[gabemart]

> BTW, if you're not a US citizen + the business is providing services + you're the only owner (single member LLC), then there are NO TAX-paying requirements.

Does this mean no state-level tax-paying requirements, or no tax paying requirements at all?

In other words, for an overseas non-citizen sole-owner of a service-providing LLC formed in Colorado, are there no US taxes due at all?

[cynical_sheet]

That's right, you owe no US taxes. You don't have what is called "Effectively Connected Income", that is - you provide services from outside the US, not within the US. Since 'single-member LLC' is pass-through entity, that means the person is taxed (Not corporation) and you(person) are outside of the US and owe no US taxes at all.

However, you might owe taxes in your home country.

If you sell goods or there are co-founders, then you have to pay.

[lstamour]

> However, you might owe taxes in your home country.

This line is key. You can't escape taxes, you can only change where you pay them (and therefore potentially how much you pay...)

The complication with setting up a business in the US is figuring out both what the IRS expects and what your country's tax agency expects. This varies both based on treaties with the US and based on local interpretation of US company structures. You have to be careful, or a few years later you could owe back taxes either to the IRS or your local tax authority, even if your only mistake was not filing the correct paperwork to say you didn't actually owe taxes.

A better way of saying you don't owe taxes is to say ... understand what taxes you owe, it could be $0. You still have to file, however, and you'll have to file both locally and abroad. :)

It varies state-to-state what constitutes "doing business," but just having a bank account usually doesn't qualify. Coming from harmonized tax laws, the US is an unexpectedly different place. But this is a step in the right direction!