Accounts for US companies, not foreign ones
Some brokers and banks will open an account for a US company but not for a foreign one.
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Built for · Holding structures
A US LLC as a holding company for founders outside the United States
A holding company owns other things: shares in other companies, domains, trademarks, investments. A Wyoming LLC is an inexpensive, private and well-understood way to do that. Whether it does anything useful for you depends mostly on the rules where you live.
01 · Why a US company
What it does for founders forming a holding company.
Founders use Wyoming LLCs as holding companies because they cost $60 a year to the state, keep the owners off the public record, and can own almost anything: shares in a US or foreign company, intellectual property, domain names, and investment accounts at brokers that accept US companies.
Read the full explanation
Founders use Wyoming LLCs as holding companies because they cost $60 a year to the state, keep the owners off the public record, and can own almost anything: shares in a US or foreign company, intellectual property, domain names, and investment accounts at brokers that accept US companies. A US holding company also gives a group one US company for banks and partners to deal with.
- 01
One company that owns the rest
Shares, domains, trademarks and investment accounts, held in one place.
Held by Aster Holdings LLC payout4 assets - 02
Owners off the public record
Wyoming doesn't list members or managers on its public record.
Public recordNo owners listed - 03
A US company for brokers and banks
Some brokers and banks open accounts for US companies but not foreign ones.
Account holderAster Holdings LLC - 04
Little to keep
$60 a year to Wyoming, and one federal form a year.
Holding · OperatingSeparate accounts
02 · What stands in the way
Three things in the way, and one way through.
Several ventures, one private owner
You may want several ventures under one owner without putting each one on a public register.
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A parent for the operating company
A US operating company may need a parent company for investors or a future sale.
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A Wyoming LLC that owns the rest.
Shares, domains and accounts in one private US company, if your own country's rules allow it.
Start a company03 · Your options
Three ways to hold investments and ventures.
A single-member US LLC is looked through to you for US tax, so it changes less than people hope. What it changes is privacy, accounts and how assets pass.
| In your own name | A company at home | A Wyoming LLCWhat we set up | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dividends from US shares | Neutral: 30%, or your treaty rate | Neutral: 30%, or the company's treaty rate | Neutral: 30%, or your treaty rate |
| Gains on US shares | Works in your favour: Usually not taxed by the US | Works in your favour: Usually not taxed by the US | Works in your favour: Usually not taxed by the US |
| US estate tax on US shares | A cost or a limit: Can apply above $60,000 | Neutral: Depends on the structure | Neutral: Unsettled for a single-member LLC |
| Owner on a public register | Neutral: On the accounts | Neutral: Depends on your country | Works in your favour: Not on Wyoming's record |
| Rules where you live | Neutral: Your own tax, as now | Neutral: Your country's rules | A cost or a limit: Controlled-company rules may tax it at home |
| Yearly US filing | Works in your favour: None | Works in your favour: None | A cost or a limit: Form 5472, and Wyoming's report |
Works in your favourNeutralA cost or a limitTake advice in your own country before forming anything. A holding company that only defers tax at home often doesn't.
In your own name
- Dividends from US shares
- 30%, or your treaty rate
- Gains on US shares
- Usually not taxed by the US
- US estate tax on US shares
- Can apply above $60,000
- Owner on a public register
- On the accounts
- Rules where you live
- Your own tax, as now
- Yearly US filing
- None
Neutral:
Works in your favour:
A cost or a limit:
Neutral:
Neutral:
Works in your favour:
A company at home
- Dividends from US shares
- 30%, or the company's treaty rate
- Gains on US shares
- Usually not taxed by the US
- US estate tax on US shares
- Depends on the structure
- Owner on a public register
- Depends on your country
- Rules where you live
- Your country's rules
- Yearly US filing
- None
Neutral:
Works in your favour:
Neutral:
Neutral:
Neutral:
Works in your favour:
A Wyoming LLCWhat we set up
- Dividends from US shares
- 30%, or your treaty rate
- Gains on US shares
- Usually not taxed by the US
- US estate tax on US shares
- Unsettled for a single-member LLC
- Owner on a public register
- Not on Wyoming's record
- Rules where you live
- Controlled-company rules may tax it at home
- Yearly US filing
- Form 5472, and Wyoming's report
Neutral:
Works in your favour:
Neutral:
Works in your favour:
A cost or a limit:
A cost or a limit:
Works in your favourNeutralA cost or a limitTake advice in your own country before forming anything. A holding company that only defers tax at home often doesn't.
04 · Step by step
From advice to a company that holds the rest, in seven steps.
The order matters: advice at home, then the company, then the assets, with a record of every move.
Step 1: Take advice where you live
Ask how your country treats a US LLC you control: as a company, as you, or under its controlled-company rules. The answer decides whether this is worth doing.
Before you orderYou, with an adviser at homeStep 2: Form the Wyoming LLC
We file the articles online, and the operating agreement records what the company holds. Wyoming approves an online filing the same day it is filed.
Same dayWe do itStep 3: Get the EIN
Without a Social Security Number the IRS issues it by fax, which is the slowest step. The expedited EIN, $199, has us file the day the company exists and chase it.
The longest waitWe do itStep 4: Open the bank and broker accounts
In the LLC's name. Brokers that take a US company ask for its papers, a W-8BEN from you as the owner, and where the money came from.
Weeks, for reviewYou, with each institutionStep 5: Move the assets in, on paper
Shares, domains, trademarks or cash, each transferred with a written record of what moved and when. Form 5472 reports what passes between you and the company.
Asset by assetYou, with an adviserStep 6: Keep every transfer recorded
Money in, money out and anything you use personally, written down as it happens. It's what the yearly filing and any adviser at home will ask for.
As it happensYouStep 7: Diary the filings
Form 5472 is due each 15 April, and Wyoming's annual report on the first day of the month the LLC was formed in. Your own country's return comes on top, as before.
Every yearOn your calendar
05 · The honest part
What to know before you order.
Does a holding LLC save tax at home?
Your own country's rules decide
Many countries have controlled foreign company rules. If a resident controls a foreign company earning passive income, that income may be taxed at home as if the company weren't there.
Read more
A holding company formed to put off or avoid that tax usually doesn't, while one formed to organise and hold assets, or to give a group a US presence, can be perfectly sound. Take this question to an adviser at home before forming anything.
Does it make US investment income tax-free?
What it doesn't do
It doesn't make US investment income tax-free.
Read more
Dividends from US companies paid to an owner abroad are withheld at 30% or the treaty rate, and the LLC is looked through to its owner for that. It isn't the right home for US property either, because an LLC holding property belongs in the property's state.
Sources: IRS, some nonresidents with US assets must file estate tax returns; IRS Publication 519, US tax guide for aliens; IRS, tax treaty tables; FinCEN, beneficial ownership information; Wyoming Secretary of State, business fees; IRS, Instructions for Form 5472.
06 · What it costs
What the first year costs, line by line.
Ours from our price list. Nothing here is a bundle.
| Cost | Amount | When | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch, with Wyoming's fee | $351.40 | First year | $249 to us and $102.40 to Wyoming, at cost. The LLC, the EIN, the registered agent and the operating agreement. |
| A US tax specialistOptional | $149 | Once | Forty-five minutes on dividends, estate tax and the yearly filing, beside your adviser at home. |
| From the second year | $309 | Every year | $249 for Launch and Wyoming's $60 minimum. Form 5472 is an accountant's fee on top. |
The adviser at home is the cost that decides the rest. Budget for that conversation before the company.
The plan that fits
Launch, usually.
A holding company files and pays little.
Launch
Fits a holding companyFor your first company, when it needs to exist and nothing more yet.
What it covers
- Your Wyoming LLC, filed, with the state fee at cost
- An operating agreement that records what it holds
- Form 5472 and the annual report on your calendar
Ask an adviser at home about controlled foreign company rules first.
07 · Questions
Questions from founders forming a holding company.
If yours is not here, email us at hello@baseacross.com before you order.
Not reliably. A non-resident's estate files a US estate tax return when US-situated assets, such as shares in US companies, are worth more than $60,000 at death. Whether a single-member LLC changes that is unsettled, so ask an estate adviser before relying on it.
Usually not. The IRS taxes a non-resident's gain on selling shares only in a year they spend 183 days or more in the US. Dividends are different: they're withheld at 30% or your treaty rate.
Its members and managers aren't on Wyoming's public record. Banks, brokers and the IRS still know who owns it, and US-formed companies no longer file beneficial ownership reports with FinCEN.
A Wyoming LLC on Launch is $351.40 for the first year: $249 for Launch and $102.40 to Wyoming, at cost. After that it is $309 a year, $249 to us and $60 to Wyoming.
Ready when you are
Answer the questions. We do the filing.
It takes about four minutes. You see the whole order, Wyoming fee included, before anything is charged.
Step 1 of 10 · About four minutesNothing charged yet
You're startingLLC · WY
Start a companyLaunch · $351.40 · Wyoming fee included