I would really appreciate it if anyone has an opinion on whether this would simply be a legal/tax nightmare for an Irish Ltd company.
* Moderately successful Irish eCommerce company
* Gap spotted in the U.S. Online Market - backed up by own research data
I do not want to go down the route of starting an American Ltd company (LLC), but we'd like to:
* Sub-let a U.S. warehouse (I and others have done this before)
* Purchase stock from one of our existing US Suppliers. Instead of going to Ireland as normal, the stock will be remaining inside the U.S. (tax issue #1)
* Host new separate website in the US.
* Take orders & ship from sub-let warehouse. (No U.S. employees, all outsourced). (tax issue #2, U.S. sales tax). Please ignore merchant account requirements for now.
So..
* For a non-export purchase, I would assume a U.S. supplier will need a U.S. tax identifier (their version of a VAT number). Obviously we don't have one of these, do any Irish companies? Can you perhaps register a US office and subsequently apply?
* Sales Tax.. this can get quite messy based on the State. Although I've seen a school of thought which implies that foreign entities are not liable for it (because they cannot reclaim the tax on the original stock purchase).
* Surely there is then some form of US tax return to file annually
* And I wonder how these sales are treated tax-wise on your books in Ireland.
If anyone has any similar experience, or feels it is a non-runner, input would be appreciated. Cheers.
* Moderately successful Irish eCommerce company
* Gap spotted in the U.S. Online Market - backed up by own research data
I do not want to go down the route of starting an American Ltd company (LLC), but we'd like to:
* Sub-let a U.S. warehouse (I and others have done this before)
* Purchase stock from one of our existing US Suppliers. Instead of going to Ireland as normal, the stock will be remaining inside the U.S. (tax issue #1)
* Host new separate website in the US.
* Take orders & ship from sub-let warehouse. (No U.S. employees, all outsourced). (tax issue #2, U.S. sales tax). Please ignore merchant account requirements for now.
So..
* For a non-export purchase, I would assume a U.S. supplier will need a U.S. tax identifier (their version of a VAT number). Obviously we don't have one of these, do any Irish companies? Can you perhaps register a US office and subsequently apply?
* Sales Tax.. this can get quite messy based on the State. Although I've seen a school of thought which implies that foreign entities are not liable for it (because they cannot reclaim the tax on the original stock purchase).
* Surely there is then some form of US tax return to file annually
* And I wonder how these sales are treated tax-wise on your books in Ireland.
If anyone has any similar experience, or feels it is a non-runner, input would be appreciated. Cheers.