Register a company in Maine

Yes. We file the certificate of formation with the Maine Secretary of State, the registered agent is included for the first year, and the EIN goes to the IRS by phone, fax or mail, the routes the IRS keeps for applicants without an SSN or ITIN. You sign the documents where you are. Banking is the step most likely to ask more of you: fintech platforms take online applications, while a traditional bank usually expects a US footprint.

Formation starts from $2,400 all-in, including the Maine filing fee ($175 for an LLC's certificate of formation), the registered agent for the first year, the EIN and the operating agreement. With a fintech or bank account set up, from $4,400. After that, Maine charges $85 a year for the annual report, and $50 more if it is filed late. Our renewal is from $600 a year.

Plan around the state queue. The Secretary of State's corporations page posts a processing time of 60-65 business days for corporate filings. We cannot tell how current that notice is, so we check the queue before filing and tell you whether expedited service, priced by the Secretary of State's rule, is worth paying for. The EIN comes next: generally within 4 business days by fax, about 4 weeks by mail. If you also need an ITIN, allow 7 weeks, or 9-11 weeks when you apply from abroad or in tax season.

A C-Corp pays 21% federal tax plus Maine's graduated corporate tax: 3.5% on the first $350,000, then 7.93% and 8.33%, and 8.93% above $3.5 million. Dividends it pays to a non-US shareholder carry 30% federal withholding unless a treaty lowers the rate. An LLC is taxed through its owners by default. A non-US owner then pays US tax on income effectively connected with a US trade or business, and 30% on most other US-source income, such as rent or interest, unless a treaty or the Code sets a lower rate. We map that before you choose. If the LLC does business in Maine, it also withholds Maine tax on a nonresident member's Maine-source share of $1,000 or more. Sales tax is 5.5%.

The Company + Bank Account package starts with the choice between a fintech platform and a traditional bank, made for your file. For Mercury or Relay-class platforms we prepare the application file. A traditional bank is the route when you already have a footprint in the US, such as an office or staff. Approval is always the bank's decision. Once the account is open we set up the payment rails you need: ACH, wires and Stripe onboarding.

An LLC suits one owner or a few partners running a trading or service business: tax flows through to the owners, and the Maine filing is $175. A C-Corp is the usual vehicle once outside investors are coming in. With a non-US shareholder it cannot be an S corporation, so it pays 21% federal tax plus Maine's brackets, and dividends out carry withholding. An LLC can also elect corporate tax treatment on Form 8832, but after that change it cannot change again by election for 60 months.

It applies if one foreign person, you or your foreign company, owns the whole LLC. For this purpose the IRS treats that LLC as a corporation: each year it files a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached, reporting its transactions with you as a related party, including money you put in or take out. It cannot be filed electronically, only by fax or mail. The penalty for not filing is $25,000, with more if the failure continues after an IRS notice. Our accounting add-on covers it from $800 a year.

Not to FinCEN. Under the final rule that took effect on 14 August 2026, companies formed in the US are exempt from BOI reporting; only companies formed abroad and registered to do business in a state still report. Maine's annual report is not anonymous, though: it gives the registered agent, the principal office address and the name and address of at least one member, manager or other authorised person.

Because the business is here. If your company would end up registered in Maine anyway, forming it in Maine is the cheaper route: an LLC from another state pays $250 to file a statement of foreign qualification in Maine and $150 for each Maine annual report, against $85 for a Maine LLC. If nothing ties you to Maine, compare Delaware and Wyoming before you decide, and we will tell you plainly which one fits.

Two things. The first is the queue: a posted processing time of 60-65 business days is long when a contract or an account is waiting, so the expedite decision belongs before filing. The second is tax. Corporate brackets reach 8.93%, the top personal rate is 7.15%, and from 2026 single filers pay a 2% surcharge on Maine taxable income above $1 million. A Maine company makes sense when the business is in Maine; as a mailbox for a business run elsewhere it buys you little.