Fifty states, fifty price lists. The IRS and the bank are the same in every one.

To file: Montana at $35, Kentucky at $40, Arkansas at $45 online. To keep: an Arizona, Missouri or New Mexico LLC files no annual report, Ohio has none at all, and Idaho, Minnesota and Mississippi charge $0 for theirs. A cheap state can still be the wrong one: a state where you operate will want its own registration anyway.

Kansas files online within minutes, Colorado in real time and South Dakota immediately; an Alabama filing is effective on receipt. Pennsylvania asks you to allow 15 business days, Maryland quotes 6-8 weeks online and Maine posts 60-65 business days. After any of them, an EIN faxed from abroad generally takes 4 business days.

On Form SS-4 with "foreign" on line 7b, sent to the IRS by fax, by phone for international applicants or by mail. There is no fee. By fax the IRS issues it generally within 4 business days, by mail in about 4 weeks. The online route needs an SSN or ITIN, and no route works before the company exists.

Not to form the company or to get the EIN. In most states the filing goes in online; in Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and Virginia it goes by mail or through the agent. The IRS takes EIN applications from abroad. The bank is the step that can ask for more, and each platform decides that under its own KYC.

No. It means one line of the bill is zero. Federal tax follows the owner and the entity: 21% for a C-Corp, graduated rates on an LLC owner's income connected with a US business. Several of these states also tax the business another way: Tennessee's franchise and excise tax, New Hampshire's Business Profits Tax, Washington's B&O on receipts, the Texas franchise tax above $2.65M.

For a business that pays its profit out to you, usually an LLC. For raising money, a C-Corp, because it has shares to issue. S-corporation status is closed to non-resident alien shareholders, so for a non-US founder the choice is between those two. A C-Corp pays 21% itself, and dividends to non-resident shareholders carry 30% withholding unless a treaty lowers it.

A single-member LLC owned by a non-US person files Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 every year, by the 15th day of the fourth month after its tax year unless extended, and only by fax or mail. It is due even when the LLC owes no US tax, and missing it costs $25,000. A multi-member LLC files as a partnership, on Form 1065.

No. FinCEN's final rule, in force since 14 August 2026, exempts companies formed in the US, including those owned from abroad. A company formed outside the US that registers to do business in a state still reports its foreign beneficial owners.

That is what our second package is for: a fintech platform of the Mercury or Relay class, or a traditional bank where you have a US footprint. Each platform makes its own KYC decision and we do not promise approval. We settle the route on your file before you form anything, because the answer can change the plan.

Mostly small sums on fixed dates: $25 in Colorado, Michigan, West Virginia and Wisconsin, $138.75 in Florida, $300 in Maryland, $500 in Massachusetts, at least $175 of LLET in Kentucky and a $400 minimum in Rhode Island. Forgetting brings late fees first and dissolution later, and reinstatement costs more than the report did.