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Aussies starting USA company

Asked by: James  — 27 July, 2011

Hi there. I am an Australian small business owner. We currently service USA clients however are looking at establishing a further presence in the USA by having a local virtual address and bank account. Going to the USA to sign papers is no problem however the majority of our work will be conducted in Australia. We do however ship a physical product to clients in the USA. Do we need to form a USA company or can we continue operating out of Australia? What do we need to open a business bank account in the USA and do you offer this service? The location of our virtual serviced office will be in California. Fund from our Paypal accounts and USA based business banking accounts will be extracted to Australia. What do you think our best way forward is? Thanks in advance!

Answered by: admin  — 27 July, 2011

James,

First of all congratulations on growing your business. As far as establishing a more solid presence in the US I would say it’s a business decision that you will need to make yourself. On our end I can tell you about the technicalities of each of the scenarios you consider for this expansion.

Technically you can continue doing business using your Australian company, however, as you already understand correctly, it is much easier to do business in the US using a “local” US entity. Once established, such entity will enter into formal business relationship with your Australian entity, or if you like you can just use it as primary entity for your business (a US company can have primary business address in Australia).

Any one of those scenarios allows you to collect payments through PayPal, transfer them to US bank account, and then transfer them to Australian bank. The accounting part of those movements will need to be verified with your accountant, but in general there is nothing unusual about that plan.

To open a bank account you will need to travel to the US at least once, but after that most banks will allow you to control most of the aspects of bank account management online or by phone. I would recommend opening Checking and Savings account together (just in case).

I hope I answered most of your questions, but if you are welcome to ask more.

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