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Interviews with entrepreneurs and business leaders who’ve “made it” in Thailand. Real stories of ambition, setbacks, and strategic wins on the path to success. Built for founders and operators who want to win in Thailand.
Guests from the US, UK, Australia, and Thailand. Honest journeys and cross-cultural lessons. Inspiration for anyone building in the Thai market.
Apply to be a guest:
https://madeitinthailand.com/apply
Hosted by Scott Pressimone, a US expat based in Thailand for 13+ years and owner of Fractiond, a Thailand-based strategy consultancy.
#ThailandBusiness #ExpatSuccess #ThaiExpat
We deal almost exclusively with location
independent entrepreneurs who either live
outside of their home country or have
business outside of their home country.
The biggest mistake I see with
Americans that have US LLCs is they
very often register it themselves.
The problem when you do it
yourself is you put your name
on the entity in public record.
If you're not a US person, the US is hands
down the best place for you to register
your company in like 95% of the cases.
Most of my clients come to
me after an oh shit moment.
He ended up owing over a million euros
in tax when he went back because he
didn't do things in the right way.
This is not a place to be cheap
pay money to somebody who has
5,000 clients that has done this.
All right, so I'm here with Bobby
Casey, the founder of Business Anywhere,
uh, now Bobby, I'd love if you could,
uh, briefly introduce yourself.
I know a lot of people already know you.
You probably have more of a presence
online than I do by far, but,
uh, but definitely just in case
anyone doesn't know you, give a
brief introduction of yourself.
First of all, thanks for having me, Scott.
I always appreciate the time to, uh,
get on and chat about this stuff.
I think it's important, especially
for the digital nomad community
to get more information and better
information on how to deal with
these situations they're dealing with
because it's becoming less unique.
Let's say there's more and more people
doing it, but that also means there's a
lot of really bad information out there.
So I like to get on here and kind
of spread the gospel, so to speak,
on, you know, some good information.
So, um, what I do business Anywhere,
we are an online platform for startups,
business owners, uh, who need a simplified
place to register their company.
Uh, registered agent service, virtual
mailbox addresses, uh, opening bank
accounts, bookkeeping, tax filings,
basically everything you need for
compliance on your, uh, new business.
Uh, we do tax consulting,
that sort of thing.
We deal from the tax consulting side.
We deal primarily almost exclusively
with location independent entrepreneurs
who either live outside of their
home country or have business
outside of their home country.
So we're very much targeted
on the digital nomad audience.
At least one of our big demographics
is the digital nomad audience.
Yeah.
And that's definitely, uh, pretty
prominent here in Thailand,
specifically, you know, Bangkok,
Chiang Mai, even in the, you know,
the islands and down south you'll,
you'll get a lot of digital nomads.
So,
um, oh, we got, we got tons of
clients in, in Thailand for sure.
All, all over Southeast Asia.
But yeah, we have tons of clients
specifically in Thailand, because it's
a, it's a digital nomad hotspot, right?
I mean, it's, it's just a big hotspot.
And rightly so.
It's a great place to live.
It's a great place to spend
time, great weather, great food.
I mean.
It's a nice place.
Yeah.
And I know you've been here, and
I know you're not here right now.
This is one of the unique cases
where I thought it was worth, um,
bringing you on to spot de despite
not being here in Thailand yourself.
But again, you're familiar with the area,
you have a lot of clients in this area.
And, you know, honestly, the main reason
I invited you on Bobby was because the
last couple of years, like I've been
in Thailand since 2012, a lot of people
have heard me say that a million times,
but I've been here for a long time
and I've seen a lot of changes happen.
I've seen governments change.
I've seen it go from essentially being
very, uh, oriented towards bringing
in more digital nomads, bringing in
more business owners and whatnot, to
then cracking down and, and going, you
know, just, it sways back and forth.
Right?
Yeah.
And right now, in the last couple
years, I've really seen a lot of
people freak out more than they have
in the past because there's a lot more
crackdowns about, um, tax residency.
And to say, okay, how much money
you're gonna bring in this year?
How much money, you know, if you sold
a house in the US and then you brought
all your money at once, then how much
of that is actually taxable in Thailand?
There's just all these different
scenarios and you have to be careful.
And, um, so, so that's obviously why I
thought bringing, bringing someone on with
expertise in this area, um, would help
hopefully save some people some money.
Um, 'cause we can talk through
some scenarios like this.
So that's kind of the goal today.
Sure.
But, but one thing I wanted
to know from you, Bobby, is,
is this unique to Thailand?
Because I've been here, like, I've
been focusing solely on Thailand and
I've seen that shift, but I'm just
curious, are uh, clients of yours in
other areas also getting a lot more
regulations, a lot more crackdowns?
Is that happening around the world or no?
Thailand's a great example of that.
I mean, they're changing their rules.
Jesus.
Like they, they, they are even at
the point where they don't even know
which rules are which now, right?
Like there's, they have conflicts,
conflicts in their laws that they'll
talk about one thing and then they pass
a law that conflicts with something else.
Um, it's, it's a messy situation,
so you gotta pay attention.
And if you are nomadic, I mean, maybe
you need to move to another place
if you want, if you want, if that's
like, uh, you know, conducive to your
lifestyle, maybe you need to be flexible.
Like, and I'm not trying to throw
Thailand under the bus here,
it's just using it as an example.
But if you like Southeast
Asia, Thailand makes it hard.
Philippines says, Hey, come
on over here, maybe go there.
Definitely see what makes sense
for, for you as an individual.
I, I would agree with that one.
One thing I would say though is I do
think sometimes people put up their
hands, uh, a little too quickly, right?
Because you're right that it's
complex and things change.
But, but it's kind of
like, I, I don't know.
I personally don't go to a lot,
to a lot of the expat forums, but
you'll see expat forums or Reddit or
whatever, and everyone's, every year
is saying, oh my gosh, it's crazy.
No tourists are ever gonna
come back to Thailand again.
No one's ever gonna live there.
And it's like things, uh, the
pendulum swings and it's kind of okay.
I honestly think, I think that's something
I, I really learned about Thailand is you
gotta not freak out about things, right?
Yeah.
I mean, you gotta be
mindful, you gotta be chill.
Careful, to your point.
Yeah, you gotta be careful, right?
I mean, it's not to say,
oh, don't worry about it.
Everything will blow over nothing.
I mean, they'll never crack
down on something for taxes.
They will.
Be careful.
Make sure you're doing the right
thing, but don't freak out every
time a new announcement comes
out because it's gonna be okay.
And, and honestly, to your point
too, when you said conflicting
uh, laws, I mean, it's usually
conflicting departments, right?
So, so you'll have one government,
government department that's basically
saying, we want more tourists.
And another one saying, there's no
way we can actually monitor that.
Or they're saying, we'll, we'll we'll
bring people on DTV and we'll, um, you
know, make sure that they qualify in
these ways for their bank accounts.
And then the department that then has to
actually look through the bank account
says, well, we can't read all these
different languages to assess whether or
not these are, uh, real or photoshopped.
Right?
I mean, there's just all these
things where, uh, you know,
it's conflicting interests.
Um.
There's a huge e every, I see this in
almost every country, there's a big
conflict between migration department and
the tax office in every country, right?
Yeah.
Because, um, people ask me this
all the time, like about residency.
Residency is a hot topic, right?
In the digital nomad world, like it's
probably tax and residency are the two
hottest topics in the digital nomad world.
Hands down by far.
Residency, tax is almost always
in conflict because residency
is handled by the migration.
Office tax is handled by
the tax department, right?
And so you have a conflict here.
There's such thing, and people, a
lot of people don't really understand
this, but there is a physical residency
and then there is tax residency
and they are not the same thing.
Like people are like, yeah, but I have
residency in Mexico, or I have residency
in Argentina, or I've gotten residency in
Nicaragua, I must have to pay tax here.
Well, maybe, or maybe not because
residency, physical residency is
handled by the migration office.
So that's a big mistake I think a
lot of people make making assumptions
on the concept of residency because
residency just means you have checked
the boxes on meeting requirements to
fulfill necessary things for whatever,
like your visa or your temporary or
permanent residency requirements, so
you've done X and Y and Z. The migration
office says, yes, you can live here.
Here's your visa, or here's your
residence permit, or whatever it is, but.
That doesn't necessarily make you
a tax resident in most countries.
You can be a physical resident
without being a tax resident.
In a lot of countries, you
can be a tax resident without
being a physical resident.
One thing I'll share is that, you
know, I recently became a Thailand
permanent resident, and that was quite
a, uh, quite a difficult process.
Uh, but I actually think it was, once
you knew what you were doing, it was
actually quite straightforward in a way.
Like as in it was, it was, it was
easy to understand what was happening,
but it was difficult to actually do.
The reason I say it's important to be,
and I agree with you a hundred percent,
to be purposeful, right, is to, is to
say, what do you actually want outta this?
What are you trying to do?
Uh, are you trying to work from anywhere
or are you planning a, a flag somewhere?
Right?
But what you can't do is just
go with the flow because yeah,
I made a number of mistakes.
I could have got permanent residents
years prior, but I had read some.
Thing that was just
inaccurate about how to do it.
And I Right, I've written it
off right for my situation.
What I'm aware about this is that
it's important that you are working
for a number of consecutive years and
you are paying taxes without breaks.
And you have and hold the same visa
for a long, you know, period of time.
And then at that stage you can actually
apply and people will think, oh, only
only a hundred people can apply a year.
No, that's wrong.
Uh, only a hundred people per
nationality can apply per year in
Thailand for permanent residence.
That's true.
But then what's important to note
is that if you're an American or
a Canadian or whatever, no one's
getting anywhere close to that.
So a quota is never an issue.
So you absolutely can, but the most
important thing is that you don't rate it
off and think that something's impossible.
'cause you just actually
didn't do the proper research.
Right.
So know what you wanna do.
Right.
You got, you got a good point
there on bad information.
So one of the other biggest mistakes I see
people make going on a Facebook group or
a forum or, or, or just asking a buddy.
You know, saying, what should I do?
And they throw out a scenario like, um,
I'm a German with an e-commerce business
and I like to live in Southeast Asia.
What I do, what should I do?
And then somebody tells them through
a Facebook group or a form or
whatever, and somebody says, oh, you
know what you need to do, man, you
just leave Germany and go register
a Dubai company and you'll be good.
And the biggest mistake you make, so
by the way, I don't see any problem
with people going onto these Facebook
groups or forums to get information.
That's not a problem.
I think that's a good idea.
Go watch the YouTube videos and
stuff, get the ideas, jot 'em down.
But what you really need to do
before you pull any trigger on a
structure setup, residency structure
setup, because to be honest, this
stuff is super, super important.
Like the structure of your
business is critically important.
I mean, this is your income stream.
This is not the place to take
advice from a Facebook group.
Hire a professional to do this.
This is not a place to be cheap.
Be cheap other places.
These things talk to a professional.
This is not a place to be cheap.
Pay freaking money to somebody who
has 5,000 clients that has done this.
This is not a place to watch x,
y, z face, uh, uh, YouTube video
and make permanent decisions about
important things in your life.
Yeah, I would argue you get multiple
opinions too, though, right?
Because sometimes you can go
down.
I, I don't, I don't disagree with that.
I had a client call yesterday with a guy,
uh, one of my consulting clients, what
he does, and I have no problem with this.
Like, this is not a
problem for me whatsoever.
He has another guy, a
little bit similar to me.
And he goes and bounces.
We discuss, he goes and bounces the
idea of the other guy and then he comes
back and does a consultation with me.
Has he paid a bunch of
money in consulting?
Yeah, absolutely.
He's paying double 'cause
he is paying both of us.
This is an important thing
for the structure of his life.
He is an American guy.
He's currently living in Spain.
He has permanent residency in Mexico and
he travels around as a digital nomad.
Well, this guy has a minimum of
three flags right now American.
Spending time in Spain.
Permanent residency in
Mexico, right, is a minimum.
Three flags.
Whenever you have multiple flags
planted, there's so many things that
can go wrong if you don't do things
correctly, if you don't have the business
structure correct, if you don't have
the right type of residency or visa.
In his case, we talked about what he
needs to do in Spain to be in Europe,
and the different types of visa options
for him so that he stays compliant.
So he doesn't, like, by default, get
trapped in some countries tax trap
without knowing about it, you know?
And then had like a big surprise, you
know, when he goes through immigration
and they say, Hmm, looks like you've
been here so many days and you had
to pay tax or something like that.
And so he wants to do the right
thing and he makes good money,
like he makes good money.
So he has a choice.
He can read Facebook groups and just, eh.
Let's register the Dubai company,
or he can find a professional that's
gonna make sure he's gonna maintain
compliance so he doesn't get in trouble.
Because I'll also make this statement
too, and a lot of people don't like
this statement, but whenever you are
living this lifestyle, kind of this
digital nomad kind of lifestyle,
you're pe these multiple flags planted
or whatever, you're gonna have to
get comfortable living a little bit
in the gray area on certain things.
I say it like this, like on a gray scale,
like let's say one being completely
clean, 10 being completely black, one
being is, you know, I keep joking about
it, but you're living in the suburbs.
White picket fence, lifestyle,
local business, local job,
paying your taxes like normal.
That's kinda one.
That's the complete clean setup, and you
can do that if you live in one place.
That's easy to do if
you live in one place.
That's what you should do if you
live in one place on the 10 scale.
That's like full black.
Your clients all pay you
with cash or Bitcoin.
You don't report anything.
You don't, you're non-compliant
in every way, shape, or form.
Okay?
So the idea is kind of in this nomadic
lifestyle, and I'm talking about nomads.
Ones that are moving, you know, maybe they
live in two or three different places,
or maybe they're just like the true
nomad that, you know, lives a few weeks
here, a few weeks here, a few weeks here.
But if you're some version
of nomadic, you're gonna be
somewhere on the gray scale.
The, the idea is to get it like, let's say
a three to a, a five on the gray scale.
I mean, obviously that's a
subjective number, but, um, the
idea is to be as clean as possible.
But anytime you have multiple
flags planted, you're probably
gonna end up with, there's gonna
be some conflictive laws between
countries, and you have to choose.
The least bad option in your
situation, if that makes sense.
Like I'll give you an example here.
Well, I'm gonna pick on Portugal again.
So Portugal has a tax regime called
NHR Stand for Non Habitual Residency.
And so if you qualify for NHR as a,
if you have a some type of residence
permit or visa in Portugal and you
qualify for NHR, the great thing with
NHR is you can receive dividends from
a company registered in a jurisdiction
that has a tax treaty with Portugal, and
those dividends are tax free under NHR.
So if you live in Portugal and you have
a company registered in another country
that has the tax treaty with Portugal,
your dividends come to you tax free.
Okay.
So a lot of people in Portugal,
they register LLCs in the US because
LLCs in the US are very tax friendly
for almost everybody in the world.
'cause it's a pass through
entity from the US perspective.
It's a pass through.
If a single member LLC is what you call
a disregarded entity for tax purposes,
meaning the LLC does not pay tax, the
individual who receives the income
may or may not have a tax obligation
based on the nature of that income.
Well, Portugal does not have
an equivalent entity to the us.
They don't have an LLC, they
don't have a disregarded entity.
They have corporations.
So if you are in Portugal under
NHR and you get your income from a
US LLC, you can maybe not pay tax.
And I say maybe, 'cause there's a lot
of variables on how it works in the us,
but maybe you don't pay tax in the us.
But from the Portuguese side, you
can treat it like a dividend from
a US company because there is a tax
treaty between the US and Portugal.
So that's a gray area thing.
What I'm talking about, it's gray
area because there's a conflict of
laws between the US and Portugal.
'cause Portugal doesn't have.
A disregarded the entity like the US does.
So it's a difference in regulations
between the two countries, but
you're kind of arbitraging and taking
advantage of two different countries
for a tax optimization strategy.
Okay.
But it is a little bit gray
area because in the US.
You don't pay dividends from
an LLC, but in Portugal you can
take a dividend from the US LLC.
Does that make sense?
It does, it does.
It actually brings up another topic
that I've heard a lot of, uh, from
individuals here in Thailand, which
is, uh, a lot of people tend to.
Start their companies in
Singapore or Hong Kong.
I mean, for years and years,
that was always the thing to do.
And I think something it was the
go-to for a long time.
Yeah.
Right.
And, and, and it, and something that
you just mentioned there when you just
mentioned the benefits of, uh, US, a
disregarded entity in the us whether it be
Wyoming or Delaware, I'm not sure if you
have any preferences, but the main point
is that like, um, sometimes it can make
sense to have that in the US and sometimes
it's actually a pretty good option, right?
So I think sometimes the sexy thing
online might be, oh yeah, Singapore
or Hong Kong, which one is better?
Where it's like, well you might, let's
say you're, especially maybe if you're
an American citizen, did you consider
starting a company in the us Right?
Or if you're not a US citizen, you know,
there's even ways to do that, right?
So, um, I'm curious if that, if, if, if
you agree with that or not, where maybe
people are not looking enough at the
US as potentially being a good option
to have a company and not necessarily
always going to Singapore and Hong Kong.
Yeah, I can comment on all of that.
So first of all, Singapore and
Hong Kong are generally not good
for most digital nomads anymore.
Um, and I'll tell you why.
There's a couple of reasons and
I'm grouping them together 'cause
they're very, very similar now
in the way they deal with things.
So first of all, to open a bank
account for a Singapore or a Hong
Kong company, you need to be a
resident of Singapore or Hong Kong.
Like you need to actually
be a resident there.
So unless you actually live there, what
you'll end up having to do is hire someone
to be a director of your company who has
legal authority in your company, who has
legal authority over your bank account.
So if you want to go open a company in
Singapore, but you don't live there,
you're gonna, so that raises your cost.
You gotta hire somebody
who lives in Singapore.
Now there are services that
offer that, like, I'm not saying
it's not an impossible thing.
Like you don't, you're not walking
down the street in Singapore
randomly going, Hey, you wanna
be a director of my company.
Like, there are services that do that
for you, but it raises the cost 'cause
you have to pay them a director fee.
You have to pay them fees to
deal with your bank account.
And you are exposing your bank to another
human being that in reality doesn't have
any real activity within your business.
So that's one downside to it.
Um, used to, you could, like, let's
say 10 years ago, you could open a
Hong Kong company and open a bank
account at HSBC and not live there.
It was no big deal.
But that's not really possible anymore.
The other downside is for both of those
jurisdictions, the banks themselves
don't, like if you're not doing business
predominantly in Asia, so like a, for
years, a go-to thing for people who were
doing like e-commerce, like Amazon stores
in the us And so they would open a Hong
Kong company with a bank account at like
HSBC or something like that, and they were
linking their Hong Kong company and HSBC
account to their Amazon seller account,
and they would receive all their funds.
So they were.
First of all, that was a big gray area
thing anyway, because technically if
you're selling products in the US you
have a US tax obligation regardless
of where your company is registered.
So technically, if you were doing that
in the past, your Hong Kong company
should have been filing, uh, a tax
return in the us but nobody did that.
So, so they were doing that because
at the time you could do that, it
was possible 'cause it was a loophole
people were taking advantage of.
It was a very, let's go back to the gray
scale, let's say that was on the upper
shadier range of the gray scale, but
you could do that and get away with it.
But what has happened since is those
banks are now saying, if you're not
doing business predominantly in Asia,
we're just gonna close your accounts.
So I had a client, this has
been a few years now, probably
three or four years ago, but.
He was doing exactly this.
He, he was doing e-commerce.
He had a Hong Kong company.
He had a bank account.
They sent him a letter saying, um, we're
closing your bank account because all of
your business is coming from US Banks.
Like all of his money was
coming incoming from US banks.
All, most, all of his money outgoing
was going back to the us and so he
wasn't doing business actually in
Asia, just had a Hong Kong company.
The bank sent him a letter saying,
we're closing your accounts.
You've got 30 days to move your money out.
Here's the problem.
He had a Hong Kong company.
You could, you can't just easily go to
another country and open a bank account
for a Hong Kong company, because,
especially nowadays, unless you're like
the big multinational, but if you open a
bank account in a country, you need your
company registered in the same country or
in the region where your bank account is.
He tried to open bank accounts in multiple
countries and he kept getting shut down.
Like, no, you can't.
I mean, you have a Hong Kong company, go
to Hong Kong and open your bank account.
He couldn't do it because
nobody wanted him.
His bank would only send the money to
a bank account in his company name.
That presents a major problem.
Major, major problem.
He could only send the money
to a bank account and a company
name, but no one else wanted
to open a bank account for him.
And he had a lot of money in there.
Like it, it was, it was seven figures.
And he ended up having to go to Hong Kong
and hire a law firm, like a big corporate
law firm to go fight this with the bank.
And he paid, I don't know, tens of
thousands of dollars fighting this.
And ultimately we ended up
registering a Wyoming LLC for him.
He got a court order to allow the
bank to send the money to his Wyoming
LLCs bank account, but he spent tens
of, he, like, he had to go there.
He spent tens of thousands of
dollars in legal fees to do that.
And so it doesn't make sense if
you're not, like, it could make sense.
Don't get me wrong, I still
think Singapore and Hong
Kong are viable solutions if
you're doing business in Asia.
I think it's a great solution if you're
doing business in Asia, if most of
your incoming or outflow your inflow
or outflow of money is from Asian
markets, I think it's a good option
and it's a viable solution to go there
and hire a, a local director because
it is, it is a tax optimized situation.
Um, but I will also say Singapore
and Hong Kong are both cracking down.
They used to make it really easy if all
your money came from non Hong Kong or
non sing sources, you didn't pay tax.
But now they, they changed the
definition on what it means to earn
money in those jurisdictions now, so
they're cracking down on people and
actually taxing them on that business.
But that's a bad solution for the
vast majority of digital nomads.
Now, they still think it is because
you read blog posts that are 10 years
old and you think, oh, great idea.
The only clients I have right
now that still have companies
in those jurisdictions are
people that do business in Asia.
Full stop.
Every other client I've ever had that
had companies there have since closed
them and moved on to somewhere else.
Um, but to your point, the US actually,
and it sounds weird to say this
because everyone thinks the US is this
really complex, uh, tax environment.
Nobody wants to touch it.
No one wants to get involved
in the US and stuff like that.
But if you're not a US person,
the US is hands down the best
place for you to register your
company in like 95% of the cases.
Um.
I if you in the nomad, in the nomad
space, like I, I had a call, a client
call with somebody yesterday who has
a, a vehicle rental business in Mexico.
Well, I told her, you need to
register a company in Mexico.
It just makes sense.
'cause you need the permits.
Um, you need the, like if you rent
vehicles, there's special license plates.
You gotta get to show that
it's a, a commercial vehicle.
You can't do that unless you have
a Mexican registered company.
That would make, she asked
me, she was like, should I
register my company in Wyoming?
I'm like, no.
That makes no sense.
That's crazy.
Um, 'cause you're gonna have
nothing but problems down in
Mexico with this business.
So if you have a local business that
has a physical location, or you're doing
physical work in that country, I mean,
you, you don't really have a choice.
You kind of have to
register in that location.
But most digital nomads aren't like that.
Most digital nomads are like doing
coaching or consulting or like
selling some info products, e-commerce
software, um, those types of things.
And all those are virtual type businesses
for virtual type businesses, basically
for almost everyone in the world, a
US LLC is gonna make the most sense.
It's easy, it's cheap.
Banking is simple.
Uh, your tech stack is easy
because all of the major tech
platforms deal with us companies.
Um, it's gonna make your life much easier.
And, and for non-US people, for
virtual businesses, they're probably
not gonna pay tax in the US anyway.
Right.
And for us, people, if you're
living abroad, you get the foreign
earned income exclusion and
maybe some foreign tax credits.
And there are some other things you could
do if you're at a higher income level.
There's other loopholes for Americans
that make a higher level of income.
Um, but you know.
You have to justify the
expense of a complex structure.
Right.
So that's definitely what
I want to jump into next is
there are different structures.
I mean, it sounds like there are some
scenarios where people wanna create a
more complex structure than they need to.
That was the example of Oh yeah.
Mexican, uh, you know, business
that you just referenced.
So, so I think maybe some people try to
do that, but I, but it sounds like there's
the, kinda these tiers, it's like if
you're, if you're a solopreneur that's,
you know, doing consulting or coaching
services, okay, go with the 1 0 1.
Go with pretty simple, right?
And if you're in this other scenario, then
maybe you graduate, but maybe people tend
to wanna rush to something that they don't
need or maybe makes their life worse.
Oh, yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Oh, dude, I, I, I had a Russian
client a few years ago who's
big in the crypto space.
I'm not gonna mention a name.
He's a well-known guy in the crypto
space with a big platform in crypto.
But this guy was so funny, he wanted
to register some offshore companies.
It was completely unnecessary.
For what he was doing.
The whole reason he wanted to
do it is because it made him, in
his mind, it made him look cooler
to have an offshore structure.
And it looked more like, literally,
it just looked more shady like, but it
was unnecessary for what he was doing.
And I told him, I'm like, you
don't need this structure.
And he goes, I don't care.
I want it because it projects
a different appearance.
And I'm like, so you wanna look shadier?
And he goes, well, yeah, kind of.
And I'm like, okay, we'll register
some offshore companies for you.
Like it was funny, but people
do sometimes go overly complex.
Right, right.
Well, so let's, let's walk through a few
scenarios like this and, and we can maybe
get from, from simple to more complex.
Right?
So you mentioned, uh, let's,
let's talk about a, a solopreneur,
I'll call them, right?
Digital nomad solopreneur I suppose,
but, um, uh, consultant or developer
or marketer, whatever, right?
Coach doesn't matter.
Um, and let's say that they are
earning about 300 k per year.
Um, and in USD, and they have, let's
assume they already have this, but
they have a Wyoming or Delaware LLC.
What I'm curious about is what mistakes
do you often see with that individual?
Like, number one, is that a decent
setup for an individual like that?
In which case, um, let's,
let's keep it simple.
Let's say they're a US citizen, right?
Okay.
But a US citizen doing consulting or
coaching or development, et cetera.
300 K salary, Wyoming, Delaware, LLC.
What mistakes do they make typically,
and I'm assuming here they're,
they're like fully nomadic, right?
They're, they're, they're doing
the real nomad thing like a few
weeks here, a few weeks there.
Sure.
Well, actually I would, I would adapt
this, just remember, I mean, me being
in Thailand to everything that we
talk about is in Thailand, right?
And so I'm gonna, all
these scenarios are, so
this is an American
living in Thailand then?
Yeah.
Let's say that because, 'cause there's
a, there's, I think there's a ton of
people that fall into this category
in Chiang Mai for instance, right?
Um, a lot of people I know in Chiang
Mai are, are in this sort of scenario.
So, um, what would you
say for that individual?
And, and again, I do wanna
add some flexibility.
It's someone who planted their
flag, so maybe they go back, maybe
they have the option to go back to
the US three months of the year.
Maybe they, you know, but, but for
the most part, they're a little bit,
they're semi nomadic slash planted flag
in flag in Thailand for the most part.
Okay.
So planted flag in Thailand means, uh.
They, they may or may not have
a tax obligation in Thailand.
So right now, um, it is possible to
avoid the tax obligation in Thailand.
Let me get this straight.
You, you probably know this better
than me, but if you're bringing money
into Thailand that you earned in
the previous year, you don't pay tax
on it in that current year, right?
Uh, that's what they're cracking
down on is they used to just have
that delay, but I believe they're
even cracking down on that.
So now they're basically saying any money
that you're bringing, uh, and again,
I'm not a professional in this area, but
from my understanding is that, um, if
you're there, there's not that thing of
let me wait a year and then bring it in.
They're, they're basically saying
if you bring it in at all, um,
then, then we might tax that.
This is the thing I understand in
Thailand, that's still a gray area
in internally within Thailand.
That's a gray area thing.
Like they don't have any real
clarification on this yet.
If I remember correctly, there was a, um.
An attempt to pass a law last summer,
trying to crack down on the people
that were bringing money in from
previous years, from their, their
company's earnings in previous years.
They tried to crack down on
it saying if you bring it in.
Um, so they tried to clarify that
rule to say you don't pay tax on
it if you bring it in only from the
previous year, or something like that.
But then they didn't
completely clarify the rule.
So at this point, my understanding in
Thailand, this is still a little bit in
flux, um, but if I were in this situation,
um, A-U-S-L-L-C definitely makes the
most sense for the front end of the
business, like where you're getting paid.
'cause it's gonna be easier in,
let's call him Tom Smith here.
Tom Smith, the American consultant.
So it's gonna be easier to, uh, for,
for Tom to get paid through a, let's
say a Wyoming LLC, because he can, it's
easy for him to open bank accounts,
he can get Stripe, he can get PayPal
or any other merchant processing
accountant, uh, gateway he wants.
Um, it's easy for, from a tech
stack perspective to like, if
you're getting paid through your
website to have the right technology
platform for all these things.
It's like everything works with a US LLC,
like a Wyoming, LLC, everything works.
Um, a couple of mistakes I would see.
The biggest mistake I see with,
with this is really only relative to
Americans, but the biggest mistake I
see with Americans that have US LLCs is
they very often register it themselves
to kind of the do it yourself model.
And they're like, ah, I wanna save
the 200 bucks or a hundred bucks
or whatever to go do it themselves.
Like I just had a client.
Last week who did exactly that?
And the, the problem when you do
it yourself is you put your name
on the entity in public record.
Like Wyoming is very well known
for privacy if you do it correctly.
But the vast majority of
people do not do it correctly.
Oh, I even better, I had
a client last week through
Business Anywhere who came to us.
We, we registered the company
for them like, I don't know,
two years ago or something.
And they decided they didn't wanna pay
the registered agent service anymore
through us and it was in their home state.
Um, they didn't wanna pay their
registered agent service with us anymore.
They canceled service with us
and decided to be their own
registered agent now 'cause they
wanted to save 150 bucks a year.
And when they did that, they
had to do the filing themselves.
They had to file their annual
report, they had to change, they
had to do a change form, the change
registered agent service over to them.
And then when they did that,
their name and their home
address went on public record.
And then they emailed us and said.
Hey, what's going on?
Why is my name and email, why is my
name and address and phone number
and everything in public record?
I thought, W, we could not have
our information in public record.
And I said, well, yes, when we were
your registered agent, your name is
not in public record, but you fired
us as registered agent because you
didn't want pay 150 bucks a year.
When you do that, you become
your own registered agent.
Now your personal information
becomes a matter of public record.
This person was pissed because they
wanted the privacy of the LLC, but
they didn't realize they, that's
something you actually pay for.
Like, you have to have
a paid registered agent.
And so very commonly, especially for
Americans, they think, well, I'll
just register this thing myself,
um, and save a hundred or 200 bucks
a year on registered agent service.
So that's a big mistake people
make is giving up their privacy.
Thailand's a good example of this.
Thailand is kind of in this gray area
situation right now where they haven't
fully decided how they're dealing.
With people earning money from abroad,
if that person living in Thailand will
ever get audited by the Thai tax office
and they find out that all of his income
is wired over from a Wyoming LLC to his
Thai personal bank account, it's super
easy for the Thai tax office to go to
the Wyoming Secretary's State website
and see that guy's name on public record,
if he registered it himself, if he
used a professional service, you know,
like us to do the registration form and
the registered agent service form, his
name is not gonna be in public record.
So at least in that regard, Thailand
can't verify that he owns that company
or has any association with that company.
So I don't know, may, maybe
that seems sketchy, maybe that
seems gray area, whatever, but
I'm just a big fan of privacy.
I don't think anyone should
know your business and financial
details unless you want them to.
So to wait for you to protect
what you want protected.
That's a big mistake I think
people make is do it yourself.
LLC formation.
And now it's not like it's expensive.
I mean, you're talking a couple
hundred bucks to pay some money
to register this thing for you.
It's not that much money.
And like we talked about
before, this is your business.
This is not the place to get cheap.
The thing that makes you money, the
core of your livelihood should not
be the place where you get cheap.
Um, so that's a big mistake.
People make other things like, and I don't
wanna say this as a mistake for this case
study example, but something he could do
a bit better is a more complex structure,
but I would say in his income rank, yeah,
it would make sense for him to do this.
So what we could do in his situation
is create a offshore holding company
for him that owns the shares or the
membership interest of his Wyoming LLC.
And so, what did you say?
300? He's making, yeah, 300.
So instead of that, it's a,
so a single member, LLC as a
disregarded entity for tax purposes.
If Tom owns the LLC, that means 300
K goes to Tom as the individual.
So it's as if Tom, the individual earn
300 k if it goes through this Wyoming LLC.
If we shift it instead to
an offshore holding company.
So instead of Tom earning 300 K,
let's call it Hold Co Limited, we
can shift it to hold Co Limited.
Now Hold Co Limited can retain
earnings, whereas, uh, Tom, LLC
can't retain earnings 'cause it's
just, it shifts automatically to Tom.
But Hold Co Limited can retain
earnings and then Tom pays his salary.
From HoldCo Limited.
In that scenario, that would save
Tom about $25,000 a year in taxes.
In the first scenario, Tom is
paying self-employment tax in
the us, which is your, um, uh,
Medicare, Medicaid, social security.
It's 15.3% on your first
169,000 last year, 169,000.
So 15% of 1 69 is about $25,000.
If he shifts that profit over to an
offshore HoldCo and pays a salary
from there, he doesn't have an
obligation to pay that self-employment
tax anymore because his paycheck
comes from a foreign company.
So right off the bat, that
saves him about 25 KA year.
So at, at, I mean, that's a
not an insignificant savings.
That would help him tremendously.
The other benefit there too, is having
to retain earnings in that HoldCo.
So from the Thai perspective,
now he can pay himself a
dividend instead of a salary.
And even if he's taxed on dividends,
he can pay himself a dividend of only
what he needs to survive in Thailand.
So let's say he wants to make, I
don't know, let's say 50 KA year,
and let's say now Thailand says
we're gonna tax foreign dividends.
Well, at least he would only be
paying tax on the 50 K of the foreign
dividend instead of the full 300 k.
So again, I don't wanna say that's
a mistake he's made, that's just
something he didn't know that existed.
That would be a good strategy to
optimize for what he's already doing.
Okay.
Understood.
I, I threw out a number.
Um, but, but to your, I was hoping it was
kind of one of the simple scenarios, but
I mean, we could put any number into that.
I was just trying to think
of a simple scenario.
So let's just assume
it's a hundred K, right?
So we're not in the holding.
I, I just want what is a simple
scenario, because like I said, I
know Mo most of these people are
in Chiang Mai that I run into.
I don't know how much they're earning.
I threw out a number, but I know that
they're usually working for themselves.
They're usually doing one
of these online spaces.
Right.
And they usually just
want something simple.
So let's assume that
it's a different number.
Let's assume it's a K instead.
So let, so let me tell you the,
the, the big variable there is
American versus non-American.
Okay.
Because even if we drop that down
to a hundred K, he's still paying
about 15 K in self-employment tax.
Mm-hmm.
In that scenario.
It would probably still make sense
for him to have the hold code because
if the hold code costs, let's say
three grand to set up a hold code,
but he saves 15 K in tax, I mean
that's a net $12,000 savings, right?
So in that scenario, the hold code
still makes sense, but the variable
is American versus non-American
because Americans, we are one of two
nationalities where we are what's called
citizenship based worldwide taxation.
So if you're a citizen of the US
you're taxed on worldwide income
regardless of where you live.
Um, you do get some loopholes like with
foreign earned income exclusion and
foreign tax credits, self-employment
taxes, you can't get out of that
if your income is US source.
You can only get out of self-employment
tax if it's non-US source income.
So that's the point of shifting
it to a foreign country.
Um, so as an American, if you're making
it, let's say the structure itself
costs you, let's say it costs you 5K.
So if your savings is $5,001, then
you have a marginal $1 benefit.
So you gotta decide anything above that
where it becomes a valuable thing for
you to spend that 5K to do everything.
And I'm talking with the
consulting advice, instruction,
the company and everything.
Let's say it costs you 5K.
Um, so if you save 10 K, then
your marginal benefit is 5K.
Is that worth it for you?
I don't know.
That's up to you whether the the
additional stuff, the additional
complex strategy makes sense.
But a simple strategy would be take
that exact same scenario, but say it's
a, a German doing the exact same thing.
A German with a Wyoming LLC, uh,
with a plan, uh, a flag planted in
Thailand, living there a few months
out of the year, and then nomadic the
rest of the year doing consulting.
A Wyoming LLC would be
the super simple solution.
Literally he would need, it's a
couple hundred bucks to register
and maintain that Wyoming LLC.
He does need to do, there's one
additional filing he has to do
that Americans don't need to do.
There's a filing they have to do.
It's called a 5 4 7 2 and a proforma 1120.
That informs the IRS.
Uh, that LLC is owned by a foreign owner.
So German owned LLC, um, that's
one thing that's a one form
you or, well, it's two forms.
Technically.
They go together.
It's two forms you have
to file one time a year.
So it's not a complex
thing you need to do.
It's one time a year.
So that's the only additional
thing they would do.
But in that scenario, German doing
consulting through a Wyoming LLC,
they would pay zero tax in the
US They do have to do the filing,
but they would pay zero tax.
Every penny goes back into their
pocket on the Thai side, um, most
likely, at least in the current system.
They probably wouldn't be paying any
tax in Thailand if they would pay tax,
they would only be paying tax on the
money they they bring into Thailand.
So if they wired into
their Thai bank account.
So if they made 300 K and only wanted
to live on 50 K, then worst case
scenario, they wire in the 50 K and
they pay tax on the 50 k in Thailand.
But that would be a super simple
solution basically for everyone non-US.
Yeah, that's a, that's a great scenario.
Uh, one little thing I want to tag in
there, 'cause it's, I meant to bring this
up earlier, but I think people also need
to think about taxes slightly different.
Now, I don't love paying taxes, but
one thing to keep in mind is I just
meant mention permanent residents in
the past, I mentioned, uh, citizenship.
Just know that, I assume
for other countries too.
But for Thailand it's important the
amount of tax that you pay because that
has a lot to do with your application
for some of these, in these things
like residents and citizenship.
And so if someone is trying to say
you use this scenario of maybe they
bring in just 50 K, uh, well, I dunno
if you're talking about dollars,
but let's say it's Thai baht, right?
50,000 Thai baht.
Yeah.
I was.
Okay, well let, let's just pretend.
Let's 50,000 Thai baht.
Not very much, but
no, not very much.
No, no.
I was evening out into dollars.
No, no, totally fair.
Well, I'm just, I I'm just saying,
'cause I've seen some people do this
sort of thing, uh, is they've literally
tried to minimize the amount of money
they put into bring into Thailand.
'cause to your point, then you don't
have to pay as much Thai tax, but
I'm saying that can burn you because
then when you're, um, you're going
after something else, then you're not
paying as much Thai tax in Thailand.
And, and I actually saw the
amount of tax I paid in Thailand
as a benefit for my application.
So just something to kind of keep in mind.
Now, another scenario, since you
brought up the, the German example,
what about we keep on referencing
Wyoming LLCs a lot, right?
So let's assume that, uh, we have
a, uh, I'm gonna use American again,
but an American, uh, individual from
California, let's use an extreme example.
So they're, they, they live in
California, but they like to travel
to Thailand six months outta the year.
Right.
And so since they live in California,
a question becomes like, let's
say they're doing consulting work.
So sometimes some of their clients
are based in California, sometimes
they stop by the office in
California to their client offices.
Then sometimes they go over to Thailand
and they take some remote calls to their,
you know, their clients in California.
Right.
And so what I'm curious about first is
should they be registering a business
in California, or should they be
registering a business in Wyoming?
So if they're still maintaining
residency in California, they
need to be a California LLC.
Um, got it.
It's doesn't, it doesn't benefit them.
Because what'll happen is in that
scenario, you just gave me six months
in Thailand, six months in California,
six months in California means, first
of all, they're not qualifying for
foreign earned income exclusion.
Uh, yep.
Even if they had a residency in Thailand,
the US is still gonna consider them
a tax resident because they're gonna
say they have too many connecting
factors to the US and to California.
Um, you by the way, there's two, as an
American, there's two ways to qualify
for the foreign earned income exclusion.
One is the physical presence
test where you're physically
out of the US 330 days a year.
Um, but the other is the bonafide
residency test where you actually
legally immigrate to the other
country and become a resident.
You get a resident visa or
resident permit in that country.
And if you do that, you have
a lot more flexibility on the
amount of time you stay in the us.
Mm-hmm.
So a lot, that's a misunderstanding
that a lot of people, a lot of people
just think I have to be out of the US
335 days a year, or I don't qualify.
Well, that's not true.
You can actually go immigrate to another
country, get a residence permit, and then
you can be in the US kind of the, this,
there's nothing, by the way, there's no.
Number of days that qualify you
if you have bonafide residency.
Actually, if you read, I could
pull up the tax form and show you.
It's extremely ambiguous
actually, when you read the, the
IRS form on the determination.
But basically what it says
is it's based on the you
connection to that other country.
So do you have a home there?
Do you go to the doctor there?
Do you have a gym membership there?
Uh, do you have a phone number there?
Do you get your teeth cleaned there?
Um, do you have a pho, like, a car
registry, those types of things.
Do you like your center of vital interest?
Is your center of vital
interest in this scenario in
Thailand or is it in California?
So if this person still has the home
in California, car in California,
blah, blah, blah, these types of
things, health insurance is a big one.
If you still have all that stuff, the US
and California is still gonna consider
you a tax resident because your center of
vital interest is still California, which
means you're still filing a federal tax
return and a California state tax return.
So if you live in California, but you say,
I'm gonna be sneaky and register my LLC
in Wyoming or Delaware or something like
that, what's gonna happen is you're gonna
file your California state tax return, and
on your income you're gonna show income.
Let's say you made.
Uh, what did you say?
300,000. So let's say you made
300,000 that came from a Wyoming LLC.
Well, that's going to appear on
your California state tax return.
The California Department of Revenue
is gonna send you a nasty letter
saying, Hey, you've gotta register
that LLC to do business in California.
You gotta pay the $800
a year franchise tax.
You gotta register it as a foreign entity,
and we're hitting, hitting you with
penalties and interest for the amount of
time it wasn't registered in California.
So there's zero benefit if, if your
center of vital interest and your
residency is California, almost all
cases, there's zero reason for you to
have a non-California registered entity.
I mean, there are exceptions to the rule.
Like that would be like if you owned
a real estate portfolio in Ohio, maybe
you have a bunch of properties in Ohio.
Well, in that case it makes sense maybe
to have Ohio LLCs to own your real
estate in Ohio because physically the
property's there or maybe you own, um.
A software company with an office
in Austin, Texas, then in that case
it might make sense to add a Texas
registered company, a corporation
or an LLC registered in Texas.
But here's the crazy thing.
In most cases, if you're the owner of
that company and that company has an
office in Texas, even if you had 10
employees that punched a clock every day
in Austin, Texas, but you're the owner
of that company and you do your work
like remotely, physically in California,
California Department of Revenue is
still gonna ask you to register that
Texas LLC in California to do business.
Yeah.
So that, that idea, that's
an interesting point you
bring up though, by the way.
'cause California's the
only state that does that.
Ah, okay.
Well, yeah, I tried to use an extreme
'cause I, I figured I, I'd been hearing
in the news a lot of, uh, uh, stuff
about how people trying to leave
California sometimes might, um, be a
little bit stuck because, uh, yeah.
Let me just bring up one,
kind of an add-on to this.
Hmm.
If you are nomadic, if you are living
this nomad lifestyle and you're from
California, what you really need to do
before you leave to leave the US and
go take on your nomad adventure here,
you really need to move to a different
state before you leave California,
ah,
to a zero tax state.
Um, and by move, I mean you
need an address in that state.
You need to move your driver's license.
If you're a registered voter, you
need to move your voter registration.
Um, basically everything that
connects you in a public record
perspective to California, you
need to cut those ties because.
Even if in the scenario, if you're
from California and you wanna live this
nomad life, and maybe you don't even
set foot in the US or California for
the next five years, California still
expects you to pay California state
tax even if you qualify for the foreign
earned income exclusion at the federal
level, because your connections, you
still have that driver's license, you
still have everything connected to
California address, blah, blah, blah.
They consider.
That to be your intention
to return to California.
Wow.
Wow.
That's quite an extreme.
Um, and that's good to know.
I mean, the, the main thing that I
was, I mean even just the level 1 0
1 of what we were talking about, I
wanted to draw the parallel between
the individuals that think they need
a Hong Kong company or a Singapore
company, and then sometimes they're
making it, you know, it's unnecessary.
They don't necessarily need that.
Maybe it's just a us
Well, it's the same thing.
I'm just wondering, some people
might read the blog articles and
say, Wyoming or Delaware looks such
a great place to start up a company.
Maybe I'll do that.
But if they still reside or are part
of the year in their own home state,
maybe it doesn't make sense to do that.
Right?
Maybe, maybe That's not really
unnecessary complication, right?
Um,
it does.
Yeah, it does.
E you e even you pick Ohio.
If you live in Ohio and that's still
your center of vital interest and
you're living half the year in Ohio
and you go spend half the year in the
Philippines or whatever, it probably
just makes sense to have an Ohio LLC
'cause you still, you're still gonna
be a tax resident in the US and Ohio.
Mm-hmm.
No matter what, 'cause your center
of vital interest is still Ohio.
Great point, great point.
Now, um, I just was curious, Bobby,
is there anything that we didn't talk
about, we talked about quite a bit.
You've been very generous with
your time, so thank you for that.
But is there anything that you wish we
would've, uh, discussed today that we
didn't have, uh, that we haven't yet?
Uh, I'll hit on a couple of things.
Some of it's gonna be a little bit of,
uh, rehashing, but I'll get to the point.
But some of the mistakes that people
make in this, um, digital nomad kind
of lifestyle I mentioned before, taking
advice from online platforms and not
getting professional guidance on that.
I think that's worth reiterating that
you, you can't you can't do that because
if, if you're living that white picket,
this lifestyle, you, you don't have
that much complications in your life.
If you're roaming between 3, 4, 5
countries in a year, you're adding a
lot of variables to your particular
situation, and you need good guidance
there of people who have experience
doing those things, who have clients
that have been through that, or who
have been through it themselves.
And so one of the biggest mistakes
people make is being cheap and just
saying, oh, I'll figure it out myself.
I'll figure it out online.
And it's kind of like, I, I kind of am, my
analogy to this is I can figure out how to
change the oil in my new car also, like.
It's not like it's impossible.
I can go online and watch
some YouTube videos.
You know, let's say I just
bought a brand new Lexus.
I can go online and find some YouTube
videos and see how to change the
oil, my new Lexus, and how to change
the filter and where the oil goes
in and where the filler or the, uh,
drain cap is and all that stuff.
I could do that.
Absolutely, I can do that.
Um, I'm a pretty smart dude.
I actually raced motorcycles for 20 years.
I know how to rebuild engines.
Like I can do all that stuff,
but should I, should I do that?
Like, probably not.
Um, because I have things that I'm really
good at and I should probably stick to
the things I'm really good at and hire
somebody to change the oil in my car.
And so the mistakes people make in
structuring their business is the
same mistakes they make later on.
In being kind of cheap
is, is what I'm saying.
Um, but getting your business
structure set in place first
is super, super critical.
Staying on top of the rules of the
places where you're living is a
big thing that most people ignore.
People are like, oh, well I'm gonna go
to Spain for five months, it'll be fine.
Well maybe, you know, or, or maybe not.
Maybe you get a nasty surprise one day and
you know, you end up owing a bunch of tax.
Like had a client years ago, Swedish
guy who thought he was gonna go move to
Southeast Asia and spend, you know, not
pay tax in Sweden anymore because he
read on Facebook, it was gonna say, you
know, just to register I think at the
time he registered a Hong Kong company.
This was a long time ago.
This was probably 10, 12 years ago.
And he did that for a long time.
But what happened is when he came,
he decided to move back to Sweden.
He got married, wanted to raise his
kids in Sweden and all that stuff.
And he got back and he re-registered as
a resident and they said well, where have
you been paying tax for the past 10 years?
Because he didn't exit the
country in the proper way.
There are things you can do to properly
exit your home country if you don't do
them, the country doesn't know you've
exited and they treat you like you're
still a resident, but non-compliant.
He ended up owing over a million euros in
tax when he went back because he didn't
do things in the right way because he'd
said, I'm just gonna read a Facebook
post and do what somebody said online.
Big mistake, obviously.
Um, like a million euro mistake for him.
Over a million euro mistake for him.
Not paying attention to things and being
a bit lax there, like we're entrepreneurs,
you and I, or entrepreneurs, probably
most of your listeners are entrepreneurs
and you can all resonate with this.
I guarantee you, Scott, you're exactly
the same way I am when it comes to
this, is we think about the next hire
or the next client or the next deal.
Or the next sale.
We're, we're forward thinking.
We, we, I mean, we log in, we look at
our revenue numbers, the number of new
clients we had today, X, Y, Z, right?
The new website we're building,
the new AI agent we're building,
we're forward thinking, what's
the last thing in the world?
Any entrepreneur wants to think about?
All the paperwork at all.
The other mess, right?
Yeah, the paperwork.
We don't wanna deal with that bullshit.
We don't wanna deal with bookkeeping,
we don't wanna deal with legal
structure and tax filings.
And so we're like, eh, yeah.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow,
we'll deal with that tomorrow.
But in my experience that tomorrow problem
eventually becomes a today problem.
And the longer you procrastinate
dealing with that tomorrow
problem, the bigger that problem
becomes when that day happens.
Like most of my clients, I will, like,
full disclosure, most of my clients
come to me after an oh shit moment,
like most sudden come to me like.
Hey, like, uh, I remember a German
guy, I had a consultation with him
like four years ago, and he told me,
he's like, oh, I don't, I'm just gonna
stay registered in Germany and keep
my company registered in Germany.
And he moved, traveled all over the world.
I, I told him, I said, well, we should
register your company outside Germany.
Like he was doing consulting
coaching or something like that.
And I said, we should probably
do a Wyoming LLC for you.
And he goes, oh, I don't wanna do that.
I'll just keep it all in Germany.
It's easier for me to keep
it registered in Germany.
And I thought, okay, you know what I mean?
Do what you want, man.
Shit's your life.
And I, like two years later, he came
back and did another consultation
and it was an oh shit moment because
he owed like 150,000 euros in tax.
And he's like, Hey, we need to fix this.
What can we do to fix this?
I'm like, we can't fix the
150,000 you already owe in tax.
We can fix you going forward.
Like we should have done two years
earlier when we had our initial calls
and then you wouldn't have this problem.
But that's normally when clients come to
me is when they have that oh shit moment.
They're like, oh God,
I owe a stupid amount.
I didn't know I owed
all this money in tax.
Or you know, or like the Swedish guy.
'cause he came to me after he moved back
to Sweden and he had that oh shit moment
that he owed over a million euros in tax.
And I'm like, I can't
do anything about that.
You didn't exit Sweden in
the right way 10 years ago.
Just be vigilant in these things.
'cause they matter.
They're, they can create
serious consequences for you.
And if you think they don't just wait two
or three years or four years or five years
'cause they will eventually, you know.
Yeah.
Now Bobby, what's the best way
for people to either find more
about you or, uh, get in touch?
Uh, best way to reach out to us is
Business anywhere.io through our website.
We got a lot of resources on there.
Um, I mean, I think at this point
we have over 2000 blog posts on
most every topic you can imagine.
Honestly, we write a lot, a blog
post that every time I see our
new schedule of like content.
I'm like, who thought of this stuff?
Like we, we had a pretty good writing team
and I'm like, who came up with this stuff?
I di I couldn't even think of this topic.
Like, but it's good.
Like we have a ton of content on
a diff bunch of different things.
Um, could be very helpful if
you're doing some research.
But again, I will stress if
you're reading an old blog post,
take it with a grain of salt.
Hire a professional hire us or
somebody like us to help you get your
structure organized and set in place.
Um, we also have, we're also
on all the social channels.
I mean, you, we have a
pretty good YouTube channel.
Um, we're on, you know, if you like
watching shorts, YouTube shorts or
Instagram TikTok, we're on all that.
But if you want real information,
go to our YouTube channel.
We have a lot of YouTube videos
on, on a lot of this stuff.
So that would be the best
way to reach out to us.
Awesome.
Well, I'll put, uh, the, uh,
contact information in the, in the
description as well, but I just
wanna thank you for your time, Bobby.
It's been really insightful.
So, uh, so thanks so much again
and, uh, here's to optimism.
Right.
We're, we're gonna do okay.
Thanks for having me, Scott.
I appreciate it.
All right.
Cheers.
Bye.
Cheers.