Register a company in Utah

Yes, start to finish. The Division accepts the whole application online through the Business Registration System, which works with a UtahID login, and our package includes a registered agent at a Utah street address for the first year. For the EIN you need no SSN: with no US presence you can phone the IRS on 267-941-1099 (not toll-free), or fax or post Form SS-4 with 'foreign' on line 7b. Bank applications go to fintech platforms remotely; a traditional bank is the route once you have a US footprint.

Formation starts from $2,400 all-in, including the Utah filing fee ($59), the registered agent for the first year, the EIN and the operating agreement. With a fintech or bank account set up, from $4,400. From then on the state charges $18 a year for the renewal, and a C-Corp also owes Utah at least the $100 minimum tax. The $75 expedite fee, if you want it, is quoted separately.

Most filings, the Division says, are processed immediately. Paper filings, filings with attachments, those needing a Tax Commission review and name conflicts go to manual review, which takes 5 to 7 business days. The EIN is the longer wait: a faxed SS-4 generally gets an answer within 4 business days, a posted one in about 4 weeks. Account applications follow the EIN.

It depends on the form you choose. A C-Corp pays 21% federal tax and 4.5% of its Utah taxable income for tax years from 2025, with a $100 floor; we confirm the 2026 rate before your first Utah return. Its dividends to owners abroad carry 30% withholding unless a treaty or the Code lowers it. An LLC is treated like a partnership in Utah and taxed only once; for federal purposes a single-member LLC is disregarded, but if its one owner is foreign, it attaches Form 5472 to a pro forma Form 1120, and skipping that costs $25,000. Taxable sales in Utah add the 4.70% state sales and use tax, plus 0.15% and local rates.

Our default for a trading or service business owned from abroad is the LLC. With one owner, the federal paperwork is Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120, and the state wants its $18 renewal. Add a second member and the LLC becomes, by default, a partnership for federal tax, which then withholds on the effectively connected taxable income allocable to each foreign partner: currently 37%, or 21% where the partner is a corporation. Investors buying shares change the answer to a C-Corp, with 21% federal tax, 4.5% to Utah and a TC-20 return each year. An S-Corp is not an option, because non-resident aliens cannot be S-Corp shareholders.

Through the Company + Bank Account pack. First we work out from your file whether a fintech platform or a traditional bank fits. For fintech we prepare the application to Mercury- or Relay-class platforms. Banks with branches come into the picture only if you have a US footprint. ACH transfers, wires and Stripe onboarding are configured as part of the pack. Nothing goes out before the EIN is issued, and the final decision is always the bank's or the platform's.

Utah's weak spot is that the date belongs to your company alone: one year from registration, then every year. The renewal period opens 60 days before the anniversary, and the notice goes to the registered agent on file. A late renewal costs $10. If it comes to reinstatement, a domestic LLC pays $54 plus $18 for each year the renewal was missed. And since SB 14 (2024), a corporation's or pass-through entity's Utah return states whether a current annual report is on file.

Probably, yes. Formation asks for principal information on the managers, owners or organisers, an LLC's renewal names at least one manager, member or other governing person, and Utah's registration records are public under GRAMA. Your home address can stay off it: the business entity's physical address may be given instead. If that matters to you, we discuss it before filing.

That depends on what it does in Utah, and we check it with you first. In state law, a 'foreign' LLC is simply one formed outside Utah, such as yours; it has nothing to do with the owners' nationality or residence. Utah's foreign registration costs $59 for an LLC or a corporation, and the company then renews for $18 a year like a Utah one. A C corporation qualified in Utah or doing business there also files form TC-20. That registration is our state qualification service, from $700.

No. FinCEN's final rule of 11 August 2026, in force from 14 August 2026, made permanent the exemption first introduced in March 2025: companies formed in a US state do not report beneficial ownership, and that includes a Utah LLC owned entirely from abroad. Only entities created under another country's law and registered to do business in a US state still file, and only for their foreign beneficial owners.