Resources · Articles
Answers to the questions people actually type
Shorter than the state guides and narrower on purpose. Each one answers a single question, cites the statute, the state or the IRS, and carries the date we last checked it. Where the honest answer costs us a sale, we publish it anyway.
Titles marked “Not written yet” are the ones we intend to write. They are listed so you can see what is coming rather than to pad the page — there is nothing behind them yet, and we would rather say so than publish something thin.
Reporting and tax
Not written yet
You formed a US LLC and nobody told you about Form 5472
The filing a foreign-owned LLC owes even with no income and no tax due, the $25,000 penalty, and the exception almost everybody states incorrectly.
Planned — nothing to read here yet
Forming from outside the US
Not written yet
Getting an EIN with no SSN and no ITIN
You do not need an ITIN to get an EIN. The three routes, the fax number that depends on where you are, and what the IRS actually charges, which is nothing.
Planned — nothing to read here yet
Not written yet
Lost your EIN letter? CP 575 and 147C explained
The letter the IRS issues once and never reissues, the one that replaces it, and the self-service route that is closed to you if you have no SSN or ITIN.
Planned — nothing to read here yet
Not written yet
Forming a US LLC to get paid by the app stores? Read this first
Google Play registers merchants in around 150 countries. For a lot of people the US LLC solves a problem they do not have, and adds a filing obligation they did not have.
Planned — nothing to read here yet
Running an LLC
Not written yet
How to close an LLC properly
The order it happens in, why simply stopping does not work, and the state where the annual tax keeps running until you formally cancel.
Planned — nothing to read here yet
Not written yet
Is an LLC a business licence?
No. An LLC is an entity and a licence is permission to do a thing. The three layers of licensing, and the state that catches people out.
Planned — nothing to read here yet
Costs and timing
Not written yet
“Free LLC”: what is actually free and what never is
The EIN is free. The name search is free. The state filing fee is not, and no state waives it. What the free-first-year offers cost you at renewal.
Planned — nothing to read here yet
Not written yet
How long does it take to get an LLC?
Three separate clocks that get conflated: state approval, the EIN, and the bank account. What expedited service buys, and what it does not.
Planned — nothing to read here yet
Choosing a state
Not written yet
Form in Wyoming but live in California? The actual bill
The arithmetic, line by line. Forming out of state costs a Californian more than forming at home, because the $800 was never avoidable.
Planned — nothing to read here yet
Not written yet
What “doing business in a state” actually means
In US company law “foreign” means out-of-state, not overseas. What registering elsewhere costs, and what happens to a company that should have and did not.
Planned — nothing to read here yet
Not written yet
What each state publishes about who owns your LLC
Field by field, from the registers themselves — including the state marketed hardest on privacy that publishes more than the ones that are not.
Planned — nothing to read here yet
Coyork is not a law firm and does not provide legal or tax advice. We prepare and file the documents you instruct us to file.