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We are planning to sell iPhone, iPad and Android apps in US Market. We have a company in India having 4 directors.

I think we will have to open up a company in USA for this. Do you guys think, opening up an LLC is the best option?

Are there anything else we have to keep in mind for this kind of business?

The members of the company will all be a non-US residents and our revenue will primarily come from US market.

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Why do you want to open a US company? – JeffO May 15 '11 at 2:32
I don't understand why you think you have to open a company in the US. You should be able to sell your software to US residents from India. Can you clarify? – Zuly Gonzalez♦ Jul 6 '11 at 6:47

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FYI, a Foreign national can not own a US Corporation (C or S), but an LLC is a good option for a start up. Note: LLC's have a good combination of asset protection, is a "pass through" income enitity like a "Sub S" Corp. and has the option for disproportional distribution of income. (I am not a lawyer, but an experienced successful serial entrepreneur & serial intrapreneur)

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Hello Howard, welcome to the site and thanks for the contribution. Signatures are not allowed on this site. However, you are free to promote your services in your profile. Please see our faq for this and other guidelines: answers.onstartups.com/faq#signatures – Zuly Gonzalez♦ Jul 6 '11 at 6:49
Thanks Howard, your answer helped. – abhi Jul 8 '11 at 5:34
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I am not sure if you need a US entity to sell applications as a publisher to any of the large mobile application distributors.

But still, here is something that I did a long time ago comparing an LLC with a C-Corp but please note that it's dated and I am not a lawyer.

The essence of the argument dealt with what you expected to happen in terms of revenues, profits and your decision to sell the business. While the LLC had a number of tax advantages over C-Corp re-organizing it as a C-corp, adding more investors and members and distributing earnings every year were some of the issues that angel investors and vc's didn't like.

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Yes you are right, you don't need an LLC to do that. You can sell apps in US market by just being an Indian company. They will send the cheque on your name once some amount is accumulated in your iTunes account. Thanks for your help. – abhi Jul 8 '11 at 5:35
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I am into the same boat, but I opened a company here in USA as LLC. I came from India but there is nothing written that LLC Founder has to be a USA Citizen/Permanent Resident. However, you do need an address for a Managing Partner which resides in USA for legal purpose.

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Is it because you need a bank account in US and for that you need a local address? – abhi Jul 8 '11 at 5:34
I dont think so it is for the Bank Account. Usually you file under state gov and they dont need any Bank docs et all. – RG-3 Aug 9 '11 at 21:08

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