We are about to set up our production environment in AWS and are wondering about the tax consequences of where the servers are located. We are a Swedish start-up and since AWS is cheapest in the US we'd love to place the servers there but we've heard that we might risk double taxation if we do that (i.e. both Sweden and the US will tax us).<p>Do you guys have any experience having the servers in the US for non-US start-ups?
> we've heard...<p>But did you hear it from a tax attorney / certified accountant?<p>That being said (and: I've <i>no</i> experience in Sweden, and I'm neither atty nor acct) the idea that a US tax liability could be incurred by an international corp/business purchasing a service (e.g., AWS) from company in U.S. ...seems pretty outrageous.
I think you are mixing far too many issues - but that comes from your lack of qualified advice, and obvious lack of understanding about what company is.<p>What you haven't specified is if you are concerned about the cost of hiring the equipment (a purchase and therefore tax deductible) or the sale of your goods or services.<p>For the record, your company earnings from sales are taxed according to the country in which the company is declared and owned and where the company accounts are filed. It has nothing to do with the location of the servers on which your software resides.<p>Double taxation [treaties] are not what you have assumed them to be - they do not necessarily mean that you are taxed twice and more specifically they relate to individuals earnings and not companys'.<p>As I say you have mixed a lot of issues into one question.
You need an accountant who knows both US and Swedish tax laws, double taxation agreements, etc. In general, if a business has no presence in the US, it would not be taxed in the US, but the tax laws are a twisted maze filled with traps for the unwary, so make sure that you go to a good accountant first.
No. I'm not an accountant, etc.<p>There's no nexus as long as you aren't co-locating servers that you have purchased yourself. If you're leasing from AWS (or most dedicated server providers) there are no issues.<p>The US doesn't care what Swedish companies do, unless you establish a physical presence in the US (or does something that forms a nexus, and even then, that varies by state).<p>You don't want to go anywhere near the US tax system, because it's pretty much the worst tax system in the world. Avoid it at all costs.