Using services only available in USA

is there an easy workaround?

[httpwebwitch]

My business is based in Canada.

I'm looking for payment processing services, but so many are available only to USA businesses, I tend to feel a bit ripped off.

Examples:

Checkout by Amazon
[payments.amazon.com...]

Google Checkout
[checkout.google.com...]

I've wondered whether it's feasible, or possible, to have an ersatz office in the USA, to register as a business in America when all our operations are actually north of the border.

Would it be a taxation & paperwork nightmare? Damn, I'd have to deal with the IRS wouldn't I.

I'm interested if anyone here has ever tried running a USA-based business from a foreign country.

[wheel]

Yes, I have. A couple of different ways. I've had a non-us company with a shipping/distribution center in Kentucky of all places. When I visited and bitched about the coffee, they assured me that's because Kentuckians drink bourbon, not coffee. The shipping center also had a shooting range down the hall of the offices. Crack the guns open during break and take a few shots. That seems like something I would be joking about, and yet, not.

I've also incorporated online, in Delaware if I recall.That combined with a UPS store post office box, and I was entirely official. Filed US income tax returns and everything. I forget the specifics, I had a US account look after it all. No big deal really.

Now, the last time I looked it had gotten more difficult. Even if you incorporate a company, it may be more difficult to get a bank account in the US post 9-11 (though I think it's eased since I last looked). I actually had a bank account pre 9-11 in the US and when I tried to open one post 9-11 the very same bank wouldn't even though they knew me. Again, I think that's relaxed.

In short, if you want to, I don't see any reason why you can't follow the paperwork, get incorporated in the US, get a UPS store box, get an accountant, a bank account, and away you go.

But is all the time and expense worth it for payment processing? Not so sure about that. I've done business extensively in the US so it made sense for me - but I wouldn't do it just for payment processing.

[LifeinAsia]

Depending on what you're selling, a lot of payment processors really do not like/accept P.O. Boxes either, especially if they consider you a "high risk."

[httpwebwitch]

I'd just like to offer something other than PayPal. Users are asking for it.