There's no no need to use a formation service. Incorporating a company in the US is very easy and can be done online, even by foreigners. All you need is a Registered Agent and they start at $25/year (in Wyoming).
I'd also like to point out that forming a LLC as a foreigner is a bad idea, as that might make you personally liable for US taxes. Either form a C Corp outright or have your LLC taxed as a C Corp. Then just zero out the profits. Some extra forms to fill out, but still better than paying taxes.
Exactly. If you're outside the US, you can only be a contractor, even if you work full-time for your company. There are no caps on how high a contractor's fee can be - that's not the case with employee salaries.
There are more fancy options, such as having a second, foreign company owned by you be the contractor - if you want to avoid personal income taxes in whatever country you live in. Beware of CFC regulations though.
Members nor Managers are not listed with the state
My main issue with out-of-state LLCs though is you typically have to file in whatever state you're operating/living in as a foreign LLC, so you end up with double the paperwork and filing requirements.
IMHO its better, especially for sole-proprietor / pass-through LLCs to just register in whatever state you're living in.
> 100% not worth the headache so better to file in the state you "do business in" = home state!
This is only true until someone attempts to sue for a triviality. Most companies get sued at some point in time. This is why such a service is of value.
From our experience, most customers go for Wyoming LLCs because of the cost-effective option of a $50 Annual filing charge as compared to Delaware which has a $300 Annual franchise tax. The option is totally up to you.
We wrote a guide around how to choose the best state for new LLCs [1]
My understanding is that if you create your LLC out-of-state, you still need to register your llc as a foreign entity, which often, puts forth the same requirements as an in-state LLC.
Take specifically California. If you live and operate in CA, but register your LLC in Delaware (or Wyoming), you still need to pay the $800/yr franchise tax and complete all of the same tax paperworks that you would if the LLC was registered in CA.
Isn't it just simpler (and cheaper in time and money) to register in the state you operate in?
If you live in the US, correct! It's best to form an LLC in the state you live in.
If you live internationally, you can actually choose any state to form an LLC in (and Wyoming + Delaware tend to be the two most popular options, Wyoming for online digital businesses due to the lower ongoing annual costs = $50 per year to the state vs $300 per year in Delaware!)
We're different than Atlas and people prefer us over them (and others) because we're much more than just incorporating, and leaving you out there alone navigating all the challenges. We support founders along the way.
Once, one of our customers said "most services out there throw you to the wolves after you paid". You get the point.
I am not talking about Atlas. If we incorporate somewhere else than the USA we can still use Stripe payments, hence get paid from the USA out of the USA
Hey Arjun here! Ah I understand your question. Yes there are ways to accept payments (with Stripe or even other payment processors from certain countries!)
But we've found that founders in countries that even have access to Stripe or payments are still interested in getting access to US banking and Stripe because they are global, digital first companies and having a base in the US helps when selling globally! Also having a US LLC company gives you access to the US startup ecosystem.
Let me know if this makes sense / if I can help clarify anything!
Thanks for the answer ! I still don't understand what benefits there is in going to the USA. I have startups / companies so I could theoretically be interested in this, but I don't get it
As we've learned from building for remote teams [1], is that it's really about how you set a process for async communication, and not just about the tools. This is why we've been heads down since the outbreak helping work-from-home teams set the right processes of communication using us and other tools.
It's really around building a healthy culture of working from home, and not encouraging multiple disruptions during the day, and actively doing so, thinking that it unites teams. We wrote a basic guideline [2].
I think that what's key here, especially during the current crisis, is to support businesses as much as we can to switch to WFH in the best possible way, with a simple process, and by helping them to stay engaged, hopefully without the need to make them all jump into real-time video calls many times through the day and lose focus.
At our company [1], we've been receiving an incredible amount of inbound. People really need tools that don't get in the way —we're a video-first async comm platform— and I'm happy our team is being able to help these companies switching to WFH.
The team and I are happy to help anyone with setting a basic process of communication for companies moving to WFH during these weeks. Just write to me at [email protected] and we'll be happy to jump in a call and see how we can help.
Exactly, we say the same thing to people using our product [1]. And the same falls true for team compositions. If you have a 10+ team is already hard to work "as a team" like that. And standup meetings becoming bloated are a strong sign that you need to change and / or split that team and responsibilities.
Me and my cofounder have only two sync meetings per week. For the rest we dogfood our own async video product [1] as we are 9 hours away in time zones. He’s in SF and I’m in Germany at the moment.
We believe in that most of things can be communicated asynchronously. For those things that strictly need to be address synchronously we keep those too slots in the week.
