. All of your
websites/URLs will be associated with this name. This name will also
serve as your ?ay to?for all future payouts.
Merchant DBA "Doing Business As": Your identified name
Merchant Address:
Merchant City:
Merchant State:
Merchant Zip:
Merchant Country:
Incorporation Status: (sole proprietor, limited liability corporation,
corporation, partnership, non-profit, other)
Tax Payer ID/Social Security Number
Merchant Secondary ID (drivers license, passport)
Principal's First Name
Principal's Last Name
Principal's Address
Principal's City
Principal's State, Province
Principal's Zip
Principal's Country

Step 5: Confirm your iBill master account and URLs. If you are missing
master accounts or URLs, please contact your account manager or our
client service team.

Step 6: Pay the registration fee. To cover the fee, iBill will deduct
$750 from your next payout. If you do not have $750 in sales to cover
the fee, you can pay for your registration via credit card.

Please make sure to keep this E-mail address and password, as you will
need them to make any changes to your account in the future. All
changes that formerly required a signature (i.e. changing your pay out
information, changing your authorized agent, or adding a master account)
will
now be done online at https://www.ibill.com/merchantinfo. In order to
login to this secure section of our website and request changes to your
account, you will need the E-mail address that this E-mail was sent to
and the password you selected.

Thank you for taking the time to complete our online registration form.
We appreciate your business as well as your trust in working with us.
Please contact your iBill account manager or our client service team if
you have any additional questions. You can email us at
[email protected] or call us at 866.424.5557 (US) or 954-363-4931
(International).

Thank you,


Garrett Bender

[[Labret]]

I havent heard jack shit from iBill. Anyone else?

[Gator]

I got a phone call and an e-mail last week, but not an e-mail for the registration form yet.

[Shark]

Nothing this way yet, but was told at lunchtime yesterday that that were being emailed out then.

[rodme_him]

Nothing this way either, guess they are keeping us Canadians in the dark too

[Shap]

Talked to ibill today. They have NO solution for international webmasters. What we were told last week was a lie from them. Canadians and all other Non Americans with ibill have only one option REGISTER A US COMPANY.

[hitman699]

Originally posted by shap
Talked to ibill today. They have NO solution for international webmasters. What we were told last week was a lie from them. Canadians and all other Non Americans with ibill have only one option REGISTER A US COMPANY.

not only that....but the form has to be done by oct 23rd so you only have 6 days

[Shoplifter]

I am in Canada and I have not received anything at all from Ibill yet.

As well my rep told me yesterday that NO PASSPORT would be required, and strictly speaking I guess it is not if you have a USA drivers license.

This is still doable though...But the big question is whether or not Visa will accept it.

[Shoplifter]

...

[steffie]

bump

[PornoBug]

If you are with a billing company (such as iBill) who does not seem to offer a viable solution for international clients then I would suggest doing one of three things.

1. Move to another processor who has international banking relationships;

-or-

2. Look into establishing your own merchant account;

-or-

3. Explore other billing options. It has been suggested in other threads that many smaller and amateur sites may even benefit from going the AVS route.

From an Australian perspective, setting up in the US to try to satisfy VISA rules is problematic on many fronts. The double taxation provisions between Australia and the USA are less clear cut for companies than for induviduals. The information being asked for by VISA is invasive and International webmasters should be cautious about how much information they give the US arm of VISA about themselves or their operations. You would be better protected, at least on a privacy level, by your own countries laws to deal with your local VISA regions.

In any case, do not try to launch into the US unless you have had thorough and detailed professional advice. We have done this and some of the scenarios range from annoying to outright scary. We will not be setting up a US corporation and we shall not be processing through iBill in the medium term - the negatives far outweigh the positives.

[Shoplifter]

Note that Ibill has has made a few changes to their service agreement that may be of interest to foreign webmasters.

Take a look at 5.8.3 ...

As far as I can interpret this you are agreeing that even though you have a USA LLC your income is not from USA sources. This is
true in our case as the portions of our setup that do the transactions are not in the USA and are not affiliated with the USA businesses except that they share some mutual principles.

My interpretation of this may be a little optimistic, I would like to hear what others who have read this think.

Their indemnification and liability disclaimers are a bit broader I think too.

[Shap]

Shoplifter, ibill told me they are required to pay the US company you operate as.

From their registration form
Merchant Name: This is the legal name of your company. All of your websites/URLs will be associated with this name. This name will also serve as your pay to for all future payouts

I called and they confirmed that they will be paying only to the Merchant Name. Which means not only a company is required but also a bank account and paying taxes etc.

[Shoplifter]

Originally posted by shap

I called and they confirmed that they will be paying only to the Merchant Name. Which means not only a company is required but also a bank account and paying taxes etc.

There is nothing they require that is not doable, and it can be done without personally indemnifying yourself to the IRS. You can open a bank account inside the USA, or possibly you can open at a USA bank in your home country or any other bank there. If you have good advisers in the USA, and the resources to pay them anything can be done.

It all boils down to how much your rebills are worth and how much patience you have with all this. It may honestly be better to just walk away from your rebills and set up with CCBill if they have an Aus or Canadian solution. If I knew of an assured legal Canadian solution at another biller I would take the loss and migrate there. At least the Aus guys can do this right now.

Even though I have spent a fair amount to cover all my bases I am still not sure what I will do. I will be the last guy pushing that submit button next week, that's for sure.

[Bobo]

Originally posted by Shoplifter


There is nothing they require that is not doable, and it can be done without personally indemnifying yourself to the IRS. You can open a bank account inside the USA, or possibly you can open at a USA bank in your home country or any other bank there.

It all boils down to how much your rebills are worth and how much patience you have with all this. It may honestly be better to just walk away from your rebills and set up with CCBill if they have an Aus or Canadian solution. If I knew of an assured legal Canadian solution at another biller I would take the loss and migrate there. At least the Aus guys can do this right now.

Even though I have spent a fair amount to cover all my bases I am still not sure what I will do. I will be the last guy pushing that submit button next week, that's for sure.

It's easy to set up a personal US Bank account. It's difficult to set up a Corporate US Bank account if you're foriegn, especially from Canada. They require all kinds of information that does indemnify you to the IRS and every government agency known to mankind.

Shap if you have to register in order to keep your rebills you're fucked my friend.

[Shark]

Sexfind , Could you hit me up on iCQ re this.

667119

Thanks

[Shark]

5.8.3 Payment to an Address, Bank Account, or Payee located outside of the United States. By accepting this Agreement as provided below, Client represents to iBill that any payment on its account to an address, bank account, or payee located outside of the United States of America is neither income from sources within the United States nor income effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the United States. iBill may refuse to deliver payments outside the United States of America for any Client with respect to which the foregoing is not true unless Client furnishes iBill with documentation required by the Internal Revenue Service for such payments.

So it appears that you cannot even continue to use them for other payment types other than Visa if you do not suit the Visa requirements on having a suitable US presence (what those requirements are nobody knows for sure yet) and paying US taxes.