Register a company in Pennsylvania

Yes. Pennsylvania takes the Certificate of Organization and its Docketing Statement online, and the registered office is the CROP in our package, so you need no Pennsylvania address of your own. The IRS issues the EIN to applicants abroad by fax, phone or mail, with no SSN required. Of all the steps, the account carries the most uncertainty: approval is the platform's call after its own KYC review, and our part is a file without gaps.

Formation starts from $2,400 all-in, including the Pennsylvania filing fee ($125), the registered office through a CROP for the first year, the EIN and the operating agreement. With a fintech or bank account set up, from $4,400. After that, Pennsylvania's own yearly filing fee is the $7 annual report; expedited handling, a corporation's newspaper notices and later reports are itemised in your quote.

For a business that pays its profit out to you, usually an LLC. The IRS treats a one-member LLC as disregarded and a multi-member LLC as a partnership unless it elects otherwise; a partnership LLC is a partnership in Pennsylvania too, and its members pay the flat 3.07% on their share. A C-Corp pays 21% federal tax and Pennsylvania's 7.49% for 2026. It must also advertise its incorporation in two newspapers. What it offers is shares, and shares are what investors buy. S-corporation status is closed to non-resident alien shareholders, so for a non-US founder the choice is LLC or C-Corp.

Federally, a C-Corp pays a flat 21%. An LLC's profit passes to its owners unless it elects corporate treatment on Form 8832, and its US business income is still taxed, on each individual owner's federal return at graduated rates. Pennsylvania charges corporations 7.49% for 2026, falling half a point a year to 4.99% from 2031. Members of a partnership LLC pay the flat 3.07%, which the LLC withholds for nonresident members. If a single-member LLC belongs to a nonresident individual, payers withhold 3.07% from its Pennsylvania-source fees when they exceed $5,000 a year, and we confirm the state's treatment of that LLC on your facts. Sales tax is 6%, plus 1% in Allegheny County and 2% in Philadelphia. Dividends to non-resident shareholders carry 30% federal withholding unless a treaty lowers it.

Pennsylvania asks you to allow 15 business days for processing and posts current times on file.dos.pa.gov. Money shortens it: $100 for same-day handling of a filing received before 10:00 a.m., $300 for three hours, $1,000 for one hour, none of it available by mail. The EIN follows the filing. By fax from abroad the IRS issues it generally within 4 business days, by post in about 4 weeks, and the bank application follows the EIN.

That is the second package. We choose between a fintech platform and a traditional bank on the strength of your file, prepare the application for Mercury or Relay-class platforms, and use the traditional-bank route where you already have a US footprint. ACH, wires and Stripe onboarding are connected once the account opens. Nobody can promise approval, since every platform runs its own KYC, so our work goes into a file with no gaps or contradictions.

A registered office. It must be a Pennsylvania street address with a number - a P.O. box alone is not accepted - and legal papers may be served there. Instead of an address, 15 Pa.C.S. § 109 lets a company contract with a commercial registered office provider (CROP) and list the CROP's name. Our package does exactly that for the first year, so you need no premises in Pennsylvania to form the company.

For an LLC, it applies when one non-US person owns the whole company. The IRS then treats the LLC as a corporation for this reporting: each year it files a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached, listing its dealings with you, money you put in or take out included. There is no e-filing, only fax or mail, and the due date is the Form 1120's, normally the 15th day of the fourth month after the tax year ends. The penalty for missing it is $25,000. Our accounting and 5472 add-on starts from $800 a year.

If the business will have staff or premises in Pennsylvania, form it here. A Delaware or Wyoming LLC that does business in Pennsylvania must first register as a foreign filing association, and "foreign" here means formed outside Pennsylvania, whoever the owner is. That takes a Foreign Registration Statement with a Docketing Statement and a $250 fee, and from then on you keep two states' filings current. If nothing happens in Pennsylvania, compare the options on our Delaware and Wyoming pages; banking and investors usually settle it.

Pennsylvania has required the report only since 2025: $7 for an LLC between 1 January and 30 September, $7 for a business corporation by 30 June. For reports missed from 2027 on, a domestic company is administratively dissolved six months after the due date and loses protection of its name. Reinstatement has no time limit and costs $35 online or $40 on paper, plus $15 for each missing report. An out-of-state company registered in Pennsylvania is terminated instead; it cannot be reinstated and must file a new Foreign Registration Statement under a new entity number.