Legal Question in Business Law in California

Hi,

I am from India and I am starting an LLP here. But we have members registering from all over the world including US.

So the website model is like our members register on our site, uploads files, promote them. And when any visitor downloads it, they get a commission. And at end of the month, we pay our members a commission (not fixed amount of course as it varies as you can see) every month.

And we used services of a company in the US which processes mass payments for our members. Basically we send them file with payee list and they make payments for us to our members worldwide.

Now I must mention our taxation is done in India and so we do collect necessary details from Indian members like PAN card (used for tax filing).

But we were confused by the US laws. I have seen from US based businesses that they are required to collect W8/W9 (W8 for Non-US members) form and also SSN/TIN from every US individual. So my doubt was whether our business being based in India - do we need to collect those forms and SSN/TIN from US members? I am guessing no.

Thanks, I'd like precise answer to my questions.


Asked on 10/02/14, 3:36 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Frank Natoli Natoli-Legal, LLC

I don't blame you for wanting a precise answer and you should seek to receive one. Unfortunately, you won't get one here nor should you rely on anything anyone offers here as this is just a free and public Q&A platform, not a substitute for specific and actionable legal and tax advice.

If you are sitting in India and conducting your business from there, I suggest you start by consulting a tax advisor that is accustomed to working with businesses that have compliance requirements in the US. I assume that thus far you have not complied with any US tax authority requirements? You can also contact any number of accounting practices here that can look into your needs and advise.

You can start by calling around to several for a free phone consultation, get some insights then pick the best fit to work with.

Best regards,

Frank

Natoli-Lapin, LLC

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Answered on 10/06/14, 5:19 am


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