Starting a SaaS website with paid service -- Best practices for setting up payment collection? (from US)

Hey, is there currently a way to save filter settings? I feel like it would be helpful for planning the trip as I have several ideas on what to target and would like to cycle between them

I vaguely remember hearing about such a service before, but I’m drawing a blank on the name. Basically I left my tablet on a connecting flight in Europe, right before my main flight to Thailand. They have my tablet and are willing to ship it out for me, but people have warned me there’s a big risk of it getting “lost in the mail” if I ship something expensive like that to Thailand.

I’m wondering if there’s a service or community, where I can find a nomad who’s in Europe/heading to Thailand soon, so I can have it shipped to them in Europe and pay them to ferry it down here for me? I met someone in Budapest a ways back who had built something for this type of use-case, but I can’t remember the name of it. Any help would be appreciated!

What’s the best place?
For residency I’m looking at Portugal and they have the NHR (non habitual resident) program which would exempt dividends from foreign income.
So all I’m really looking for is the best place to actually start the company.
Biggest factors are of course low taxes and ease of setting up the company plus a business bank account that enables me to receive payments through Stripe.

What I found so far:
Hong Kong
Corporate tax rate of 16.5% (8.25% for the first HK$2 million)
⊕/⊖ offshore income from outside HK is exempt from taxation but it’s not clear whether this can be done in the first year and prorated or if it’s only through filing the offshore exemption claim. This might take two years and requires not income from HK at all. More info on that would be great
⊖ seems very difficult to get a business bank account
⊖ necessary services and fees are roughly around €2000 / year
⊖ accounting requirements seem to be very strict
⊕ Doesn’t require local partner
⊕ Agencies available that seem to handle most of the work

Singapore
Corporate tax rate of 17% (0% on the first S$100k, 8.5% up to S$300k)
⊖ requires a local director. What are the implications of this?

Malta
Corporate tax rate of 35%
There is the “full imputation system” but I don’t really understand it.
"In most cases, the tax refund to the shareholder is 6/7 of the tax paid by the company on profits distributed as dividends. The tax refund rate may be different in the following cases: " This would result in an effective corporate tax of around 5%.
⊖ European customers would have to pay VAT and I’d have to deal with that

Cyprus
Corporate tax rate of 12.5% and there seem to be ways to lower this
⊖ European customers would have to pay VAT and I’d have to deal with that
⊖ requires staying in Cyprus for 2 months / year

I find it surprising how much research this requires and how much “it depends” information is out there when I’d assume that there are probably thousands of digital nomads who probably have very similar requirements.

Hi there!

I’m looking for international sim card services. I looked for other posts, and I know there are other alternatives, but I’m interested to have an international sim-card with only data plan, just to be used while I get a local one.

Alternatives:

• Go Sim - http://www.gosim.com/data-sim-card.html
• World Sim - https://www.worldsim.com/top-up#data-bundle
• Travel Sim - https://travelsim.com/data-roaming-packages/
• Telestial - http://www.telestial.com/international-sim-card

¿Any experience using any of these services?
thnx!

Daily/hourly pass needed.
Can’t work in normal café because having client’s laptop for security reasons, can’t use open networks. Working for R&D. Also laptop is so huge it doesn’t fit normal cafe environment because it’s far from discreet.

Hi all

What do you guys use for receiving both sms & calls on a European phone number?

I’d like to have a phone number that does not change for at least 1 or 2 years.

I did my homework & found this thread but it’s only about US services so I don’t think it’s relevant: What’s a good US call and SMS forwarding service?
Also, I looked into Google Hangout but it doesn’t support European phone numbers.

Hi all,

What do you guys use for call and sms forwarding?

Currently I have a Skype US number that forwards to my local phone number. However, it can’t receive SMS’es so that’s a huge dealbreaker.

There’s RingCentral - but that starts at $29/month which is rather pricey.

Any suggestions? I’d just like to be able to call and text like I’m still in the US (when I’m not). Thanks in advance!

Sarah

Hello, I’m a nomad based in Asia, but recently incorporated in Wyoming. Does anyone use a mail forwarding service with a Wyoming street address that you would recommend?

Hi everyone,

we are a very small remote german company (3 at the moment) but we are expanding and three new colleagues will be working for us in the upcoming weeks/months. Up until now, we used Skype and my regular mobile phone line for all the intern/support and selling calls but since we will have soon other people working for support and selling too, we need to profesionalice that aspect.

In your opinion and experience, what is the best and more cost efficient VOIP / SIP service that we could use? Thanks!

A friend of mine is setting off on her first long solo trip, starting in Brazil. She will initially be backpacking but may turn to working on the road at some point.

I’d like to get her a nice gift for the trip and though I have a few ideas, I thought I’d come here for some further inspiration. What have you found yourself missing on the road, or what item or service has made your travels better/more comfortable/enjoyable ?
An example from my experience: a way to organise laundry, eg packing cubes or dry bags.

Hello, I’m thinking about launching a new company in Hong Kong for an international EC business though I’m not a resident nor have any address, will not live in Hong Kong.
I’ve googled and found hundreds of incorporation service offices but don’t have any idea which one is trust worthy, and which one is rip-off or con.
Can anybody recommend a specific service or tell me how to find a good service?

I was wondering if anyone knows a website to keep track of the hotels I have stayed in, I really like to keep track of everything. I have a couple of websites to track each flight I took and was wanted to see if there is something similar but for hotels.

For digital nomads, there are few specific platforms for specific info like-
Finances and Investments - NomadCapitalist
Dating - Nomad Soulmates
Travel - Digital nomad travel mag

I am a budding digital nomad and looking forward to going completely online and serve as a digital marketer. Is there a site dedicated to career counselling of nomads? i.e. which offers guidance on selection of online courses followed by awareness on various remote job sites and freelancing platforms.

Kindly advise!

Think American Blue Apron, or Moscow-based Elementaree for that matter. I’m not a big fan of food-shopping or market-haggling, you know. Yet I’m OK with cooking myself Such services would definitely make a stay easier.

Thinking about Trang, but need at least a 5M download internet
Will be hard to get it?

any suggestion about Trang is welcome (need to find a cheap apartment, and need also to stuck in front of my laptop to work

First post here; very excited to be part of the community . My question is pretty subjective, but perhaps other users have stories to share.

I’m going to be travelling to Bangkok in 2 weeks to start off my Digital Nomad journey. This has aligned with the kick-off of what might be the biggest project I’ll be undertaking to date (internal comms + training design consultancy / art direction).

I’m planning to get there, find a nice hostel, join the Hive and then dive straight in, but wonder if the set up period might be prone to causing some intial blackouts in communication that would not go down well at this stage of the build-up or just general fatigue. I’m hoping the excitement of being in a new place will counteract that.

Anyone have any tips for ensuring continuity and the smoothest transition? Stories? Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I’m thinking of changing my current setup for mail/post receiving and scanning (at the moment I have some friends doing it for me), and I was wondering if anyone has any specific feedback/advice regarding UK companies. I’m currently looking at UKPostBox.

Any personal insight would be greatly appreciated!

Sara

Hello, what is the best voice service to use in Europe? I plan to move around to different to countries. I’m wondering what people are doing?

I was thinking of using Apple’s Sim for data, but that doesn’t include voice.

Hey guys, i’m a Canadian resident. I have a corporation registered in Canada, and all of my income flows through this account and eventually into my personal account. I’m considering either opening a second Canadian account or an offshore bank account for the purpose of travel. My goal is not to change my business structure or avoid taxes, but simply to make it easier to make purchase worldwide.

I’m planning to do some travel in Asia and eventually South America. I know that in many countries, fraud can be a problem. Not only will I have to fight with my back to keep my account from being locked (they tend to be cautious when it comes accessing your account internationally) but i’m also concerned about having my card duplicated and used illegally.

What i’m looking for is some kind of bank account or prepaid card I can use to travel with. The idea is that I would transfer money to the account online, then withdraw the balance in cash to pay for my expenses. Because there will never be a balance on the card, I won’t have to worry about fraud. I’d also like to see if there is a way that I could reduce the fees I pay on currency exchanges or withdrawing in a foreign country.

Anybody have any suggestions?

Hi there,
We are a husband and wife who travel a lot and have a small company set up in Fiji. We offer services to clients all over the world, but the Fijian banking system isn’t very accommodating for a digital based business with a lot of overseas expenses.

To make our life easier we are planning to set up an offshore company and bank account in Labuan.
We have a Fijian, Belgium and Uk passport but have residency in Fiji.

Does anybody have experience with a situation like this? and any advice how to go about setting up an offshore company and bank account ideally in Labuan (or Singapore)?