Video · From Ethiopia
Can You Fund a US Company from Ethiopia? (2026)
Can you have a US company while living in Ethiopia? On the Ethiopian side, the National Bank's 2024 directive treats two kinds of payment differently. 4:39 long, published .
Transcript
What the video says
0:00Can you own a US company while living in Ethiopia?
It's evening in Addis Ababa, and Dawit is reading about US companies. His clients are abroad, and he wants to be paid in dollars. So he asks a simple question. Can I have a US company from Ethiopia? We're BaseAcross. We set up US companies for founders outside America, so we'll be straight with you. On the American side, yes. No social security number, and no trip to the US. The surprise is at home. Paying for a service abroad is allowed.
Putting money into a company abroad needs the National Bank's authorisation.
0:33Do you need a US company to get paid from Ethiopia?
So first, does Dawit need one at all? That's the guide's first step, before anything is ordered. The big card processor doesn't take Ethiopian businesses, so a US company is often how founders here get paid in dollars. Selling services to clients abroad is another reason. Raising from US investors is a third, and they usually want a Delaware C-Corp. Your own shares are a foreign asset, so take advice first.
Whatever the reason, plan how the company will be funded and where it'll be managed. Dawit's clients pay from abroad, so he has his reason.
1:08Can you send money from Ethiopia to fund a US company?
Ethiopia's rule is the National Bank's foreign exchange directive of 2024. It repealed every earlier directive, including one some guides still cite. It treats two kinds of payment differently. Current payments, such as paying for a service, are authorised, unless the directive says otherwise. Capital transactions are the ones that directly change your foreign assets or liabilities. They aren't permitted unless the National Bank authorises them, and banks won't make them.
Putting money into a US company, or lending to it, is one. That's the rule this whole film turns on.
1:46Wyoming LLC or Delaware C-Corp, and an EIN without an SSN
The company itself is the quicker part. A Wyoming LLC suits an owner-run business selling to clients abroad. A Delaware C-Corp suits raising from US investors. It 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.
Prices are in US dollars, so ask your bank first whether it can make the payment, and check its exchange rate and fees.
2:20Which US accounts work for founders in Ethiopia?
Then, where the dollars can land. Founders living in Ethiopia can apply to a US fintech bank, and it decides each application. Another US fintech bars owners with Ethiopian citizenship or residency. A multi-currency account gives no US dollar account details to people living here. Each provider decides for itself.
With the company, its EIN and a US bank account, Dawit can apply to the card processor for a US account. It reviews the business and the person behind it, and it can decline.
2:52What happens when you fund your LLC from Addis Ababa?
Now the money between Dawit and the company, worked through as the guide does it. Say he plans to put two thousand dollars from his account in Addis Ababa into his new LLC, as its capital. That gives him a foreign asset, so it's a capital transaction. Unless the National Bank authorises it, it isn't permitted, and his bank won't send it. That's an illustration, not legal advice.
Dawit himself is resident if he's domiciled in Ethiopia, or stays more than a set number of days in any twelve months. Residents are taxed on worldwide income.
3:26Can Ethiopia tax your US company, and is there a treaty?
The company can be taxed here too. A company formed abroad is Ethiopian-resident if its place of effective management is in Ethiopia at any time in the tax period. Ask your adviser how payments from the company to you are taxed, and how they must reach Ethiopia. There's no US income tax treaty with Ethiopia. But pay for work you do in Ethiopia generally isn't US income, so a US company with no US office or staff often owes no US income tax on it.
A one-owner LLC still files a report with the IRS when it has reportable transactions with you, and missing it is expensive.
4:03What to do first, in order
So here's the order. Check the Ethiopian side first, with your bank and your tax adviser. How will the company be funded without a barred transfer, and where will it be managed? Then form it, get the EIN, and apply to the US fintech bank that takes applications from founders here. Keep every record of money between Ethiopia and the company. Put the IRS report and your Ethiopian return on one calendar. The full guide, with every source and a checklist for your adviser, is linked below. And Dawit?
His first call wasn't to us. It was to his bank.
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 Ethiopia, with sources.
Read the guide for EthiopiaWatch on YouTube