I see a lot of questions on H1B and LLCs all over the net. However, I'm not married to the LLC solution route but am rather just trying to accomplish two related goals:
1) additional income (legal) while residing in the US on an H1B
2) a company for the purpose of liability protection (without having to partner with anyone to establish it).
Regarding #1: Apparently it is only illegal to accept employment, not make additional income. For example, if I could paint and I painted a picture, and someone bought it for $1000, that is apparently completely legal. It is accepting an order for it that would apparently be illegal under H1B status. Is that correct?
Following a similar line of logic (if it is indeed correct), would it be legal to build/own a website, register for something like Google adsense, and receive income from the traffic and clicks of advertisments which Google provides?
Regarding #2: Could openning an LLC or Corp in home country or offshore be a good route? It provides a company behind the product and liability protection. It shouldn't be required to register in the US for that kind of business (as it doesn't need to be registered in any other country whose residents have access to the product via the web). Yes, the owner would be residing in the US and working on the product from the US, but that doesn't seem to matter anywhere else in the world...
Finally, could the route of an offshore corp also take care of #1.
So the bottom line: Although an H1B can own an LLC as an investor, since the US does not allow us to do work for it while on H1B for someone else, would an offshore company be a legal solution to #1 and #2? Would any taxes be owed to the US?
Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks!
1) additional income (legal) while residing in the US on an H1B
2) a company for the purpose of liability protection (without having to partner with anyone to establish it).
Regarding #1: Apparently it is only illegal to accept employment, not make additional income. For example, if I could paint and I painted a picture, and someone bought it for $1000, that is apparently completely legal. It is accepting an order for it that would apparently be illegal under H1B status. Is that correct?
Following a similar line of logic (if it is indeed correct), would it be legal to build/own a website, register for something like Google adsense, and receive income from the traffic and clicks of advertisments which Google provides?
Regarding #2: Could openning an LLC or Corp in home country or offshore be a good route? It provides a company behind the product and liability protection. It shouldn't be required to register in the US for that kind of business (as it doesn't need to be registered in any other country whose residents have access to the product via the web). Yes, the owner would be residing in the US and working on the product from the US, but that doesn't seem to matter anywhere else in the world...
Finally, could the route of an offshore corp also take care of #1.
So the bottom line: Although an H1B can own an LLC as an investor, since the US does not allow us to do work for it while on H1B for someone else, would an offshore company be a legal solution to #1 and #2? Would any taxes be owed to the US?
Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks!