If you do questionable things, people will come find you. Not exactly a path to privacy.

Submitted Link #1: http://mikeyounglaw.com/wp/2009/08/28/perry-belche...

If you recommend using hosting companies outside the US, are there particular countries, (or companies) you can recommend? Or do you recommend using US companies?

Can you give us an example of how you would recommend a web-based business arrange hosting, and payment with the hosting company. Thanks very much!

... The simplest solution is to pay extra to whoever sets up your website if he will act as your nominee.

Otherwise, you might try checking on one of the South American countries. A close friend, David, is a web designer who is moving back to Peru in less than two months. I'll ask him to check around down there.

Has anyone ever purchased a mailbox and added it next to several others, effectively creating a "new" ghost address? I've been thinking about the feasibility of this, and have read before that this is easy to do in a “rural” setting where rows of mailboxes are common. However, I’m thinking that in these rural environments many of the neighbors know each other, and would think it’s suspicious that a new address just popped up. If anything, I think this would be easier to accomplish in an urban setting (maybe a small condo or apartment complex), where neighbors tend to keep to themselves and ignore things like a new mailbox appearing out of nowhere.

Can anyone shed some light on the legality of this, as well?

... I once mentioned this as a possibility but I've since decided it's a poor idea. One of my readers tried this a few years ago and told me it did not work for him. (I don't remember the details.)

The second place I get mail is at my home address (in the works of changing that). I must add that although I have my address on the mail; it gets delivered to my parent's mail box because I took mine down (didn't want folks to have access to my street number). My parents live next door; so that is probably why the mail person just started putting my mail in their box.

So a couple suggestions for you; do you have a neighbor you could see about "sharing" a mail box? If you do get another mailbox, add a name or two of "children" (with different last names) who will get mail there. You wouldn't have ID for a 5 yr old, but it would enable you to get mail to that PO box under different names.

This makes me sick. I'm not trying to argue politics or religion, but just look around and use your common sense, and see if you don't feel like we are in a police state.

From the article, "...a grandmother of triplets who bought one box of Zyrtec-D cold medicine for her husband at a Rockville pharmacy. Less than seven days later, she bought a box of Mucinex-D cold medicine for her adult daughter at a Clinton pharmacy, thereby purchasing 3.6 grams total of pseudoephedrine in a week’s time...When the police came knocking at the door of Harpold’s Parke County residence on July 30, she was arrested on a Vermillion County warrant for a class-C misdemeanor, which carries a sentence of up to 60 days in jail and up to a $500 fine."

Submitted Link #1: http://www.tribstar.com/local/local_story_24622591...

... I like this comment, below:

"If you're not doing anything wrong, you've got nothing to worry about, right? Oh wait... "

Would it be best to use two NM LLCs, one owning the other LLC that would open a bank account?

Thanks!

... Have you read "SKIP COLLEGE?" There is a suggestion on how to do business with certain initials, and how to open a personal account in a small bank in a faraway state.

In other words, you'd do business with the LLC (perhaps owned by another one for an additional level of privacy) but use a personal bank account for checking. LLCs are also useful for signing contracts, receiving royalties, and so on. (The copyright for HTBI is held by a NM LLC but the royalties go into a private account.)

Also, have you considered using a ghost address in Spain's Canary Islands? Might be helpful!

Now, some folks would say that I am paranoid. Maybe, but I believe it is better to be safe than sorry. Therefore, I have recommended to clients to NEVER put their SSN on checks. Why? Ask yourself just one question. What happens if your check gets stolen? To make sure this is very unlikely, I suggest following these steps:

1. Always include a voucher (which has your name, address, and SSN on it) with your check. If you have a tax consultant, he/she generates these for you, yes?

2. Always have your tax consultant (or you): [a] go to the post office and mail your payment by Certified Mail, OR [b] deliver your payment to an IRS office and make sure you get a receipt showing when delivered, amount of your payment, and (crucial) what tax it's for, and what tax period. OR [c] if privacy is not a concern, you can make an electronic payment to IRS or your state. (If privacy IS a concern, another possibility is to have your tax consultant make the payment for you). Hope this helps.

Like I've repeatedly said, for those who have the resources, an aircraft is a vehicle or just another mode of transportation just like a car is for the average person. It's as normal for them to fly as it is for others to drive. That means a stalker with money can not only have a small aircraft, it can be equipped with all manner of surveillance technology and its ownership be hidden behind trusts and other legal entities. In fact, there are trusts and LLC specifically created for aircraft. Flying licenses are easier to hide than driver's licenses, too.

Thankfully, aircraft aren't as easy to disguise or hide as most ground vehicles so, I suspect this activity will be caught and prosecuted far more in the future and I pray that my stalker is among those next apprehended.

Submitted Link #1: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/25/california.pil...

Here's the first from the client side: sole proprietors are far more likely to be deemed employees by the IRS than LLCs, which have their own tax ID numbers and are required to provide their clients a w-9. The client can prove it paid an entity to provide the services, not a sole proprietor. This substantially reduces potential tax liability (and scrutiny) by the IRS since, these days, each time an employer/client cuts a 1090 for a sole proprietorship, it looks like, to the IRS, the individual is attempting to use friends and family as off-the-books employees for whom they pay no employment taxes or "hiring contractors" to "provide services" in order to write off as services expenditures that otherwise are not deductible.

From Joe's standpoint, a CORRECTLY formed and operated business LLC protects his privacy (yes, it can be done; I'm doing it routinely and easily), his assets from liability and allows him to do a number of other things in the name of his LLC rather than his own. That's because each time you conduct a transaction as a sole proprietor, you subject yourself to litigation of some form or fashion from the date you conduct the service until the statute of limitation is up on that kind of civil suit even if you form an entity under which to conduct business and transfer contracts and business activities during that statutory period when a civil action is possible

. Since you were doing business in your own name during that time, you can be sued. (In fact, this may be another reason Joe's client prefers him to be operating under an LLC--if the client has "deep pockets" and Joe is sued by anybody for anything, even if the client isn't involved or related to the suit, guess who suddenly find themselves a defendant?) There are ways to form and operate the entire enterprise so Joe is thoroughly protected AND private. Joe should do just that and offer his services as an LLC while not unnerving the IRS (I do NOT mess with the Department of Treasury!), banks or clients in the way he operates the entity. Keep in mind, this is about privacy, not conducting nefarious activities.

In fact, when I was growing up, I was taught that "privacy" means DISCRETION, not SECRECY. Shakespeare's Falstaff in Henry IV said "valor is the better part of discretion." Now, he was thought to be behaving nefariously in his use of "discretion" having faked his death to keep from being killed on the battlefield. But, he believed he was smart and his "smarts" were a form of courage and caution (discretion)--to be careful meant to stay alive and living meant other opportunities to be valorous. In business, the same principal applies.

Be cautious and judicious; set up an LLC, which is considered a "legal fiction" that is operated on behalf of the people behind it, yet, legally, if properly formed and operated, it protects you so you can survive "another day" in business--and keep yourself safe from the frivolous litigation (and other business tactics like the "Red Flag Rule") that represent today's unjust war on small businesses and individuals. There's nothing brave about leaving yourself wide open to destruction by failing to prudently form and use the entity protection the US Constitution affords you.

Brian, I agree with Mike because, yes, paying your utility bills with a bank or credit card in your own name leaves a paper trail that points to you. Public utility information is just that--public (and while pretexting to get telephone records is illegal, such pretexting hasn't entirely gone away and is quite common for other types of utilities). Though difficult to do and not smart and much easier to discover (um, social engineering requires humans and humans are fallible; the same gullibility, greed or guile that leads to the disclosure of information is used to disclose that disclosure--we investigative journos know), it's still used by unscrupulous individuals so don't take the chance if you have legitimate reason to worry.

If you can't establish a nominee or LLC bank account to use to pay bills (and, remember, a NMLLC can be used for "any lawful purpose", whether for commerce or holding or managing property), use cash or money orders to pay bills. If you can find an out-of-the-way convenience store or check cashing place that takes utility payments, walk in and make them there. If you're not comfortable doing that, use snail mail with a ghost address as a return address.

Alternatively, if you can, get a reloadable prepaid card of some kind--though this is hard to do without providing your social security number, I understand. Gift cards are another alternative but you'll spend a lot on those. Sending payments via Western Union or MoneyGram could work but that's more of a database paper trail so use those options with caution.

And, if you use an LLC, tie it to the mailing address for your utility bills and use it solely for the purpose of paying bills and NEVER use it for anything connected to your true name AND social security number and/or true address and/or D.O.B. EVER.

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Joe, your client has NO right to require you to form an LLC to get paid. If they owe you money, they must pay. You need to sever ties with this client after getting paid. Remind them that you have performed a service, and they owe you a payment. If they don’t pay, it’s lawsuit time. There are plenty of other clients out there, so ditch these guys.

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Brian, just pay your utilities with money orders. Yes it can be inconvenient and a little more expensive, but privacy comes with a cost. In my mind, there is no point in going through the effort of signing up for a utility or service in an alternate name, only to give yourself away through your method of payment. Accounts receivable clerks can be bribed to look up payment information through lockbox images or other databases. There is a local liquor store near me that sells Western Union money orders for $1.50/each. I struck a deal with them to lower the price to $0.50/each by purchasing only 20 of them per month (I pay EVERYTHING with money orders).