LLC, C-Corp or DBA? The answer for a founder abroad.

An LLC if customers will fund the company and you'll take the profit out. Run from abroad, its profit usually isn't taxed by the US, and Wyoming charges $60 a year to keep it. A Delaware C-Corporation if you'll raise from US investors or give staff stock, because SAFEs, rounds and option plans are written for its shares.

A DBA is a name you trade under. It creates no company, so the business's debts and lawsuits are yours. An LLC is a separate company that signs the contracts and holds the debts. An LLC can register a DBA too, if you want to trade under a brand.

A DBA attaches to a business that already exists, so on its own it would make you a US sole proprietor. That gives no protection, and Stripe's US sole proprietor account needs a US individual with an SSN or ITIN. Form an LLC instead, and add a DBA to it if you want a second name.

No. The IRS instructions for Form 2553 say an S-Corporation can have no nonresident alien shareholders. A provider that sells you one is selling an election you can't make.

The IRS looks through it to you. If you run it from abroad, with no US staff, office or stock, it usually has no US business, so its profit isn't taxed by the US. It still files Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 every April, and missing it costs $25,000.

It pays 21% federal tax on its profit and files Form 1120, with Form 5472 when a foreign person owns 25% or more. Dividends to you have 30% US tax withheld, or your treaty's lower rate after you give it a W-8BEN.

A multi-member LLC is a partnership for US tax. It files Form 1065 by 15 March with a Schedule K-1 for each member. Filing late costs $255 per member for each month, for up to 12 months. If it has US business income, it also withholds tax on its foreign members' share.

Yes. An LLC can elect to be taxed as a corporation by filing Form 8832. It then pays the 21% corporate tax and files Form 1120, but keeps its operating agreement. It still can't issue stock, so it doesn't help with investors.

Yes. A Wyoming LLC can convert into a Delaware corporation when an investor asks. Expect lawyers' fees, filing fees in both states and a few weeks. If you know you'll raise within two years, forming the corporation now usually costs less.

Wyoming for an LLC: $102.40 to file and $60 a year, with no owner named on the public record. Delaware for a C-Corporation: $110 to file and from $450 a year, the state investors' documents assume.