How to open a small/virtual office in USA?

Jessica Noyes wrote:

In the U.S., there is no legal requirement to register a one-person business if you operate under your own name. I just receive payments in my name, keep a record of my earnings, and pay taxes. Self-employed people do have to pay their taxes quarterly though. Becoming an LLC has its advantages, and so does adopting a snazzy name, but I haven't chosen to take either route. However, the problem for your dad would be this: if you ask your clients to make a check out in his name and mail it to him, he can cash it and put it in his own account, and transfer it to you somehow; however, there is a remote chance that if it's a lot of money, the Internal Revenue "Service" might notice it somehow and expect him to pay income taxes on it.

Katalin Horváth McClure wrote:
OP has to pay taxes on it in France, his dad would have to pay taxes only on the difference.
Another funny thing is that if the dad has income from other sources, for example has regular employment, then he would have to pay taxes on the combined income, and the minimal amount he would declare from the translation business might just push him into a higher tax bracket for his entire income, making the end result a loss.

By the way, if the money simply gets funneled through the dad's account, that may raise all sorts of flags for money laundering.

Frankly, unless I am misunderstanding something, or the amounts in question are huge, it doesn't seem to me as a worthwhile undertaking.
Katalin

Balasubramaniam L. wrote:

What your clients meant when they told you that they would prefer to work with US-based serive providers, is that they preferred service providers who understand the US-market, the American customer tastes, the laws of the land, and other nitty-gritties that agencies with a prolonged presence in the US would be privy to. And claiming such specialist knowledge of the US market while technically based in France by managing to get an address and a bank account in the US, is in my eyes not a very honest thing to do.

If you are serious about this, you should actually move to the US, live there a couple of years spending time in understanding the US market, and then gradually break in into the US translation market.

Jessica Noyes wrote:



It is important to clarify that only U.S. entitities file 1099s reporting payments to you with the IRS.

Balasubramaniam L. wrote:

What your clients meant when they told you that they would prefer to work with US-based serive providers, is that they preferred service providers who understand the US-market, the American customer tastes, the laws of the land, and other nitty-gritties that agencies with a prolonged presence in the US would be privy to.