I am an Australian Internet marketer living in Japan.
I pay $50 in bank fees to my Japan bank per US check I deposit.

What do I need to do to open a US bank account so that I can bank my
checks there? 

I have heard that it can be done by first forming a US company (e.g.
LLC) but wonder if that means I pay US tax.

Thanks,
Murray

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Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 22 Jun 2004 03:25 PDT

Murray, 

If I understand correctly, the problem is the cashing fees of foreign
currency cheques. There might be other solutions, namely banks that do
not have any cashing fees on cheques in US$.

Would you like to receive an answer in that spirit?

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Clarification of Question by 007workfromhome-ga on 23 Jun 2004 08:01 PDT

Yes that would be great. 

My sole aim is to bank US$ cheques in Japan without paying huge bank fees. 

I was considering forming a US company because I thought perhaps that
was the only option.

Thanks,
Murray

Find a branch of a US Trade bank in Japan (Bank of America is a good example)
and open an account.
If need be use a US PO box with forwarding to your bussiness address
but usually the bank can take care of that

Incorporating or LLC would be the safest way to go; you are in
business anyway.  I believe the State of Nevada does not have state
tax that you have to worry about.  You can also incorporate in the
state of Delaware and you taxes if do properly will cost you roughly
USD 25 per year plus another USD 25 for local agent.  SO you are
looking at about USD 50/ year.  Suggest you open with large bank such
as Citibank - that way you can withdrawal money here in Japan.

Look at http://www.valisinternational.com/
or http://www.ptclub.com/Usnonresident.html

These companies offer services to open us bank account legally (I
think). If you travel to US frequently or know someone in US. It might
be be cheaper to find a bank that accepts non-resident account and
complete it yourself.

The tax in US is based on "source" for income which in your case most
porbably outside US, so exempt for federal taxes. State tax laws vary
state by state, but they usually follow the same logic. If you are tax
exempt. you will submit W-8BEN while opening the bank account which
declares that your income is tax exempt. See IRS website, specifically
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/international/index.html for more
details.

Hope this answers your questions and saves you those $20 bucks :)

I am obviously biased, VALIS International is my company, but I would
like to clarify something:

Having a US Bank account has nothing to do with paying taxes in the
USA.  You don't need to form a US company just to cash US checks, just
get a personal US Bank account and deposit them all you want, then
withdraw the funds by Wire to yourself back in Japan or you can
withdraw using the attached MasterCard at local ATMs or shop online or
off with it.

if you want to form a company in the USA too, then there are tax
considerations, but still not likely any payments.  Have a look at our
FAQ: http://www2.valisinternational.com?pg=faq for company and tax
issues.

But the most relevent to your corporate question is this:

A Single Member Delaware LLC does not have to even file a federal
corporate income tax return since it is a disregarded entity, any
profit would be shifted to your personal income for you to declare
wherever you are supposed to declare your personal income.

keep the $20, it wouldn't be fair for me to earn it...