united-states, llc, internationalFor example, I have an application or a website that brings me income. As far as I understand I need to have a company behind this so everything would be official. But what if the country I’m living is poor and corrupted and it is not very safe to create a company in it? Can I create and operate a company in another country while still being a citizen of my current one? Are there some preferred options?
I’m in Ukraine, and the foreign country I would like to run the business from would be the United States. For at least the first year the business is in operation, I would remain in the Ukraine, and it’s possible that this would remain the case for the duration of the business’s operations.
Simply put, yes it is possible however there are a few obstacles in this process...
Office: When registering an LLC you must have a registered agent in the place you are registering. This can simply be a lawyers office or better yet registers agents services are fairly affordable.
Employees: Managing employees from a distance can be fairly taxing but if done properly it can be extremely beneficial for all parties. Buffer (the application) on many occasions has spoke about their remote team and has great resources about how they manage their team.
Taxes: No matter where you are registered you will be filing some kind of taxes. When doing this remotely it's often difficult to know the certain laws in the area. When it comes to the United States certain states offer better advantages for different types of companies. Currently Nevada seems to be the best for LLC Small Businesses. You can read more about that here. In addition, I would recommended hiring a book keeper and an accountant to help keep you on track for this. The book keeper will keep your books up to date. (A good one will be around $60/hour) The accountant will ensure your taxes are filed appropriately yearly and quarterly if needed. (A good one will be around $125/hour, the actual yearly filing will be around $400)
Distance: Often times running a remote company still means visiting the headquarters to keep everything on track. To me it sounds like it will be just you to start so there should be no issue with the remote distance of the US from where you are.
I live in the UK and founded and operated a company in Croatia. I found that the biggest issue with running a company remotely is communication. I had to fly over there frequently (at least once every 2 or 3 months) to keep the team motivated and focused, but the effect wears off quickly.
So, yes you can create the company, and you can also hire people. However, to effectively lead and manage a team remotely, you need to have a solid preexisting relationship with the people you hire, or at least one with the manager that will lead the team for you.
In the end I closed the company and let my remote workers go because we couldn’t remain as an effective team.
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