Paying Taxes..

Im looking to start an online business where the platform for it is based in America where im based in UK. But where would i stand on paying taxes etc as the money is not earned in the UK

 

Where is the payment being made to and where is the product shipped from?

 

there isnt an item to get shipped.. think of it like rapidshare where its US and they pay for downloads.. although its in US and im in UK, it would of been earned in the US.. so how do i avoid paying UK taxes?

the platform is not rapidshare but its a similar in how the money is earnt from abroad with selling products.

 

trust me dude its not worth skipping on the taxes, i'm in the opposite boat with UK sites and living in the USA... IRS always figures stuff out, they have a tax agreement with the UK...

 

If you are accessing the earnings in the UK and you exceed the threshold for paying tax you will have to pay it, no way round it.

 

there is by putting it into an offshore account but also declaring it with HRMC but as its not earned in this country, they cant tax you.. im just not 100% on how its done..

 

i've never heard of a way that involves TELLING the tax office lol

 

The point is, regardless of how you've earned the money, and how you plan on getting them into the country, or usable in the country you live in, there's gonna be some form of tax - where you've earned the money is a bit irrelevant. Of course, there are ways around having to pay taxes of everything (or, at least, pay as high taxes as the income tax), but that usually involves tax-fronts for the company / companies, some legal know-how, and quite a bit of setup.

 

Death and taxes, folks...

Here in the U.S. we have the additionally fun situation of having all 50 individual states preferring that an Internet vendor who sells something to one of their citizens, collect a sales tax for them. The federal rule is that you have to have a physical presence in a state to be forced to collect sales tax. I have a couple of states all over my ecommerce site, sending me questionnaires, etc., to see if I have even as much as a post office box in their state. And they keep following up every six months or so. Fortunately, I have no ties to them whatsoever.

 

All you are going to do is draw attention to yourself as far as HMRC is concerned, be prepare to be audited on a regular basis and if you're not squeaky clean they will screw you, believe me it's not worth the hassle.
More info here: https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/overview

 

It would not be such a problem if not for the fact that they want you to collect tax based on where the person lives, which can involve taxes levied by other taxing jurisdictions and special districts. So you don't just have 50 tax rates to contend with, you have thousands.

For example, the sales tax in the metro area in which I live is 1/8th of a percent higher than in another city down the road, the result of a "transit tax". An internet vendor selling to me would be expected to collect that additional 1/8th of a percent tax but would not collect it from someone living in a neighboring town. It is impossible for small webmasters to know all those tax rates, so they end up paying money to subscribe to tax calculation services.

 

Your issue could be solved by being a non-domiciled resident in the UK, running an offshore company, for example in delaware. But then youd still need a bank account and actually access to a VAT-Number, to make things easier when it comes to the acceptance of merchants trnsferring money to your bank account. Since this is a very complex materia, Id suggest you to have a consultation with me, you can contact me via PM.