9
There are many variables.
In short words, you have to know how to licence your work and this should happen when you write the contract with the client.
Of course, there are many aspects of the problem you should consider:
Does the work contain parts over which your client has full copyright (logo, text, colors, design, source code, trademarks)?
What can you ...
8
Why the are not choosing you? The reasons may be:
They prefer working with some in the USA. In case things go bad, they can always sue USA contractor. USA contractors are also aware of this.
Price of the project - large project are usually not being subcontracted outside USA
Remote workers are unreliable. I heard this sentence from many clients who tried ...
7
Even as a single member LLC you must keep finances separate. You must have a bank account for the LLC which is not your personal bank account. Then you can pay yourself (or take dividends) from the LLC funds. But you can not deposit the LLC money into a personal bank account. Well, you aren't supposed to. I guess a bank may allow you to, but legally you ...
6
I would suggest asking for a contract to be made, or you make one and ask it to be signed. The purpose of a contract is to protect both parties.
You can simply state (the contract should be more in depth than the following "In the unforeseen event that there is a breach in data I cannot be held responsible for any HIPPA violations". I would include that you ...
5
It's probably reasonable for you to make a rough estimate of the percentage of business use for your home office and Internet. You could keep a diary for a week or a month, noting down your hours for personal and business use and then extrapolate these numbers for the whole year.
There is no easy way for the tax department to check the actual percentages so ...
4
I think it's valuable to add to the other answers that you must be able to prove that your LLC is acting as a business entity in order to have the protection specified.
Generally speaking you do this by running it as a real business and not as a shield. (Meaning that, in most cases, you can not simply have an LLC but give it no capital, keep no books, etc......
4
Edward Brey's comment is pretty much spot as far as liability is concerned. Other than (well put, Edward!) illegal activity, the LLC form protects the owners and operators from incurring personal liability as a result of activities carried out for the business of the LLC.
The LLC business entity is a simpler approach than a corporation because it removes ...
4
Reissuing an invoice should be fine as long as it is clear why the invoice has been reissued. This could be done by annotating the new invoice appropriately such as, "Invoice [number] reissued with amended address" or similar. For obvious reasons it is especially important to be clear about whether the invoice amount has changed or not and whether it needs ...
4
You are supposed to report all income earned from all sources.
Your tax liability will depend on many other factors. I am not a lawyer or an accountant. It will be best to discuss with a tax professional about this.
It would probably be best to set up a sole proprietorship company (again, talk to a tax professional, accountant or lawyer about how to do ...
4
Skype
It doesn't matter if you can't have personal meetings with them. Clients love to be able to do Skype meetings if you don't mind using it. You simply need to make it very clear that you're opened to chat with them about their projects. If you don't like being on video mode, they're usually all right with a voice chat as well.
Currency Value
There is ...
4
IANAL. However according to the IRS you need to file a 1099-MISC if you made any of the following payments
File this form for each person to whom you have paid during the year:
at least $10 in royalties or broker payments in lieu of dividends or tax-exempt interest;
at least $600 in rents, services (including parts and materials), prizes and ...
4
It is perfectly acceptable to work from the US for a UK company.
You will need to invoice the UK company from a US entity (either Inc or self-employed), paying the taxes at a state and federal level in the USA. You should call your state's small business administration (sba.gov on a federal level) and ask for advice on how to get set up.
4
In any creative venture, be it artwork, fiction writing, markup writing, coding, music, film.... the "work" is copyrighted and owned by the creator the moment it is created.
There are only 9 ways the author "loses" rights to the work. William Fisher, of Harvard Law, has an excellent lecture on copyrights. Specifically Lecture 5 part 3 ...
4
I'm not a tax professional, which is who I think you really need to speak to.
I do believe any form of US business (LLC, S-Corp, Sole Proprietorship, etc.) is going to require you pay US taxes. You can't receive income in the US and not pay taxes in the US.
A Sole Proprietorship is still a business entity even though it's only a single person. Similar to how ...
4
If you want to create an air-gap between yourself and the company that you're consulting for (so that people who have access to the company records for your freelancing LLC and your own personal financial records can't see the ultimate source of the income) what you'll need to do is incorporate a second anonymous LLC.
You create a secondary company, which we'...
3
It seems you're assuming their reason for not hiring you is the fact that you're outside US, but there doesn't seem to be any real evidence to think so. I have been freelancing for a few years and have a few friends doing the same, all of us regularly get awarded projects by US clients and have had generally pleasant experiences with them. If there are ...
3
First, let's clean up the language:
Every individual conducts BUSINESS. As with you. Whether you "own" a business or not, if you work for somebody else, you're in the BUSINESS of transacting between your employer and yourself, Alicia Uhacz (let's pretend that you're Alicia Uhacz, Inc -- it'd be the same!)
There are several business forms:
Sole ...
3
The question of whether you retain copyright or transfer/assign copyright to your client is more of a business question and a question of how you prefer to work.
Many clients don't negotiate copyright ownership especially when issues regarding delivery of work and payment terms take greater precedence to both parties. If you educate your clients about ...
3
Absolutely. The technical term for doing so is called being a "sole proprietor".
"Sole proprietorship" refers to how your business is "organized" as per the IRS. A sole proprietor may use their own name for conducting business, or may register a business name with their municipality if they want. (My town registers business names for two four years for $...
3
Run, don't walk, to a local certified accountant. You need advice from a professional in this area. Time is running out on your 2014 taxes. The financial penalties can be significant if you have mis-estimated your tax liability.
3
Whether or not a company issues a 1099 is their choice. If they do not wish to comply with that requirement, that is their business. In 2011 the IRS made filing 1099s more easily tracked. They added a question to the tax forms, "Did you make any payments in 2011 that would require you to file Form(s) 1099?" and there are only "Yes" and "no" answers. So ...
3
I've contacted a TN accounting firm, here's what they said:
"You can put 0% tax rate on your invoice if you like, but the main thing is that the invoice should clearly show that it is an out-of-state customer (with an address from another state or country). TN considers web design and development as the creation of software on the customer’s server. So if ...
3
Generally speaking, no you do not need a SSN. You will not be able to even apply for a SSN since you did not mention you have a visa to work physically in the US.
The most common request for a SSN for an overseas contractor to a US company is for the W-8 forms. The IRS says these are for "non-resident aliens who do work and/or make income in the U.S. or ...
2
As a UK freelancer working with primarily US clients, I'm often on the opposite side of the arrangement. I personally tend to work with either milestones and/or a 25–50% upfront deposit (depending on the overall size of the project).
To answer your specific questions:
How do I ensure that freelancer I hired delivers? and how do you ensure safety?
Pre-...
2
IRS requirements call for regular and exclusive usage of the office for your work, and generally allow percentage rooms, or percentage square feet. So, 1 room in 5 (20%), or 200 sq ft out of 1000 sq ft (20%). It sounds like you're not full time, so I would just declare a regular space you use exclusively for work and stick to it. It could be a small ...
2
From EU perspective it works like this:
If you buy goods for the purposes of your business from a supplier based outside the EU, you must generally pay VAT at the point of import (and may deduct this in your next VAT return if you make taxed sales).
http://europa.eu/youreurope/business/vat-customs/cross-border/index_en.htm
I don't know anything about ...
2
The important is that you declare your revenues in the country you're operating the business. And as the url below suggests, you might also need to declare this UK bank account to the IRS. So yes, you can invoice your client in Pound Sterling and have it deposit in the UK bank account. That's a good solution if you actually have a need for the Pound Sterling ...
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