Legal and accounting intricacies of Internet services that receive money from an audience from all over the world

Question

Startups

Hi all! Need advice.
I am working on a startup (saas, internet service) that assumes that users from different countries pay for services with credit cards and electronic money (through an aggregator, of course).

In fact, I provide services to foreign individuals and / or legal entities. What difficulties will I have in connection with this? Is such activity possible when registering an ordinary LLC or is it better to register a company abroad?

Please tell us examples of Russian startups in international markets, with whom you could talk about this topic.

Answer 1

Regarding the questions themselves:
1. yes, you can work without any problems through a Russian LLC. It is up to you to decide whether to open a company abroad: the image factor, the convenience of payments (it will obviously be easier for some foreigners to work with a “compatriot”), the tax burden, etc., can play a role here. Therefore, you need to weigh all the pros and cons;
2. There are no global difficulties with the fact that you provide services to foreign individuals or legal entities through a Russian LLC. With the exception that if you work directly, the bank may require supporting documents (contracts, acts, etc., but you can limit yourself to an offer). Opening foreign currency accounts (in euros, dollars) for receiving foreign currency by bank transfer is also not a problem;
3. if you work through an aggregator, then the paper exchange with the bank will be less than in paragraph 2, and you also get rid of the need to open foreign currency accounts.
For a more complete answer, please specify the scope of services (there may be restrictions depending on the country) and the expected location of most customers.

Answer 2

I did not come across cash (credit cards, etc. ...), but by bank transfer (LLC, CJSC, OJSC, PE) - you need to have a foreign currency account. And then they'll put you in.

Answer 3

Greetings, our project accepts money from clients, not only in Russia.
The easiest way is to conclude an agreement with an aggregator (payment system) that supports payments from other countries. In this case, you will have an agreement with the aggregator and you will already receive money from it. An example of such a payment system is Robokassa, CyberPlat and many others.
But each aggregator-payment system has restrictions regarding the countries of issuers of credit cards. These points need to be clarified so as not to unexpectedly come across when working with a client.