Hacker News Reader

Comment by HalfPriceDigi | Hacker News Reader

You have to keep in mind that a company is its own entity and since my startup was formed in the UK, it is a UK company that is governed by UK laws. The UK has no problem with non-resident company directors, but setting up a bank account for a company with a non-resident director is another story.

View on HN

@HalfPriceDigi, don't forget to prepare and file Form 5471 for your UK company. Screw that up and it is an automatic $10,000 penalty.

(Disclosure: international tax lawyer; have fought this battle with the IRS before).

And yes. The banking problem is the hard problem to solve.

In both directions. U.S. banks can be giant poopy-heads. Bank of America just closed the account of a foreign client of mine who had banked with them for 33 (!) years. "We don't have to give you a reason, and we are sending you a check for your money." The second such client to experience this. Both are moving to Citibank, for what that's worth to you.

Thanks philiphodgen, I did not know about form 5471 and I've formed a few startup companies in the UK already - yikes! I should probably talk to a good, low-cost international tax lawyer...if you know of any... admin[at]halfpricedigital.co.uk

it's ridiculous that banks can just close your account without giving any explanation. i have had this happen a couple times and it's very irritating.

while i can appreciate that any business can choose to not do business with any 3rd party for whatever reason, the inability to bank can be crippling, especially if you get blacklisted by chexsystems et al.

Have you tried talking to US banks that have UK branch offices? Note that even those who don't have consumer branches may still offer accounts at those branches. E.g. Bank of America has a huge presence in Europe, mainly via MBNA and Merrill Lynch, but also some other services - I don't know if they offer accounts (the way to find out is likely to talk to their US international banking team).

I know that may be non-ideal for you from a risk POV, but you may also find the UK amusingly (or infuriatingly..) bureaucratic and byzantine in that having a UK bank account is the best way to prove to another UK bank that you are worthy of opening a bank account with them afterwards.

I would look at CFC laws:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Foreign_Corporation

Yes, I wasnt talking about starting a foreign company. I was talking about doing the work on behalf of that company from the U.S..

If you still live in the U.S. I assume you are connecting remotely to your servers and then writing and executing code that the U.S. might consider illegal behavior.

I'm not putting you down- I am glad people are pushing the boundaries. I just wouldnt feel comfortable taking that risk personally.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com