Its seems foreign webmasters dont need a US company (BILLERS PLEASE CONFIRM???)
 

Ok, well I dont have this info in writing yet but based on CCBills FAQ and conversations with CCBill it seems you only need a US tax ID, a US bank account, and a US postal address.

Foreign entities (and individuals) can get a tax ID (EIN) in the US without having a company there. Form SS-4 from the IRS will take care of that. I suggest you do it via there phone line as there is normally a few week delay to get one otherwise.

Bank accounts are easy to get, and there are plenty of mail drop services to provide a post office address and mail forwarding.

I have asked this question on the board before for the billers to confirm but didnt get a response.

If this is the case, at least it will save the hassle of incorporation and the costs associated with running a US company.

Now for my disclaimer: I am not claiming this is actually correct, just seems that way at the moment, so before you all register companies it may be worth checking out.

you would still have to fly to the US to open a bank account though.

Jayson, great post. I hope you're right. I already have a US account, would just need a mailbox there.

Not at all - I only switched US banks about 2 months ago and did it all from Australia - just mailed the docs back and forward. Totally painless.

No, not true, our Swedish bank is setting one up for us at the moment... We had to sign some papers etc, but flying over there wasnt necessary. It is taking some time though... We started setting up this account over a month ago, mainly to drive checks thru.

It might just serve another purpose as well now though...

That means you already had a US bank account to begin with, right?

To open a US bank account you have to go in person to the bank.

Yes I did have a US account,which was also opened from Australia.

You do not need to go into a bank to open the account.

I did it totally from here and another Aus webmaster I referred to the same bank has recently done the same thing.

I just faxed paperwork and ID, they sent documents to sign, sign them and send them back and bang, account, check book and a debit mastercard - and it costs me $10 a month in account fees.

Hmm, cool. I have a question for you. Do they allow you to recieve wire transfers. For instance if you wanted to wire money from your US account to your Aussie account?

I was told by three bank personelle from separate banks that I couldn't do this. I could only wire money in, but if I want to wire money out, I'd have to be present. I hope I can wire money out from home via fax.

Yep but it is expensive.

I just write a check and bank it locally, and my bank clears it straight away as they know it is my account and I do it all the time.

Jayson, can you tell me what bank that is?

www.thebancorp.com

They are cheap and their support is pretty good so far, easy to deal with. I do pretty much everything by email and get same day responses.

Is this true? Can anyone confirm this? On the form (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fss4.pdf) it asks for a SSN if you are a sole proprietorship. Otherwise you need to be a corporation or trust or something, it appears. So if you don't have a US SSN then you are right back to having to set up a business in the US - that's the way it reads to me.

And US SSNs used to be somewhat easy to get for non-citizens but not after March 2 of this year - blame 9/11.

Anyone have more info?

Jayson, thanks for the info. Really appreciated:thumbsup

Thnx Jayson, very helpful info.:thumbsup

Unfortunately, I think you still might need a "presence" in the US. We talked to someone from Paycom today and they said that what it looks like it's going to lead to is that the person that is in the US based office will need to own 1% of the company. This means that it is an owner that is in the office and that can be reached in the USA.

So hiring a McDonald's employee to answer phones for you isn't that much of an answer.

CCBill said a post box is fine - otherwise get a serviced office - $50 a month or something and it will look like an office and someone can answer your phone.