Do I need to incorporate in the US to offer SaaS?

Question

Our company is based in Brazil and offers SaaS products with an API licensing revenue model. We want to enter the US market: Do we need to create a company in the US for that? What kind of activities exactly would require that?

Answers: 1 public & 0 private

Lawrence lau
IP Broker

The basic rule of Sale of Goods internationally are the Vienna Convention with Sale of Services mostly determined by where those services are performed/cosumed. Most tax authorities are interested the real economic activity with various rules that apply, depending on:
whether you have more than 1 business location
the kind of service you provide
the place where your business or your business customer ‘belongs’

However, the general rule is if you supply services to a: business customer the location is by default the place where the customer belongs and for non-business, where the supplier is. Unless Brazil has special exceptions for certain sectors, there should be no need to incorporate in US as international contracts that clearly spell our jurisdictional issues are part and parcel of modern world.

Recent questions

Do people really steal invention ideas?

I sometimes see questions on forums like Quora about how to stop people stealing your invention i...

4 5386 2
Is interpretation of known historical facts protectable under copyright law?

I am looking for useful sources on protecting copyright. I am in the process of writing a book ba...

3 6114 2
Fair Use and news feeds

What is the current wisdom on compiling news feeds on a third party website so far as copyright i...

1 3962 0
Looking for good patent firm

How to find a good patent firm to help me apply patent in USA

3 4320 2
What constitutes 'prior disclosure'?

This might be a silly question but I’m a bit confused by ‘prior disclosure’ as it applies to pate...

2 4823 1

Do you have a question about your invention or intellectual property?
Search the questions below or post your enquiry to one of our experts via Directory.
(User questions are no longer posted publicly on this page.)