Selling a website on h1b?

[smallville1]

I have a website that i am going to sell. I am on h1-b now and never had any income from website in my account. the payments were managed and servers paid from out of US. ofcourse there was no profit for all these years. But the website has some value now and I want to sell it. Is it ok to do this while on h1b?

Will this cause any problem for me in future while applying GC?
which tax category would this come in? (capital gain?)

Please advise.

Thanks

[t75]

Who maintained or managed the website? If it was you, you worked illegally. It does not matter that it made no money, you were only entitled to work for your H1B employer while physically inside the US borders.

[GcLLC]

You need to be a little more clear. Who made the payments and who owns the website? Also, who did the development of the website?

 

If the case is that you bought a domain name and basically had the registration by paying the dues, then yes, you can sell it without any issues. Depending on your specific situation you might be able to pay capital gains tax on the profits as well.

[smallville1]

I didn't maintain or develop the website. It was all done by others. I was not involved in recieving payments either. but the domain is on my name. Problem with my profit is that i am looking at multiples of 6 figure, which is going to highlight my this year's tac return and may trigger few questions during the GC interview.

[GcLLC]

Congratulations!!!!

 

At that level of income do consult an immigration lawyer and a CPA.

 

Where was the domain registered? (Presumably offshore). Where were you when the registration took place? Did you pay *anything* for the website / domain from any US account?

 

Based on the answers to the above questions, you might have some very significant tax savings in US. (You may not even have to report that income in US).

 

 

 

- GcLLC