UK Limited B2B SaaS Company signing up US Corporate Clients and getting paid

[cloudman]

Hello,

I've got me Limited Company going now... no more IR35 and no more sitting at desks. All remote Skype, phone, email, I have clients for SaaS programming in the UK.

I am a UK Citizen. Resident in UK. I want to offer the same cloud services to USA big companies.

I want to pay some independant comission only salespeople in the USA to sell me services.

These cheeky people want me to cover their expenses - travel from their homes to client sights, flights, car rental, lodging.

I don't want a US presence - to complicated and time-consuming. Just want contracts to do support and cloud programming thru the LTD company.

I know I need to give them a W-Bennie-3 and tell Hiscox to triple me PI insurance to cover US customers.

But some questions:

1. Will the Americans not like contracting/selling to a UK company? Will they have issue? I don't want a US corp just to please them; can't afford the paperwork and care and feeding costs. But if I must, for the right money, I suppose I would have no choice, though it would be a last resort.

2. Will they pay direct to a UK Bank Account? Or do I need to use Transferwise? They can pay in USD that is fine. Less than $200k USD a year (we hope).

3. I know there is no VAT for providing services to US corps... but will I have to pay US corporate tax? All work is done in UK.

4. These salespeople aren't corporations. They are indepenant US contractors. Should I fill out a US 1099-misc for them

5. As far as overseas expenses, how will HMRC look at me paying these people's travel (I suppose I will use HMRC maximums as a policy... seems reasonable)... just get their receipts? I want to give them debit cards and load them up with USD and make the send us all receipts... better than taking a forex and fee charge every time they swipe.

6. Car rental is so expensive it seems. I would rather buy a company van for them to use (also a good rolling advertisement). Will HMRC not like this? Would it just be the same as if I did the same in the UK?

Best wishes all...

Cloudman

[GhostofTarbera]

UK Limited B2B SaaS Company signing up US Corporate Clients and getting paid

Which Big US companies ?


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

[Lance]

If I were you I'd focus on getting some business initially.

As for independent, commission only sales people. If you pay their expenses then they're not commission only.

As for the rest of your questions. Ask your customers, when and if you get any.
HMRC won't care how you pay these salespeople, but the IRS might.
Oh, and don't f*** with the IRS. They will try and extradite you and jurisdiction is of no interest to them if you're using USD.

Out of interest. If you're a one man company, how do you expect to afford to pay all these costs? And that assumes you can land the work, with no track record and just being one man.

One more thing. You do know that their president is indulging in a trade war with pretty much the rest of the world don't you? Have you even considered the tariffs that might be involved, if not now but later.
Also consider that in November we might be trading on WTO rules with the USA.

IMO this is not good business for a small company. Stick to the markets you know with the rules you know.


It's my not me.
It's independent, not independant
It's commission, not comission.
You sometimes need to use too rather than to.

[cloudman]

Which Big US companies ?


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

Any one that uses cloud SaaS.

[cloudman]

If I were you I'd focus on getting some business initially.

As for independent, commission only sales people. If you pay their expenses then they're not commission only.

As for the rest of your questions. Ask your customers, when and if you get any.
HMRC won't care how you pay these salespeople, but the IRS might.
Oh, and don't f*** with the IRS. They will try and extradite you and jurisdiction is of no interest to them if you're using USD.

Out of interest. If you're a one man company, how do you expect to afford to pay all these costs? And that assumes you can land the work, with no track record and just being one man.

One more thing. You do know that their president is indulging in a trade war with pretty much the rest of the world don't you? Have you even considered the tariffs that might be involved, if not now but later.
Also consider that in November we might be trading on WTO rules with the USA.

IMO this is not good business for a small company. Stick to the markets you know with the rules you know.


It's my not me.
It's independent, not independant
It's commission, not comission.
You sometimes need to use too rather than to.

So if a commission-only salesperson asks to cover expenses, does that by HMRC rules cross the line, tax-wise, into them being employees? Shall I demand that they have their own companies and have them invoice me? They are pretty consistantly saying that the US is a big place and that I must pay for their travel and accomodation.

I hear the IRS is nasty, that is why I do not wish to have a US subsidiary.

As far as being able to pay all the costs, I am hoping that UK earnings will cover the cost of me "expanding abroad", meaning, yes, I will be spending everything, taking a loss even, to try to get some clients overseas, in hopes that I can land a contract or two.. and more importantly, get my name out over there, that will make it all a worthwhile risk. I want to get to the place where I can focus on project management and have the income to hire BAs and developers as independants, so that I don't have to keep loosing contracts whilst I update my skills.

Thank you for your input.

[simes]

It's my not me.
It's independent, not independant
It's commission, not comission.
You sometimes need to use too rather than to.

And while you're clearing up the spelling;

Or indeed, 'indepenant'
Or the classic, 'client sights'...