Video · From Azerbaijan
Can an Azerbaijani Own a US LLC? Where It's Run Decides the Tax (2026)
Running a US company from Azerbaijan? A company effectively managed in Azerbaijan is resident there and pays profit tax at 20%. 5:01 long, published .
Transcript
What the video says
0:00Can an Azerbaijani resident own a US LLC?
It's late afternoon in Baku, and Murad's customers abroad want to pay for his booking software by card. The big card processor doesn't take Azerbaijani businesses, so he's wondering about a US company. On the American side, he can have one. No social security number, and no trip to the US. We're BaseAcross. We set up US companies for founders outside America, so we'll be straight with you. Azerbaijan adds one question, about where the company is run.
A company effectively managed from here is resident here, so a US company run from Baku can be taxed as Azerbaijani.
0:37Do you need a US company for Stripe in Azerbaijan?
First, does he need one at all? It depends on why. For card payments from customers worldwide, the guide's answer is a US company, after advice. A US company with an EIN and a US bank account can apply for a US account with the card processor. It reviews the business and the person behind it, and it can decline. Some US buyers and platforms want a US contracting party, and US investors usually want a Delaware C-Corp. Whichever it is, plan where the company will be managed.
Murad's reason is the card payments.
1:11Can Azerbaijan tax your US company as Azerbaijani?
Here's Azerbaijan's central rule. A company established under Azerbaijani law, or effectively managed in Azerbaijan, is resident here, and pays Azerbaijani profit tax. A US company that Murad runs from his desk in Baku can fall inside it. A second test catches a foreign company active here for a set number of days in any twelve months, through an office or a management unit. It can have a permanent establishment here. Murad himself is resident after a set number of days here in a calendar year. Below that, his permanent home, the centre of his life, his usual residence and his citizenship decide. Residents are taxed on income from anywhere.
The guide reads these rules from PwC's tax summaries, so confirm them with your adviser.
1:59Wyoming LLC or Delaware C-Corp, and an EIN without an SSN
The American part is simpler. A Wyoming LLC suits an owner-run business that needs the card processor, once you know where it will be managed. A Delaware C-Corp suits raising from US investors. The company needs a registered agent, an address in that state for legal papers, not where you work. Then the EIN, the company's US tax number. Without a social security number or an ITIN, the application goes on a separate IRS form instead of the online tool. You don't need an Azerbaijani company to form it.
Prices are in US dollars, so check your card's exchange rate and fees.
2:35Which US accounts work from Azerbaijan?
Where can the dollars land? Founders living in Azerbaijan can apply to a US fintech bank, because Azerbaijan isn't on its list of countries it doesn't serve. It decides each application. A multi-currency account gives no US dollar account details to founders living here. Another US bank doesn't bar Azerbaijan, but it asks every owner for a physical US address. Each provider decides for itself.
With a US account, Murad can apply to the card processor, and it can say no.
3:06How are profit and dividends taxed in Azerbaijan?
So what does Azerbaijan tax? The guide works one example through. Say Murad's Wyoming LLC makes a hundred thousand manat of profit, and he manages it from Baku. It's effectively managed in Azerbaijan, so it's resident here, and profit tax comes to twenty thousand manat. Paying the remaining eighty thousand to him as a dividend costs four thousand more. That's an illustration, not a quote. Dividends from a foreign company have their own rate, and you declare them in Azerbaijan.
How Azerbaijan classes the LLC, and how it pays you, are for your tax adviser.
3:41Do you pay US tax, and is there a US–Azerbaijan treaty?
On the American side, the IRS still applies the nineteen seventy-three treaty with the Soviet Union to Azerbaijan. It exempts royalties from US withholding, and interest only on credit that finances trade. Dividends stay at the full withholding rate, which matters for a C-Corp. Pay for work you do in Azerbaijan generally isn't US income, so a US company with no US office or staff often owes no US income tax on it. A single-owner LLC still files a report with the IRS when it has reportable transactions with you, and missing it is expensive.
For a calendar-year company, it's usually due in mid-April.
4:22What to do first, in order
Put together, the order runs like this. Start on the Azerbaijani side, with a tax adviser: whether you need a US company at all, and where it will be managed. Then the name and registered agent, the state filing, and the operating documents, checked against your passport. Then the EIN. Then the accounts, starting with the US fintech bank. After that, keep the books and minutes that show where decisions are made, and put the IRS report and your Azerbaijani return on one calendar. The full guide, with every source and a checklist for your adviser, is linked below. And Murad?
Before the card payments, he's deciding where his company is run.
The founder in the video is an example, not a customer. The rules in it were checked when it was made; the guide carries the current sources.
The guide
Costs, documents, timelines and the rules in Azerbaijan, with sources.
Read the guide for AzerbaijanWatch on YouTube