Question about US taxes related to content mills like TB

by axeny
6 replies
So, guys, It turned out I need some advice from US citizens about US taxes on incomes from copywriting services( like articles writing, writing blog post, press releases, etc).

So here is a brief description… I am born in Europe, I also live there, in my country. And me with my friend have a copywriting agency, our main business Is offering SEO companies to outsource their articles needs with us, of course we are talking about articles writing in english language. Our team consists of quality writers, most of them are English teachers or English linguistic graduates, so their English is pretty good, I think it’s on par with the native anglish writers. Let`s say that any member of our team can easily write articles for sites like Textbroker and archieve tier 3, 4 or even 5.

And here comes the interesting part. Now, honestly said we would love to be able to have some more sources of work, besides our SEO clients. And we think sites like Textbroker are as good alternative as it gets. The things is – many of those sites accept only US writers. And you cannot fake being US writer. Well, you can, but when the moment comes for you to withdraw the earned money, you need to fill up W9 form and so – it’s possible to fake you are US writer, but it’s impossible to withdraw your money afterwards, for the work done.

And here is the solution we are thinking about – make JV thread in marketing forum, like Warriors Forum, and team up with one or few people from the US, who are or aren’t writers for a living. The job of those people would be to create accounts on their names, provide the sites with their tax information and cooperate with us in long-term, so the accounts would stay active. We use the accounts to give jobs to our writers, the account owners get a percentage of the revenue from those accounts. And I am talking about long-term relationship here, since we would like to get every account to tier 3, 4 or 5. And to make daily revenue of 50-100$ per account. That`s why buying an account from someone doesn’t suit us. We basically won’t be able to use it in long-term, since the person would have to pay taxes on our incomes. And we are OK to offer JV partnership to people. But since our experience with US tax laws isn’t that respectable, we need some advices.

For instance – let’s say we make JV partnership with one person for one account. And we make 100$ revenue per day from this account, writing articles. So this would mean 2000-3000$ per month. So what percentage the account owner will need to pay for taxes for this revenue? 10%? 20%? We really have no idea. In our country you must pay 10% from your profits for taxes. Can someone clarify how are the things with the US taxes?

Also – will we able to withdraw the money to our own PayPal account( which will be with different account owner name than the account in the content mill of course). Will this mean we would need the content mill account owner to withdraw the money from the account to his own PayPal account, since that way both account would have the same owner? Don’t get us wrong, we don’t intend to steal the accounts or something like that, but if it’s possible, we would prefer to be in control of the money, since our writers will do the writing and they count on us to pay them salaries every month. So if it’s possible, we prefer to withdraw to our PayPal account and there send the content mill account owner his percentage from the revenue( which would be money for taxes + fee for our use of the account).

And also – based on all the information above, what percentage do you consider fair for us to pay to the content mill account owner. We know it must take into consideration that the account owner would need to pay taxes for the whole revenues. So it should be taxes percentage of the whole revenue per month + some fee to make the things fair for the account owner. But it still must be low enough percentage to give us opportunity to profit from the whole thing, etc.

To be honest after we pay the account owner their percentage every month, we wouldn't care much if the person pays his taxes and when, considering we paid him the money he would need in order to do that. The thing is – we need to make this worthwhile for us and for the content mill account owner as well. And to be sure we have putted good foundations for long-term partnership in the beginning. You know.

So please guys, give us some advice on the matter. We are sure that some of the people in this forum have the experience and expertise to help out with this.

Thanks in advance!

Best Regards,
Axeny
#content #mills #question #related #taxes
  • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
    Any US person who would cooperate in such a scheme should have their head examined. It's on a par with agreeing to take a package on an airplane that is not yours.

    I'm not even sure it's legal.

    And I hope your post is not indicative of the quality of the writing you sell, because it is clearly not good enough to pass as decent English.

    Marcia Yudkin
    Signature
    Check out Marcia Yudkin's No-Hype Marketing Academy for courses on copywriting, publicity, infomarketing, marketing plans, naming, and branding - not to mention the popular "Marketing for Introverts" course.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8834350].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author EaglePiServ
    None of this is legal/tax advice - I speak from experience only.

    "So, guys, It turned out I need some advice from US citizens about US taxes on incomes"

    So you come to a forum of mostly fake names and expect to get advice?

    You need a licensed CPA, or tax attorney to give you advice.

    "The job of those people would be to create accounts on their names"

    Their job would also be to take out taxes from the revenue earned, roughly 30% off the top, before they sent YOU a dime and before any percentages were divvied up.

    Since YOU are unable or unwilling to fill out a W-9, you would not count as a credible expense or tax deduction for the US citizen.

    None of the above is advice, legal/tax or otherwise.

    It's not a bad idea overall, just not doable the way you describe. You can however establish a corporation in the United States (roughly $400) and obtain an FEIN for that corporation (Free) which will allow you to open a bank account (Free) with online access. Plus you'd get a nice trip to the US to set the whole thing up which might or might not be tax-deductible as a business expense. You could do everything except the bank account portion online. You'd need to show up in person for that one.

    Get legal advice and tax advice.

    Eagle.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8834473].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author axeny
      Originally Posted by EaglePiServ View Post

      Since YOU are unable or unwilling to fill out a W-9, you would not count as a credible expense or tax deduction for the US citizen.

      None of the above is advice, legal/tax or otherwise.

      It's not a bad idea overall, just not doable the way you describe. You can however establish a corporation in the United States (roughly $400) and obtain an FEIN for that corporation (Free) which will allow you to open a bank account (Free) with online access. Plus you'd get a nice trip to the US to set the whole thing up which might or might not be tax-deductible as a business expense. You could do everything except the bank account portion online. You'd need to show up in person for that one.

      Get legal advice and tax advice.

      Eagle.
      Thanks, mate!

      Now I have a question related to the things you said above, I know I cannot expect professional advice on some internet forum for free, but I was hoping some people with experience in the niche would share it. Thank you for doing so.

      Since YOU are unable or unwilling to fill out a W-9, you would not count as a credible expense or tax deduction for the US citizen.
      What stops me from filling W9 for is that I live outside US and my business is outside US. However, do you think it would be convenient if I fill W8 form instead ( which is the same as W9 form, except it is to declare that the taxes on 'this X amount of money' are due to my EU country, not to US anymore). Basically W8 form is to say to US tax agency - the taxes on those money are not your business anymore.

      Do you think this will remove the need for us and our company to establish corporation in US, since with W8 form filled by us, the US citizen who opens the content mills accounts may be able to declare the money he transfers to us like expenses and pay taxes on just his share?

      Again - thanks for the advices, mate! Cheers!

      Best regards,
      Axeny
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8834527].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author EaglePiServ
        Originally Posted by axeny View Post

        Thanks, mate!

        Now I have a question related to the things you said above, I know I cannot expect professional advice on some internet forum for free, but I was hoping some people with experience in the niche would share it. Thank you for doing so.



        What stops me from filling W9 for is that I live outside US and my business is outside US. However, do you think it would be convenient if I fill W8 form instead ( which is the same as W9 form, except it is to declare that the taxes on 'this X amount of money' are due to my EU country, not to US anymore). Basically W8 form is to say to US tax agency - the taxes on those money are not your business anymore.

        Do you think this will remove the need for us and our company to establish corporation in US, since with W8 form filled by us, the US citizen who opens the content mills accounts may be able to declare the money he transfers to us like expenses and pay taxes on just his share?

        Again - thanks for the advices, mate! Cheers!

        Best regards,
        Axeny

        I honestly couldn't tell you. My suggestion was simply to avoid paying a redundant and non-producing middleman. I know nothing of W8's nor do I have any desire to learn. Sorry.

        Eagle.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8834771].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author The Copy Nazi
    Banned
    Article writing is NOT copywriting. Read the Sticky up top - http://www.warriorforum.com/copywrit...le-writer.html
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8834520].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author deu12000
    I'm not an attorney or accountant.

    There are international partnerships that are legal. My guess for a way of setting this up is setting up some kind of partnership with the person, paying all expenses through this person and then splitting profits. The reason you would want to pay expenses through this person or partnership is because it will lower the tax liability.

    I pay virtual assistants and other international workers and they are a business expense. They help me keep my tax liability down without the need to pay unemployment, social security, etc... for them.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8834554].message }}

Trending Topics