Every question about a US company from abroad, answered.

Yes. No state requires owners to be citizens or residents. Every state does require a registered agent with a street address in the state, which you can hire.

No. The filing, the EIN, the operating agreement, the bank account and payment processors can all be handled remotely.

No. The company's EIN comes from Form SS-4 sent by fax, or through the IRS's international phone line, with "Foreign" where the number would go.

No. The states, the IRS and the banks don't ask about immigration status, and the whole process can be done from abroad.

Not on its own. It gives you no right to enter, live or work in the US. Some visas, such as the E-2 and L-1, involve a US business, but each has its own requirements.

Yes, as a business visitor with an ESTA or a B-1 visa, for meetings, negotiations, conferences and short training. You can't do paid work while you're there.

Yes. Paying you for work you do outside the US needs no US visa. How that money is taxed depends on your own country's rules.

No. The E-2 needs treaty citizenship and a substantial investment of capital in a real US business you'll run. The LLC is only the vehicle.

Wyoming approves the filing the same day; the IRS sets the pace after that.

An LLC if the company will earn from customers and you'll take the profit out, because the US usually doesn't tax its income from work done abroad. A Delaware C-Corporation if you'll raise from US investors or give US employees stock. Founders in Canada, the UK and similar countries should check how home taxes a US LLC first.

No. An S-Corporation can't have non-resident alien shareholders, so the choice for a founder abroad is between an LLC and a C-Corporation.

Wyoming, for most founders abroad. It costs $60 a year against Delaware's $400, with the same federal tax, the same privacy and the same protection for your share. Delaware is the better choice if you'll raise from US investors, and then as a C-Corporation.

Yes. A founder abroad doesn't live in any state, so every state is open. What each requires is a registered agent with a street address in the state, which you hire.

It costs less to keep, with no annual report, and it's just as private. It's less familiar to banks and payment processors, though, and for a founder abroad that familiarity is usually worth the $60 Wyoming charges each year.

Only if the business will operate there. Neither charges personal income tax, but a company run from abroad usually owes no state income tax anywhere, and both cost more to keep or show more on the record than Wyoming.

Yes. The LLC is still single-member and disregarded, and still files Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120. The difference is the tax form for US payers: the parent company gives a W-8BEN-E, not a W-8BEN.

Single-member if you own it alone; multi-member only if someone else really owns part of it. A second member makes the company a partnership, with its own return, an earlier deadline and a penalty per member when it's late.

Yes. A US state checks only its own register, not other countries. Use the US suffix, such as LLC, in place of the one at home.

The stamped articles with a file number and formation date from the state, the EIN confirmation letter from the IRS, the signed operating agreement, the registered agent's details and the receipt for the state fee.

In Wyoming, the state charges $102.40 to file and $60 a year. Our Launch plan is $249 a year, so $351.40 on the day with the state's fee and $309 a year after that. Anything more depends on your business.

The ones most often left off a plan card are the registered agent renewal, the state's yearly charge, the federal filing, and sometimes a US address, a US phone number or an ITIN. This guide puts a figure on each.

Wyoming: $102.40 to file online and $60 a year, against $110 and $400 a year in Delaware. Over five years that's $342.40 in Wyoming state fees. In Delaware it's $1,710, or $2,110 if formed after 1 June.

With us, $359 to start and $649 a year after, because Delaware charges $110 to file and $400 a year. The tax is due each 1 June, so a company formed after 1 June pays its first one within twelve months. That's $340 a year more than Wyoming.

With us it's part of the plan's renewal, $249 a year on Launch, with the EIN and operating agreement already done. The table above shows what other providers charge for the same.

Usually a few hundred dollars a year for a single-member LLC with no US income. You can also file it yourself; it goes to the IRS by fax or post.

On Launch or Operate you pay the state filing fee alongside our fee, at the same figure the state charges us: $102.40 in Wyoming, $110 in Delaware. You see the whole figure before you confirm.

Not for the plans. Operate is priced at $199 a month and billed once a year, $2,388. It includes the Launch formation promises, five business email accounts, one business number, one Starter managed WordPress site, bookkeeping, People and Legal tools, and 10 GB of document storage while active. Bookmarks and Base AI assistance are included on both plans. On Launch, the tools you add one at a time, such as a US number or a WordPress site, are billed monthly and can be cancelled any month.

Launch renews at $249 a year, which covers the registered agent, and Operate at $2,388 a year. The state's yearly charge follows its own calendar: $60 to Wyoming on the first day of your anniversary month, and $450 to Delaware for a corporation by 1 March. We email you before anything of ours renews.

Yes. Until we send your filing to the state, everything comes back: our fee and the state fee. If a filing is rejected because of a mistake of ours, we refile at our cost and you keep your place in the queue. The refund policy says all of this in plain language.

Yes. The IRS charges nothing for an EIN. A provider's fee is for preparing the form, filing it and chasing the IRS.

The IRS online application needs the responsible party to have an SSN or ITIN, and it won't submit without one. So the application goes on paper, on Form SS-4, by fax or through the IRS's telephone line for international applicants. The IRS works that queue by hand.

No. You don't need an ITIN to get an EIN. We file the SS-4 with the responsible party's number marked Foreign. Some founders apply for an ITIN later for their personal US tax filings. That's a separate matter.

No. The SS-4's mailing address can be outside the United States, and its question on where the business is located is answered with where you run it from, which for a founder abroad is where you are. Don't use the registered agent's address there: banks compare it with your other documents.

The IRS says that under its Fax-TIN program an EIN by fax generally comes within 4 business days. For a company owned from abroad, our estimate is six to eight weeks. The IRS's phone line for international applicants gives the number during the call, if you get through. With our expedited EIN, $199 on any plan, our estimate is two to three weeks.

Rarely. Without a Social Security Number, the IRS handles the application by hand. Offers of a 48-hour EIN depend on the IRS answering the phone and everything matching first time.

267-941-1099, open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. US Eastern time, Monday to Friday. It isn't toll-free, and the caller needs the completed SS-4 to hand.

"Foreign" or N/A, which the IRS instructions allow when the responsible party doesn't have and can't get an SSN or ITIN. Never use someone else's number.

The person who ultimately controls the company: the owner of a single-member LLC, a managing member of a partnership, or a principal officer of a corporation. Not the registered agent, and not a nominee.

No. The responsible party on the SS-4 must be the person who controls the company. Using someone else's number tells the IRS something untrue. The expedited EIN is the honest way to shorten the wait.

Call the IRS, or have your filing agent call, to check whether a number has been assigned. If it has, it can be given over the phone after identity checks. If it hasn't, they'll tell you what to do next. Don't send a second application without checking first.

The CP 575 is the original notice, posted once when the EIN is assigned. The 147C is a confirmation the IRS issues on request, any time later. Both prove the EIN.

Call the IRS's international line, 267-941-1099, as the responsible party, answer the identity questions about the company, and ask for a 147C. The IRS can fax it during the call or post it.

Yes. The number works from the day the IRS assigns it. The CP 575 follows by post.

Yes, for a business. "Tax ID", "federal tax ID", "FEIN" and "TIN" on a bank or platform form all mean the company's EIN. Your own tax number is something else.

Usually not on income from work done outside the United States, if the company has no US office, staff, dependent agent or inventory sold from the US. It still files Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 every year.

No. Income from services is sourced where the work is done, not where the client is. A client in Texas paying for work done in Cairo is paying for Egyptian-source income.

Income from a US trade or business, such as an office, employees, a dependent agent, or goods sold from US premises. It's taxed at ordinary US rates on the net profit, and it means filing a US return.

No, as a non-resident alien, unless a social security agreement between the US and your country covers you. IRS Publication 519 says non-resident aliens aren't subject to it.

You become one under the substantial presence test: at least 31 days this year and 183 over three years, counting all of this year's days, a third of last year's and a sixth of the year before's. Below that, you're a non-resident for US tax.

It can. Inventory held in US warehouses and sold from there may make the business a US trade or business. It's the most common open question for foreign-owned LLCs, so have a cross-border accountant look at your setup.

If your country has one, the US generally taxes your business profits only if you have a permanent establishment in the US, and withholding on royalties, dividends and interest is usually lower. Each country page says whether a treaty is in force.

US-source royalties, dividends and interest are withheld at 30%, and relief from double tax depends on your own country's rules. Income from services you perform at home is still outside US tax.

30%, unless your country's treaty lowers it on copyright royalties. Under the IRS's treaty table it's 0% for residents of the UK, Germany, Japan or Pakistan, 10% for Mexico or Türkiye, and 15% for India or the Philippines, claimed on your W-8BEN.

Not to Wyoming, which has none. It pays another state's income tax only if it does business there, for example through an office, staff, stock or property. A company with no presence in any state usually owes no state income tax.

No. Wyoming has no income tax, and Delaware taxes an LLC's income only if it does business in Delaware. What you owe the IRS doesn't depend on the state.

For a business run from abroad, usually an LLC. The US doesn't tax its income from work done outside the country, and it files one information return a year. A corporation pays 21% US corporate tax on its profit, and tax is withheld when it pays dividends. Your own country's rules can change the answer, so check them.

30%, unless a tax treaty between the US and your country sets a lower rate. You claim the treaty rate by giving the company a Form W-8BEN.

Only on their share of income effectively connected with a US trade or business, which the partnership withholds on. A share of income from work done abroad isn't taxed by the US.

Not as a single-member LLC: it's disregarded, and its owner isn't a US resident. A US C-Corporation can request one on Form 8802.

For a founder abroad who isn't raising money, usually yes: profit is taxed once, at home, instead of 21% in the US and again on dividends. A founder raising from US investors needs the corporation anyway.

Yes, in almost every case. The form reports transactions with the owner rather than income, and the IRS counts money paid to form the company as reportable, so even a company with no sales usually files.

By 15 April for a calendar tax year, the 15th day of the fourth month after the year ends. Form 7004, filed by that date, extends it to 15 October.

No. A foreign-owned disregarded entity can't file Form 5472 electronically. It goes by fax or post to the IRS in Ogden, Utah.

By fax to 855-887-7737, or by post to Internal Revenue Service, 1973 Rulon White Blvd, M/S 6112, Attn: PIN Unit, Ogden, UT 84201.

$25,000 per form. If the failure continues more than 90 days after the IRS gives notice, a further $25,000 is added for every 30 days it goes on. An incomplete form counts as not filed. The IRS generally applies it automatically and removes it only for reasonable cause.

Yes. The filing is owed for the year the company was formed, and the formation fees count as a reportable transaction.

No. It's an information return. Whether the owner owes US income tax depends on whether the company has income effectively connected with a US trade or business, and most foreign-owned service companies don't.

Sometimes, if you can show reasonable cause for the late filing. The IRS generally applies the penalty automatically, so file the missing form and the explanation together.

No. Form 5472 is filed by corporations that are at least 25% foreign-owned and by foreign-owned single-member LLCs. A multi-member LLC taxed as a partnership files Form 1065 with a K-1 for each member instead.

On the 15th day of the third month after the tax year ends: 15 March for a calendar-year company, or 15 September if you file Form 7004.

A W-8BEN is for a foreign individual, a W-8BEN-E for a foreign entity. A founder who owns a single-member US LLC personally gives the W-8BEN. The W-8BEN-E is for when a company abroad owns the LLC.

Give them a W-8BEN in your own name instead, and point them to the IRS instructions, which say the foreign owner of a disregarded entity provides the W-8. Most accounts teams have seen this before.

The same rule applies: the W-8BEN, in your own name, if you're a foreign owner of a single-member LLC. Their tax interviews ask questions that lead to it.

Until the last day of the third calendar year after the year you sign it, or until something on it changes. After that, payers withhold 30% until a new one is on file.

Usually two: the state's yearly charge and Form 5472 with the pro forma 1120 by 15 April. Add 31 January if you paid US contractors $2,000 or more, and an FBAR if accounts abroad held over $10,000.

No. Form 7004 gives you six more months to file, but any tax owed is still due on the original date.

By 15 April, for a company whose accounts outside the US held more than $10,000 between them at any time in the year before. It's extended to 15 October automatically, so you don't need to ask. A company that banks only in the US doesn't file one.

Only if the company has US business income or you have US income that wasn't withheld correctly. Most owners of an LLC run from abroad don't.

No. Neither forming the company nor Form 5472 needs one. Form 5472 asks for the tax number your own country issued you, if you have one.

Yes. A US company with an owner abroad can apply to Mercury remotely, and Mercury decides each application. It asks for the EIN, the formation documents, the operating agreement and your passport. Wise Business and Payoneer also take applications online.

Once the company has its EIN. Every provider asks for the IRS letter or the fax with the number on it, so the EIN decides when you can bank.

Not for Mercury, which accepts a principal address abroad. Relay asks every owner for a physical US address, not a PO box or virtual mailbox, which is why it's rarely the first choice for a founder abroad.

Yes, for US companies owned by people in most countries, remotely and without a US address or SSN. It doesn't serve founders living in about 48 countries, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Ukraine and Vietnam, or in sanctioned countries.

No. Mercury doesn't open accounts for founders living in about 48 countries, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Ukraine and Vietnam. Wise gives no USD account details in Pakistan or Nigeria either. Founders there usually look at Payoneer, and in Nigeria at Raenest too.

Nothing for the account: no monthly fee and no minimum balance. ACH, domestic wires and US dollar wires abroad are free. A wire in another currency costs 1% for conversion, and card payments in another currency carry an international transaction fee.

Fix what you can: a clearer business description, a website that shows what you sell, documents that match. Then apply again or apply elsewhere, to Payoneer or, where it gives USD details, Wise Business. A decline at one provider isn't held against you at another.

Yes, but it gets USD account details only if you live where Wise lets people hold money, such as the EU, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan or Singapore. Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Kenya, Mexico, the UAE and most of Africa and South Asia aren't on that list.

Most founders who can open both use both. Mercury is the US account, with free US wires and cards for dollar costs. Wise is the way home: it converts close to the mid-market rate and pays out in your own currency.

Payoneer, which works in most countries and connects to the main marketplaces. Founders in Nigeria can also check Raenest. Check the country table above before relying on any one provider.

Raenest says it can open a business account with US account details for an eligible US LLC run from Nigeria, and founders here also check Payoneer. Mercury and Relay don't serve Nigerian residents, and Wise says it can't give USD account details where the US business, or your personal profile, has an address in Nigeria.

Usually only once it has US operations or venture funding. Both are built for funded startups rather than self-funded companies owned from abroad.

No. Mercury verifies an owner abroad with a passport, and Relay takes a passport number in place of an SSN. Relay's harder rule is a physical US address for every owner, which is why founders abroad rarely start there.

Usually the stamped articles, the EIN letter, the operating agreement and the owner's passport, with names and addresses matching across all of them.

By distribution: a transfer from the company account to your personal account, labelled as a distribution. The owner of a single-member LLC isn't an employee and doesn't take a salary.

Usually Wise, or sending dollars to a local account that converts cheaply, rather than a bank wire in your own currency.

The company's legal name and EIN, a US bank account in its name, a website or description showing what it sells, and identification for you as the account representative.

You can apply for a US Stripe account as a US business, with the EIN, a US bank account and your own identification. Stripe reviews the application and can decline it. Honest details and a real website showing what you sell are what that review looks for.

It can ask for one for the account representative. Many representatives abroad are verified with a passport and the company's documents, and some are asked for an ITIN. Nobody can promise which review you'll get.

Stripe Atlas forms a Delaware company and opens Stripe in one flow. For a business built on Stripe, its first year can cost less, and our comparison page says when that's the better choice.

Yes, with the company's EIN and US bank account. PayPal asks for a US address and phone number and identification for the owner, and it reviews new accounts closely.

Both, usually. PayPal limits new accounts more readily, so most founders run it alongside Stripe, and a limitation on one doesn't stop sales on the other.

No. A limitation is a request for documents. Answer it completely and quickly, and most are lifted. Don't open a second account in the meantime.

By ACH to the company's US bank account, usually arriving in one to two business days and free to receive at most fintech accounts. Send the account and routing numbers with the invoice.

Not on payments for services performed outside the US, which aren't US-source income. The W-8BEN certifies that you're a foreign person, and nothing is withheld on services done abroad.

Not usually. A client with your W-8BEN on file doesn't report payments for services you performed abroad on a Form 1099, because you're a foreign person and the income isn't US-source.

Yes. The client pays dollars by ACH, the company keeps them in its US account, and you convert only what you take out, through Wise or a similar service, at close to the mid-market rate.

Stripe says the industry treats dispute activity above 0.75% as excessive, and a sudden spike can trigger a review sooner. Visa's programme starts at a 0.5% ratio and fines from 1.5%; Mastercard's starts at 1.5% with 100 chargebacks a month. Processors usually act before either.

Banks and processors have to know their customers and monitor activity, so questions follow changes: more volume, new countries, new customers or suppliers. Answer promptly and completely and the question closes.

A merchant of record handles sales tax and VAT for you at a higher fee. Stripe charges less but leaves the tax to you.

At minimum, two things. One is your state's yearly charge, which is an annual report in Wyoming and a flat tax for a Delaware LLC. The other is a federal filing. A foreign-owned single-member LLC owes Form 5472 with a pro-forma 1120 even in a year with no income, and the penalty for missing it starts at $25,000. Launch puts both dates on your calendar; filing assistance is a separate service.

By 15 April for a calendar-year company, with the pro forma Form 1120. Filing Form 7004 by 15 April extends it to 15 October.

On the first day of the month the company was formed in, every year from the year after formation.

$60, or $0.0002 per dollar of assets held in Wyoming if that's more. For a company with no Wyoming assets, it's $60.

$400, raised from $300 by House Bill 400 and backdated to 1 January 2026. It's due by 1 June each year.

Yes. Delaware doesn't prorate it. An LLC that exists for any part of a year owes the full $400 for that year, paid by 1 June of the next one.

No. Where its owner lives doesn't matter: a company formed in the US is a domestic company under FinCEN's rules, and domestic companies are exempt.

Only if it owns or can sign on accounts outside the US that held more than $10,000 between them at any time in the year. A company that banks only in the US files none.

Depending on the state, a late fee or a grace period comes first. Then the company loses good standing, and after a while the state dissolves it. Reinstatement means filing everything missed and paying the fees plus a reinstatement fee.

Usually, within a set period, which is two years in Wyoming. After that the company is gone, and a new one has to be formed with a new file number and usually a new EIN.

Legal papers and state notices have nowhere to go, the company falls out of good standing, and the state can eventually dissolve it. Keep the agent paid as long as the company exists.

From the state's website. Wyoming's is free online; Delaware charges for one. The company has to be up to date first.

Yes, for a foreign-owned single-member LLC. Money between you and the company is a reportable transaction on Form 5472 each year, so label every transfer clearly.

Only in states where you have nexus: inventory or staff there, or sales above the state's economic threshold, which is usually $100,000 a year. On marketplaces, the marketplace collects for you.

Yes, on your Amazon sales, in every state with a sales tax, under marketplace facilitator laws. Sales through your own website are your responsibility.

In some states, including New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and Washington. Not in others, including California and Florida for most software delivered electronically. The thresholds are the same everywhere; what's taxed differs.

No. Sales tax follows the buyer's state, not the seller's. Delaware has no sales tax, so sales to buyers in Delaware aren't taxed, but that's a small market.

It can. Inventory held in a state is one of the usual signs of doing business there, and several states treat it that way. Check each state where your stock sits.

It can. Several states treat stock held in a warehouse there, including Amazon's, as a presence for income tax. Check each state where your stock sits.

Yes, a registered trademark or, in most cases, a pending application. The mark has to match the brand name on your products and packaging.

Not if it's domiciled abroad. Since 2019, the USPTO has required applicants domiciled outside the US to use a US-licensed attorney. Flat-fee services built around trademark attorneys are widely available.

Not for ordinary goods or services sold online. A sales tax registration may come later, once you pass a state's threshold, and that's a tax registration, not a licence.

Yes, from its US bank account, with a W-9 on file for each contractor and a Form 1099-NEC filed by 31 January for anyone paid $2,000 or more by bank transfer or cheque in the year.

Not on its own, if the contractor works on their own terms and can't sign contracts for the company. A US employee, a US office or a US agent with that authority could.

Yes, but it then runs US payroll and may have a US trade or business. An employer of record avoids both while you test the hire.

Not for the state, the IRS or Mercury. PayPal's US business account wants one, and some clients' supplier systems prefer one. A virtual mailbox provides it when you need it. Relay is stricter: every owner needs a physical US address, and a virtual mailbox doesn't count.

Not for the state, the IRS or Mercury. PayPal and some platforms ask for one, and an internet phone number that rings on your phone abroad covers it.

Only as the company's legal address for the state. It isn't a mailing address for customers, Mercury won't accept it as the business's address, and it's never your home address.

Usually not. Venture investors buy shares, which a corporation issues and an LLC doesn't, so a Delaware LLC converts before a round much as a Wyoming one does. Form the Delaware C-Corporation if you know you'll raise.

Yes. Shareholders, directors and officers don't need to be US citizens or residents. It's the S-Corporation that non-residents can't own.

Not cleanly. A SAFE converts into stock, which an LLC doesn't have, so investors will usually ask you to convert to a Delaware corporation first.

On a post-money SAFE, the investment divided by the post-money cap: $100,000 on a $5 million cap is 2%, fixed when it's signed, before the priced round.

Usually yes, if their stock vests. The US may tax little while you work abroad, but your home country may tax the stock as it vests, and a later move to the US would bring US tax. Most advisers recommend making it.

Yes. Write "Applied For" in the taxpayer number box and enclose a copy of your Form W-7 ITIN application, then update the IRS when the number arrives.

Ten million is common for a startup, at a tiny par value, with most issued to the founders and the rest kept for the option pool and later rounds. The number affects Delaware's franchise tax: ten million shares cost $85,165 a year on the authorised shares method, but a new startup with modest assets usually pays the $400 minimum on the assumed par value capital method, which you can choose when you file.

Because it's worked out on authorised shares: $85 for every 10,000 shares above 10,000, so ten million shares come to $85,165. File the annual report with your issued shares and gross assets so Delaware can use the assumed par value method, which for a young startup is usually the $400 minimum.

Generally not, if you're a non-resident who spent fewer than 183 days in the US that year and the company isn't mostly US real estate. Your own country may tax the gain.

Yes, by statutory conversion: filings in Delaware and Wyoming, a plan of conversion the members approve, and the corporate documents. The same legal person carries on as a corporation.

Generally not, when it's set up as contributing the business in exchange for stock under section 351, which the lawyer and accountant arrange. How your own country treats it is a separate question.

Yes, by filing a change of agent with the state, with the new agent's consent. The company's name, file number, formation date and EIN don't change.

No. But if the IRS or your bank has the old agent's address for the company, update it once the state records the change.

File an amendment with the state: articles of amendment in Wyoming for $60, or a certificate of amendment in Delaware for $220. Then tell the IRS, the bank and every platform.

Not in Wyoming or Delaware, where members aren't on the articles. Amend the operating agreement, update your ownership records and tell the bank.

Yes. The company becomes a partnership for federal tax from that date, the operating agreement is amended, and that year's filing is split in two. In Wyoming and Delaware nothing is filed with the state.

Not by amending the articles. Both Wyoming and Delaware allow a conversion into an entity of another state, which is a separate filing on each side.

File Form 8822-B by post. It also changes the responsible party, which has to be reported within 60 days of the change.

Wyoming charges $60 to file articles of dissolution, and Delaware charges $220 for a certificate of cancellation once the yearly tax is paid. Any missed reports and taxes come first. For a company we formed, we charge nothing of our own to prepare and file the dissolution and the final federal forms; only the state's charge is passed on.

You can, and the state eventually will. But the Form 5472 obligation, and its $25,000 penalty, continues until the company is properly closed and the IRS is told, and in Delaware the tax and penalties keep building for up to three years. Closing it properly costs less.

Yes. A foreign-owned single-member LLC files a final Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120, marked final and reporting the closing distributions. A multi-member LLC files a final Form 1065.

Write to the IRS with the company's legal name, EIN, address and the reason you're closing, with a copy of the CP 575 if you kept it. The IRS closes the account only once every return is filed and all tax is paid.

The filing is the fast part. Wyoming approves the company the same day it's filed, and Delaware takes two to three weeks. The EIN is the slow part, and the IRS sets that pace, not us. Plan on a few weeks before you can open a bank account, so it's worth starting before you need it.

We check the state register before anything is filed. If the name clashes, we ask you for another one, and we don't charge you again to file it. The order form never tells you a name is free when nobody has checked.

We can help register you for sales tax as a separate service. Whether you owe sales tax at all depends on what you sell and where your customers are. That's a question for an accountant, not something a form can answer.

The company is yours, not ours. If you stop using us, you can move your registered agent to another provider, and we'll hand over every document we hold. Nothing renews without an email from us first.

Yes. You can move between Launch and Operate whenever you like by asking us. We show you the price before anything changes, and nothing you have set up is lost.

It depends on the state. Wyoming approves an online filing the moment it is sent, so there is no queue to jump. For $39 we file yours ahead of our next batch, so the company exists the same day. Delaware sells its own next-day service. We buy it and chase it for $59, plus the $50 Delaware charges for it. Neither speeds up the EIN, which the IRS handles at its own pace.

If you need a bank account this month, yes. On Launch the ordinary route costs nothing extra, and our estimate is six to eight weeks. The expedited EIN costs $199. We file the day the company exists and chase the IRS ourselves, and our estimate is two to three weeks.

Because for a founder outside the United States, these two cover what matters. Wyoming costs little to keep a company in, and it keeps owners off the public register. Delaware is what US investors' paperwork assumes. Some other states cost less, but they're less familiar to the banks and processors reviewing a non-resident. If your business really needs another state, we'll say so before you order.

When the company will have a physical presence there: an office, employees, a warehouse, or property. A company that operates in a state usually has to register there, whether or not it was formed there. Forming somewhere else first can mean paying two states.

No. Every plan forms the company, gets your EIN and acts as your registered agent without them. Nothing is pre-ticked in the order form, and each add-on is its own yes-or-no question with its price beside it.

Every plan includes a domain's first year, business email and a US phone number free to start, a WordPress site free for 3 months, the Shopify starting package, and People and Legal. Scale also includes expedited filing, annual state compliance and 10 GB of document storage.

Yes, as your third-party designee, named and authorised on a signed SS-4. They can fax the form or call the international line for you. You stay the responsible party, and their authority ends when the number is issued.