Offshore business for US residents, taxes
 

Americans, what tax forms are you filling from income coming from offshore company? Is there are any restrictions running offshore businesses for US residents? Owning corporate/private bank accounts abroad?

Form 2269 -B

Can't find such form.

Normal income declaration. No restrictions running offshore businesses for US residents. You can open bank accounts anyplace you want.

BUT.... You are obliged to report income to the IRS irrespective whether you are resident in the US or not.

If you are the beneficial owner of an offshore corp and a US citizen - you are legally obliged to report income. What's the point of running an offshore business and having "private" bank accounts abroad when you then tell *anyone* about them. They are no longer private. :winkwink:

OK.. There are ways to have offshore structures and keep them above board and cover your ass legally, but you really need to deal with an experienced US tax/corporate lawyer on this.

Sadly the above only applies to the US in the main - other countries don't have this restriction - as long as the beneficial owners is actually resident outside his/her home country.

did you check the irs site

Reporting corporate income or just income you got from offshore?

Yes, there are forms 2220 and the 2290, but not 2269...

:) Well... If you are the beneficial owner of a corp, ya technically "own" any profit that corp makes. So yes, that would be part of your income - whether this can be "shuffled" by tax accountants is another matter.

Basically by being in a situation where an offshore corp, by nature, is a private legal entity - and then having to disclose data concerning it to third parties, such as the IRS, beats the purpose of having one in the first instance. In offshore jurisdiction corps are genuinely private and eg it's usually a criminal offense within these jurisdictions for any lawyer or bank to disclose data.

Example... if you declared an income source.. such as a salary from an offshore corp - that's fine, folks can work for who they choose. But if you are in real life the beneficial owner of the corp - that can give the IRS a starting point to investigate your tax affairs in more detail - ie.. you have kindly given them the door to open.

There are loads of reasons for offshore corp structures and if well planned, make good sense. But one of the basic critera is going to be about the personal situation of the proposed beneficial owner and their true intentions. If it's just a tax filtering operation, it may not stand up too well, especially if the beneficial owner still maintains residency within their home country and is not actually "offshore".

For the US in particular... this really needs professional advice, but from people who actually have some experience in the area of US tax laws and offshore. Finding such people is another matter tho - they all claim to have experience, but in practice it's different - you'd really need to research em!

why not just open a nevada corp...
if interested.. i can do it for you..