Formation and compliance · founders outside the United States
We file your company with the state, obtain the tax number that banks ask for, stand as your registered agent, and carry the year of paperwork that follows. You answer questions once.
Four minutes of questions. Nothing is charged until you confirm.
1 to 3business days
No SSN
$100at cost
Year one
What arrives
Four things stand between an idea and an invoice a US customer will pay. We do all four, in the order they actually block you.
Articles drafted and filed with the Secretary of State, the name checked against the register first, and the certificate in your vault the day it comes back.
The EIN is what every bank and payment processor asks for first, and the usual online route is closed to founders without a Social Security Number. We take the other one.
Every US company needs somewhere in its own state where a person can be handed legal documents during business hours. A home address abroad will not do.
A company is easy to form and easy to lose. Miss the annual report and the state can dissolve it; miss Form 5472 and the penalty starts at twenty-five thousand dollars.
How it goes
You answer questions once. Everything after that is ours to chase, and you can watch it move.
01
Structure, state, name, owners, address. Four minutes, and we explain the trade-off on every screen rather than asking you to already know it.
About four minutes
02
Against the state register, before anything is filed. If it clashes we come back to you for another one rather than filing and failing, and we do not charge twice.
Same business day
03
Articles lodged with the Secretary of State and the fee paid on your behalf at cost, with the receipt attached. Then the certificate and file number come back.
1 to 3 business days
04
Certificate, EIN letter, operating agreement, registered agent details and a calendar with your real dates on it. All of it in one place you can send to a bank.
Yours to keep
The number nobody prints
Everyone in this business quotes a price and puts plus state fees underneath it. The state fee is not a footnote; it is the part you cannot avoid and the part that decides which state you should be in. Here it is, worked all the way through, for a Wyoming company.
| Wyoming | Starter | StandardMost chosen | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our feeCharged once, when you confirm | $199 | $449 | $899 |
| Wyoming filing feePaid to the state, passed through at cost | $100 | $100 | $100 |
| Due on the dayNothing else is taken | $299 | $549 | $999 |
| Then, every yearRegistered agent and the Wyoming report | $179 | $309 | $809 |
Optional extras are asked one at a time, each with a price on the question. Expediting the filing is $75, and nothing renews without telling you first.
Plans
The difference is how much of the first year we carry. You can move between them while you are ordering, and the comparison is open on the page.
For first-time founders who need the company to simply exist.
$199once
+ $100 Wyoming fee, then $119 a year
For founders who need to bank, invoice and get paid this month.
$449once
+ $100 Wyoming fee, then $249 a year
For founders who want the whole first year of paperwork handled.
$899once
+ $100 Wyoming fee, then $749 a year
Where it lives
Fifty are available and forty-eight are a worse version of these two for a founder who is not in the country. We will tell you which one you want and why, on the screen where you pick.
Recommended for LLCs. The cheapest state to keep a company alive, with no state income tax and no owner named on the public register. Less familiar to US investors than Delaware, and a few banks ask more questions about it.
Recommended for C-Corporations. A century of company case law in a court built only for it, and the default assumption in every US investor's paperwork. Costs several times more each year to keep alive, and the franchise tax falls due whether or not you traded.
On the record
A new name in this category cannot prove itself with a customer count. It can be specific about where the line is, which is harder to fake and easier to hold us to.
We are a filing agent. We will tell you what a form requires and what a state charges. Anything that turns on your circumstances belongs to a lawyer or an accountant, and we will say so rather than guess.
It is on the plan, on the review and on the receipt, passed through at what the state charged us. You will never find out the real number at checkout.
Every renewal is announced before it is taken. Nothing on this page bills you a year later on the strength of a checkbox you do not remember ticking.
The order form never claims clearance it does not have. A person checks the register before we file, and if it clashes we come back to you at no extra cost.
Questions
If yours is not here, write to us before you order rather than after. hello@baseacross.com
Yes. There is no citizenship or residency requirement to own a US company, and no requirement to have ever set foot in the country. What you do need is a registered agent with an address in the state, which every plan includes for the first year.
Yes, and it is the single most common reason founders get stuck. The online IRS application requires an SSN or ITIN, so applications from founders without one go by a slower route that has to be chased. We file it the day the company exists and chase it until the number arrives.
Almost everyone outside the United States wants an LLC: it is the simplest to own, the cheapest to keep, and taxed once. Choose a corporation when you already know you need one, which in practice means you are raising from US investors who expect Delaware stock. The order form asks three questions and tells you which, with the reasoning.
Two things at minimum: your state's annual report with its fee, and a federal filing. A foreign-owned single-member LLC owes Form 5472 with a pro-forma 1120 even in a year with no income at all, and the penalty for missing it starts at twenty-five thousand dollars. Every plan puts both dates on a calendar; the higher plans file them for you.
You need somewhere to receive money that is not your personal account, and mixing the two is what costs people their liability protection. Several US banks now open remotely for founders with an EIN and no US address, and we make the introduction rather than leaving you to find out which ones by trying.
The filing is the fast part: one to three business days in Wyoming, or one business day expedited. The EIN is the slow part and it is the IRS setting the pace, not us. Plan for a few weeks before you can open a bank account, and start now rather than when you need it.
We check the state register before anything is filed. If it clashes we come back and ask you for another name, and we do not charge you a second time to file it. Nothing on the order form ever tells you a name is clear when nobody has looked.
Registration in one state is included on the top plan, and we can register others as a separate service. Whether you owe sales tax at all depends on what you sell and where your customers are, which is a question for an accountant rather than for a form.
The company is yours, not ours. If you stop using us you can move your registered agent to another provider or to yourself, and we hand over every document we hold. Nothing renews without telling you first.
Ready when you are
Four minutes, a price with nothing hidden behind it, and no charge until you have seen the whole order and confirmed it.
STANDARD · $449 + $100 WY · 1 to 3 business days