- Service fee from
- $349
- State fee
- Separate, varies by state
- Turnaround
- Same day to two weeks
- Owners
- One or more, any nationality
Form an LLC in any US state
The filing takes minutes. Everything that makes the company work properly, the agreement, the address, the tax number and the calendar, takes a little longer and matters considerably more.
- Best for
- Service businesses, ecommerce, contractors, property, single and multi owner
- Consider a corporation if
- You are raising investment or issuing equity to a team
An LLC is a container. What you put in it is the actual decision.
A limited liability company is the default choice for most small businesses in the United States, and for good reason. It separates your personal assets from the business, it is taxed on your own return unless you ask for something else, and it demands almost none of the annual ceremony a corporation does. For a consultant, an agency, an ecommerce seller, a contractor or a property holding, it is very often correct.
Where it goes wrong is not the entity. It is the details around it. The state chosen for a reason that does not apply. The operating agreement downloaded from a template that names a manager who does not exist. The EIN obtained under the wrong responsible party. The annual report nobody diarised, which quietly turns into administrative dissolution eighteen months later.
Everything on this page is written to make those specific mistakes less likely, whether or not you hire us.
Six things that have to happen, in this order.
Doing them out of order is how people end up with a bank account they cannot open and an agreement that contradicts the filing.
Name
Clear the name before anything is filed.
A state will reject a name that is already in use or that is confusingly similar to one on the register, and a rejection costs you the queue position as well as the fee in some states. We search the register, check for the obvious trademark conflicts, and keep a second choice ready.
Time usually same day.
Registered agent
Appoint an address the state can actually reach.
Every state requires a registered agent with a physical street address inside that state, available during business hours to accept service of process. This is the part people improvise and regret, because a missed lawsuit does not stop being a lawsuit.
Included for the first year in every formation.
Articles
File the Articles of Organization.
The document that brings the company into legal existence. Short, specific, and different in every state. We sign as organizer, which keeps your home address off the public record in the states where that is possible.
Turnaround same day in Wyoming and Delaware, up to two weeks elsewhere.
Operating agreement
Write down who owns what and what happens next.
Not filed with the state and, in most states, not legally required. It is still the single most important document the company will ever have, because it decides what happens when an owner wants out, dies, stops contributing, or disagrees. Banks ask for it. Courts read it.
Drafted around your ownership split, not filled in from a blank form.
EIN
Get the federal tax number.
Needed to open a bank account, hire anyone, or file a return. Same day if a responsible party has an SSN or ITIN, otherwise by prepared Form SS-4 submitted to the IRS, which takes considerably longer.
Never charged as a fee for the number itself. The IRS issues it free.
First filings
Set the calendar before you forget the company has one.
An initial report in some states, an annual report and franchise tax in most, a sales tax registration if you sell taxable goods, and a federal return whether or not the company traded. You get the dates in writing at handover.
Ongoing compliance can be handed to us or kept in house.
- Election deadlines
- The S corporation election has a filing window. Missing it usually means waiting a year.
How an LLC is taxed.
An LLC is not a tax category. It is a state law entity that then picks one of four federal treatments, and picking badly is expensive in both directions.
| Situation | Default federal treatment | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| One owner, no election | Disregarded entity | Profit and loss go on your personal return. The company files no separate federal income tax return, though a foreign owned single member LLC still files Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120. |
| Two or more owners, no election | Partnership | The company files Form 1065 and issues a Schedule K-1 to each owner, who reports their share personally. |
| Any LLC that elects it | S corporation | The owner takes a reasonable salary through payroll and the remaining profit is distributed without self employment tax. Worth money above a certain profit level and a cost below it. |
| Any LLC that elects it | C corporation | The company pays corporate tax and the owner pays again on dividends. Rarely right for a small operating business, occasionally right where profit is retained and reinvested. |
- Keeping the protection
- Separate bank account, no personal spending from it, and real records
What it does and does not do.
What the LLC actually gives you
- Separation of liability. Business debts and claims stop at the company, provided you keep the company genuinely separate.
- Pass through taxation by default. No second layer of corporate tax unless you choose one.
- Flexibility in ownership. Profit does not have to be split in the same proportion as capital, if the operating agreement says so.
- Very little ceremony. No board, no minutes, no annual meeting requirement in most states.
- Credibility. Suppliers, marketplaces and payment processors treat a registered entity differently from a personal name.
- A clean entry point. An LLC can elect corporate taxation later, or convert, without having started as one.
What it does not give you. An LLC is not a shield against your own negligence, it does not protect you from a debt you personally guaranteed, and it does not make your income tax free. Any provider suggesting otherwise is selling you something. It also does not remove the obligation to register in the state where you actually operate.
Common questions
Two numbers. Our service fee starts at $349, which covers the name search, the filing, the registered agent for a year, the operating agreement, the member register and the EIN. The state filing fee is separate and ranges from well under a hundred dollars to several hundred depending on the state. You see both before you pay either. Ongoing costs, the annual report and the registered agent renewal, are on the pricing page.
Yes, and for a reason that surprises people. A single member operating agreement is what evidences that the company is separate from you. Banks routinely ask for it, and if the separation is ever challenged, the absence of one is a point against you. It takes us very little time and is included.
Yes. There is no citizenship or residency requirement. What changes is the route to the EIN and the annual filing obligations, both covered on the page for founders outside the US.
Only once the arithmetic works. The election lets you take part of the profit as a distribution free of self employment tax, but it requires running real payroll, filing payroll returns, and paying yourself a salary the IRS would consider reasonable. Below roughly sixty thousand dollars of profit, the additional payroll and filing cost usually eats most of the saving. We run the numbers for your figures rather than quoting a rule of thumb.
The registered agent is a legal appointment: a physical address in the state of formation where the state and the courts can deliver documents. A business address is where you receive ordinary mail and what appears on your invoices. They are often different, and an LLC formed remotely usually needs both.
A domestic single member LLC with no activity generally has nothing separate to file federally, though the state may still want an annual report. A multi member LLC files a partnership return regardless. A foreign owned single member LLC files Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120 regardless, and the penalty for missing it starts at twenty five thousand dollars. Doing nothing is only safe in one of those three cases.
Ready to form the LLC?
Start the intake and we will confirm the state, the entity and the total cost before anything is filed or charged.