Your company, filed correctly and kept in good standing.
Northmark forms limited liability companies and corporations in all fifty US states and across Canada, obtains your federal tax number, and then keeps the books, payroll and filings in order once the certificate arrives. One firm for the whole life of the entity, not a filing service that disappears after the paperwork.
All 50 states and Canada, federal and provincial No SSN needed if you live outside the US No banking products, so our advice is not for sale
State of Wyoming, Secretary of State
Articles of Organization
- Where most services stop
- The day your certificate is issued.
- Where the work starts
- The first tax year, the first payroll, the first annual report.
A formation is a beginning, not a product.
The market is full of companies that will file your Articles of Organization for very little money and then sell you a subscription you do not understand. The filing itself is genuinely easy. It is a form, a fee and a wait. What is not easy is everything that follows: the federal tax number, the state that now expects an annual report, the payroll account you opened in the wrong state, the information return with a twenty five thousand dollar penalty that nobody mentioned because your filing service does not do tax.
Northmark was built the other way round. We are an accounting practice that files formations, not a filing service that resells accounting. The person who prepares your Articles is in the same firm as the person who will close your books in December, and they talk to each other before the entity type is chosen rather than after.
That matters most in two situations. If you are forming from outside the United States, the ordinary route to a tax number is closed to you and the rules about what you must file afterwards are unforgiving. If you operate on both sides of the Canadian border, almost every provider will handle one country and hand you a list of referrals for the other.
- Section one
- Getting the entity into existence.
Formation
The filing, the tax number, the address and the internal documents, done as one piece of work.
Form an LLC
Name availability, Articles of Organization, registered agent, operating agreement and EIN, prepared together so nothing contradicts anything else.
All 50 states
Form a corporation
Certificate of Incorporation, bylaws, initial resolutions, stock ledger, and the S corporation election filed on time if the election is right for you.
C corp and S corp
Incorporate in Canada
Federal incorporation under the CBCA or provincial incorporation in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, with a NUANS name search, CRA business number and GST/HST registration.
Federal and provincial
Form from outside the US
A US company for a founder with no Social Security number, no ITIN and no US address, including the tax number route that the IRS online tool will not give you.
No SSN required
Get an EIN
The employer identification number, obtained the fast way if you have an SSN or ITIN and by prepared Form SS-4 if you do not.
Federal tax number
Registered agent
A real street address in the state of formation, service of process handled the day it arrives, and scanned to you rather than piled up.
Every state
- Section two
- Keeping it alive, compliant and worth owning.
Everything after
The reason clients stay. Books, payroll, tax and the calendar of filings that quietly accumulates behind every company.
Bookkeeping
Every transaction categorised and reconciled, a closed month you can actually read, and books that are ready for tax season before tax season.
Monthly
Payroll
Wages, withholding, direct deposit, quarterly returns, T4 and W-2 season, and the state or provincial accounts that have to exist first.
US and Canada
Tax preparation
Business and personal returns prepared by the people who kept the books, including the information returns that foreign owned entities have to file.
Federal, state, provincial
Tax planning
Entity structure, owner compensation, timing and elections decided in advance, because almost nothing useful can be done about tax in April.
Year round
Sales tax and GST/HST
Where you have an obligation, where you do not, registration in the states and provinces that matter, and the returns filed on schedule.
Nexus to remittance
Compliance
Annual reports, franchise tax, corporate minute book, registered agent renewals and provincial filings, tracked and filed before they become penalties.
Deadline calendar
Advisory
Cash flow, pricing, owner draws versus salary, and whether the structure you chose two years ago is still the right one.
As needed
- Typical elapsed time
- Three to ten business days for a US formation with an SSN.
- Without an SSN
- The company exists in days. The tax number takes weeks.
- Canada
- Federal incorporation is usually same day to one business day.
How a formation actually runs.
No progress bars, no vague statuses. Six stages, each one with a person attached to it.
Intake
We find out what you are actually building.
A short call or a written brief. Where you live, where your customers are, whether you will have employees, whether you need to accept US card payments, and what you expect to earn. The answers change the entity type and the state, so they come before the filing, not after.
You give us twenty minutes. We give you a written recommendation with the reasoning.
Name and jurisdiction
We clear the name and confirm the state or province.
Availability search in the target jurisdiction, a check against obvious trademark conflicts, and a second choice held in reserve. If you have picked a state because a video told you to, this is where we tell you whether that holds up for your situation.
Typical time one business day.
Filing
We prepare and file the formation documents.
Articles of Organization or Certificate of Incorporation, registered agent appointed, and the internal documents drafted at the same time: operating agreement or bylaws, member or shareholder register, and initial resolutions. Same day preparation once we have your details.
Turnaround depends on the jurisdiction, from same day in some states to two weeks in others. We tell you which before you pay.
Tax numbers
We obtain the EIN and any provincial or state accounts.
Immediately if a responsible party has an SSN or ITIN. By prepared Form SS-4 submitted to the IRS if not, which takes longer and needs following up, which we do. In Canada, the CRA business number and GST/HST registration where the threshold applies.
Typical time one day with an SSN, four to eight weeks without one.
Handover
You get a complete file, not a login.
Stamped filing evidence, EIN confirmation letter, operating agreement, registered agent details, and a written compliance calendar with every deadline the entity now has, in your jurisdiction, with dates.
Included in every formation.
Ongoing
Bookkeeping and filings start when you want them to.
Most clients start monthly bookkeeping in the first quarter of trading. Some only want the annual report and the tax return. Nothing is bundled by default and nothing renews without you knowing.
No lock in. Monthly services can be stopped at the end of any month.
- Checked against
- fincen.gov, irs.gov, Corporations Canada
- Last reviewed
- September 2026
Three things the formation industry keeps getting wrong.
We check these against the source, not against what a competitor wrote about them in 2024.
You are probably not required to file a beneficial ownership report.
FinCEN removed the beneficial ownership reporting requirement for companies formed in the United States. Only entities formed under the law of a foreign country and then registered to do business in a US state are reporting companies, and even those never report US persons. Plenty of formation services still sell BOI filing as a paid add on or use the old penalties as a scare. If a provider quotes you for it on a domestic LLC, that is a useful signal about how current their information is.
An EIN is free, and the reason you cannot get one may not be your fault.
The IRS says on its own page that you never have to pay a fee for an employer identification number. What it also says, in one easily missed line, is that the online tool cannot be used when your principal place of business is outside the United States, and that it requires the responsible party's Social Security number or ITIN. That single sentence is why thousands of founders abroad get stuck at reference number 101. The route that does work is a correctly prepared Form SS-4 submitted by fax or mail, and we charge for the preparation and the chasing, never for the number itself.
A foreign owned single member LLC has a filing obligation even with no income.
If at least a quarter of your US entity is owned from outside the country, Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 is due annually, and the penalty for missing it starts at twenty five thousand dollars. It is due whether or not the company traded, and a great many founders learn about it two years late. Formation only providers do not warn you because they do not prepare tax returns. We do, which is why it is on our home page instead of buried in a help centre.
- Coverage
- 50 states, DC, Canada federal, and the provinces.
- Choosing badly costs
- Foreign qualification fees, double annual reports, and a second registered agent.
The state you form in is a decision, not a default.
Forming in Wyoming while living and working in California does not avoid California. It usually means registering in both and paying twice. We will tell you when the popular answer is the wrong one for you.
| Jurisdiction | Usual entity | Who it suits | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wyoming | LLC | Low annual cost, strong privacy, popular with founders abroad | Wyoming |
| Delaware | Corporation | The default when outside investment is genuinely coming | Delaware |
| New Mexico | LLC | No annual report, lowest ongoing burden in the country | New Mexico |
| Florida | LLC or corporation | If you or your operations are physically in Florida | Florida |
| Ontario | Corporation | Canada's largest market, filed through the Ontario Business Registry | Ontario |
| Canada, federal | Corporation | Name protection across every province, incorporated under the CBCA | Federal |
We do not sell you a bank account.
Most of our competitors earn a referral fee when you open a business account or take their debit card. It is a large part of how a two hundred dollar formation stays profitable. It also means the bank they recommend is the bank that pays them.
Northmark takes no banking commission and offers no card product. When we tell you which institution tends to approve founders in your situation, or which one will decline you for holding a foreign passport, that is observation from client files rather than a placement fee. We will walk you through the application and tell you what to expect. We will not be paid for where you land.
It costs us money. We think it buys something worth more.
- More questions
- The full list
- Or ask us
- (307) 275-0184
Questions we get before anyone signs anything.
Our service fee starts at $349 for a US LLC and $449 for a US corporation, and at CA$449 for a Canadian incorporation. The government filing fee is separate, is set by the jurisdiction, and is shown to you before you pay anything. We do not advertise a zero dollar formation and then recover it through a subscription you did not intend to buy. The pricing page lists everything, including what is not included.
Yes. There is no citizenship or residency requirement to own a US LLC or corporation. You do not need a Social Security number, an ITIN, a US address of your own, or a US visa. What you do need is a registered agent in the state, a route to an EIN that does not depend on an SSN, and a clear understanding of the annual information return that comes with foreign ownership. All three are covered on the page for founders outside the US.
The filing itself ranges from same day to about two weeks depending on the jurisdiction, and we tell you the current expectation for your state or province before you commit. The EIN is same day when a responsible party has an SSN or ITIN. Without one, the IRS route is fax or mail and realistically takes four to eight weeks. Anyone promising a same week EIN for a founder with no SSN is describing something the IRS does not currently offer.
For a straightforward single owner company, usually not. You should speak to a lawyer when there is more than one owner with unequal contributions, when you are issuing equity to employees, when you are taking outside investment, or when the business is in a licensed or regulated field. Northmark is not a law firm and we will say so plainly rather than quietly filling the gap.
That is a common reason people call us. Missed annual reports, a status of administratively dissolved or not in good standing, unfiled returns, or books that were never really kept. We can usually reinstate the entity, catch up the filings and rebuild the accounts. The compliance page explains the sequence and what it typically costs.
Tell us what you are building. We will tell you how to structure it.
A twenty minute consultation, no charge and no obligation, with someone who prepares tax returns rather than someone reading from a script.