The free, all-in-one toolkit for running a US business from abroad
Form an LLC, get a tax ID, find an address, open a bank account, get paid and file every year: 14 tools and 12 guides cover the whole path. Free, no sign-up.
Find your route
Tools
Form an LLC
Pick a state, a registered agent, and get your EIN
Filing fees, annual fees and deadlines across 8 states, with first-year and ongoing totals.
Wyoming Registered Agent, Northwest and Firstbase: first-year and 5-year cost for the same LLC.
Answer a few questions and fill the official IRS Form SS-4 in your browser, ready to sign and fax for an EIN. Pre-filled for a foreign-owned single-member LLC; nothing uploaded.
Fill the official IRS W-8BEN in your browser for a US broker, bank, or platforms like Apple and Stripe. Identity lines only; nothing uploaded.
Which number you need, how to apply, an ITIN expiry checker, and getting an EIN without an SSN.
Address & phone
A residential address for banks and a US number that receives codes
96 virtual mailbox addresses verified residential by USPS RDI, filterable by state and price.
Check whether any US address is residential, commercial or a CMRA before you use it with a bank. First check free.
Which numbers receive bank codes, how to get texts abroad, what they cost and how long before an unpaid number is lost.
Bank & get paid
Bank accounts, USD payment routes and startup credits
7 banks and providers, filtered by SSN, ITIN and remote opening.
What Stripe, PayPal, Payoneer, Mercury and Wise take on a USD payment, and what is left after converting to CNY.
Stripe, PayPal, merchants of record (Paddle, Creem and others) and bank transfers: who can open, who handles tax, payouts and holds.
An owner’s draw is not wages and goes on Form 5472; Mercury wire and CNY conversion fees and limits, and China’s USD 50,000 quota.
AWS, Microsoft, Cloudflare, PostHog and 12 more programs, grouped by whether a bootstrapped LLC can apply, with amounts, conditions and expiry.
Stay compliant
IRS Form 5472, state reports and renewals, every deadline in one place
IRS Form 5472 and state report deadlines for your state and formation date, exportable to your calendar.
Also on this site (Chinese only): creator tools for video covers and tweet cards.
Guides
A foreign-owned US single-member LLC has only three unavoidable yearly items: the state fee, a registered agent and Form 5472. In Wyoming that is about $85 a year; everything else is optional. The expensive part is a $25,000 filing deadline. With three budgets and three kinds of people who should not form one.
The first tax filing for a foreign-owned US single-member LLC is a pro forma Form 1120 plus one Form 5472, faxed to the IRS. The materials checklist, how to have AI check each line against the IRS instructions, the fax number, what to keep as proof afterwards, and how to extend if you run out of time.
A hands-on walkthrough for a non-US resident (usually in China) forming a Wyoming single-member LLC: why Wyoming, buying only a registered agent and filing yourself vs. a formation package, the checklist, the Articles of Organization field by field and how to keep your address off the public record, which documents to keep, the Operating Agreement, the EIN, the bank account, the yearly annual report (due on the 1st of your anniversary month), Form 5472, agent renewal, the annual-report filing service that is switched on by default, and a foreign-exchange caution about funding the company. Checked against the Wyoming Secretary of State, IRS and FinCEN in November 2026.
How a non-US founder with a US LLC and EIN opens a Mercury business account, then a Stripe account that pays out to it: the checklist, what to do when Mercury asks for more details, the optional first deposit that speeds review, two real timelines compared, Stripe's extra-information request and payout schedule, Alipay and WeChat Pay, fees, and common reasons for rejection or freezes. Checked against official pages in November 2026.
How a foreign owner living outside the US, with no SSN, gets an EIN for a US single-member LLC: who can use the online, fax, international phone and mail routes, Form SS-4 lines 1–18 filled in, CP 575 vs Letter 147C, and the mistakes that cause delays. Checked on irs.gov in November 2026.
How a non-US founder enrolls a US LLC in the Apple Developer Program as an organization: D-U-N-S lookup, enrollment timeline, fee and agreements, W-9 vs W-8BEN, and moving apps from an individual account with App Transfer.
Recent rule changes
Affecting existing and new LLCs
Delaware LLC tax is now $400. The Division of Corporations now lists a $400 annual tax due by June 1 (previously $300), not prorated. Compare state fees
US-formed LLCs are permanently exempt from BOI reporting. FinCEN's final rule took effect on August 14, 2026. Letters charging a fee for BOI filing are most likely scams. See your compliance calendar