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Do you trust offshore businesses less than US LLCs, UK LTDs, etc?
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Do you trust offshore businesses less than US LLCs, UK LTDs, etc?

superpilesossuperpilesos Member
edited April 2013 in General

Do you trust offshore businesses less than US LLCs, UK LTDs, etc?
Would you be less likely to buy a VPS server if you were buying from a company in Belize vs USA?

Comments

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    I would trust less a company in the US than one in EU because regulations to protect the customers are much better here.
    Regarding those outside US and EU, well, it depends. I would trust one in Japan, Australia, Switzerland, for example.
    Belize, I dont know, would need to check business regulations there, but probably not so much as one in EU, almost sure.

  • trewqtrewq Administrator, Patron Provider

    I would not give my money to a business that is not registered as a business in their country.

  • CoryCory Member

    If there were a credible user here promoting the service I think I personally be more receptive. As long as I could use PayPal for payment to offer a layer of protection I think it would be fine. Even American companies can be sketchy.

  • @trewq said: I would not give my money to a business that is not registered as a business in their country.

    Don't you think that it shows a higher commitment if a company is operating offshore? Anyone with 50USD or 30GBP can register a company in USA or UK and then open a bank account in a few minutes for free. To incorporate offshore often costs $1000-2000+ and requires a visit to another country (Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, etc) to open a bank account.

  • jcalebjcaleb Member
    edited April 2013

    It's the owner that matters to me

    Edit:
    example: if uncle or jarland are registered in belize, i would still probably get a service

  • @superpilesos said: Do you trust offshore businesses less than US LLCs, UK LTDs, etc?

    Yes. You need to ask yourself why the owner decided to operate his company via an offshore business. From that you can make assertions about the owner's personality.

  • I trust offshore more than I trust US companies.

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    @serverian said: I trust offshore more than I trust US companies.

    Ditto. For personal stuff, I dont trust US and lately even some EU countries which are following the same model of surveillance state.
    For business stuff, yeah, I need a place close and under regulations I know. The state knows how and what my business is doing anyway.

  • Where is offshore? I have never heard of this country.

  • Doesn't really matter as long as they can do business good and are not complete retards. Should something happen it's always nice to know that they are at least registered and there should exist some level of paperwork regarding them.

  • DomainBopDomainBop Member
    edited April 2013

    Yes. You need to ask yourself why the owner decided to operate his company via an offshore business.

    The majority of US incorporated Fortune 500 companies (including Google, Amazon, and most famously Halliburton) and billionaires (and failed Presidential candidates like Mittens Romney) use offshore tax havens or low tax countries to reduce their tax burdens.

    Would you be less likely to buy a VPS server if you were buying from a company in Belize vs USA?

    Half the offers on LET/LEB are from unincorporated one-man bedroom/summer hosts in the USA with sparse or hidden contact info who have been in business less than a year or two.

    The country doesn't matter when I'm making a purchase if I can verify that the company I'm buying from is a trustworthy established business. I regularly buy from businesses in "high risk" countries like Russia, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey, etc without any problems..

    As long as I could use PayPal for payment to offer a layer of protection I think it would be fine

    LOL. You have almost no protection as a buyer when you use PayPal to buy online services. Word of advice: use a credit card.

  • Is Turkey a high risk country?

  • @serverian said: Is Turkey a high risk country?

    Depends. I would generally trust a company registered in Istanbul, but wouldn't trust a company in Diyarbakir.

  • I don't think there are any companies registered in Diyarbakir :)

  • @serverian said: Is Turkey a high risk country?

    I guess i should warn you now before it's too late: Don't do it, you will end up loosing money!

  • AnthonySmithAnthonySmith Member, Patron Provider

    Don't care, especially when it comes to the peanuts for a LEB, perhaps if I was spending an amount of money which was more than a packet of toilet paper I would bother looking in to things, registered companies can rip you off all the same and if anything they have more ways of hiding it and protecting themselves.

    People get all high and mighty about this sort of stuff but then in day to day life don't give 2 shits. mind = blown

  • @AnthonySmith said: People get all high and mighty about this sort of stuff but then in day to day life don't give 2 shits. mind = blown

    Can't agree more.

    I presume most people are aware of companies operating in low-tax jurisdictions (within the EU as well, i.e. Ireland) and simply don't care too much.
    As long as they're providing the service they're supposed to be providing, I don't see a problem

  • Ireland is low tax?

  • ElliotJElliotJ Member
    edited April 2013

    @rds100 said: Ireland is low tax?

    Well, lower tax when compared with other EU countries.

  • @ElliotJ I don't know, to me the UK looks like low tax. Or rather - high threshold for registering for VAT, which is good.

  • Least I trust is the US LLC, I try to avoid it as much as possible because of privacy issues that the US gov't causes. UK Ltds are very easy to register, about £50 for foreigners and for locals, about the cost of one month of LEB hosting. I don't see how that looks better than an offshore company which takes like €2000 at least to form. (US LLCs cost $100 to form for locals)

    The problem about companies in highly bureaucratic countries is that they can mess with you too. You think you have a power because of consumers rights, well, the company has some "rights" too. I had a VPS w/ a German company, it was a uG company, which is like the smallest type of company you can form in Germany. I didn't want to continue w/ their services and didn't bother to send any cancellation, just waited them to stop serving. They kept on billing me and than passed it on to a debt collection agency. The €9 I owed turned into €50. I live outside the EU, the debt collectors sent me a notice, I could avoid paying it as they don't have any jurisdiction or anything in my country but I didn't want to mess w/ them anyway, so I decided to pay. Now a Seychelles company wouldn't do this kind of b.s. nor would US or UK companies. It's Germans at work.

  • AnthonySmithAnthonySmith Member, Patron Provider

    No system for generating money was ever invented to benefit the poor, LTD companies are just a legal way to avoid tax and then avoid liability later, frankly I would trust a sole trader more that a limited company.

  • Unless it is registered in China, I am not going to trust any "offshore" corporation (this is what I would like to beleive), but looking at my recent purchase log, I really don't care.

  • PhilNDPhilND Member
    edited April 2013

    I thought it was cool when we registered NodeDeploy as a limited company.
    I think NodeDeploy Limited is more trustworthy now because it shows we are more serious. I mean, sure, anyone can register a company but all of our personal information can be found and we now have to follow a whole bunch more policies, laws, and that side of things.

  • I have no problem buying from a 3rd World country (e.g. Belize) just because it is a 3rd World country. My banking info is hidden via Paypal payment, so all I would be risking is <$7. Who cares?

  • I'll say it again, we have slews of Iranian owned companies operating in the US under US incorporated front companies, against the embargo.

    Which proves that incorporations mean little to nothing when we have major international infractions occurring in the open air market. No auditing of the incorporations or checks and balances. Just a game of pay to play.

    Frankly, I value privacy. The entire LET/LEB declaration and anal probing of every small detail about a company offering you a service at the per monthly rate equivalent to a Starbucks coffee is insanity and shows the compulsiveness of this community.

    I want companies that say what they do and don't monitor, data retention policies, laws they comply with, etc.

  • @pubcrawler said: I'll say it again, we have slews of Iranian owned companies operating in the US under US incorporated front companies, against the embargo.

    and so? If they provide a good service and found a method of opening themselves up to more customers, then well done to them.

  • Well so? @superpilesos

    It's a violation of US laws, international laws, money laundering and probably 10 other laws.

    It's akin to dealing with a bookie or a loan shark and when you run into issues you complain to the BBB, local authorities, etc.

    What this said issue indicates is that incorporations and who said incorporations are registered to mean little to nothing. Your means of recourse is ZERO as in that instance the locality they are operating in is not where they are. The long arm of the law has them out of reach.

    That's important as means of recourse or legally biting folks as needed is the underlying protection for misbehavior, fraud, privacy violations, etc.

    At minimum to be sane about privacy, one has to deal with companies incorporated and actually operated by citizens of that country (i.e. Belize citizen with Belize company). And, you need to note/research the data and privacy protections as they relate to foreign nationals (are you exempt from said luxuries)? Finally, you need to be confident that their courts are fair and open to complaints levied from abroad.

  • MrXMrX Member

    @superpilesos said: and so? If they provide a good service and found a method of opening themselves up to more customers, then well done to them.

    I don't think that was the point. It rather shows that the due diligence done when setting up US companies is often far more lax than tax havens. You can set up a company (for example Delaware LLC) without showing your ID to anyone. That is considerably more difficult to accomplish in Belize, Seychelles, and other tax havens, where due diligence requirements are far more stringent than for example US and UK.

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