The LLC exists. The formation service has emailed a PDF and a link to buy more things. What follows is the sequence that keeps the entity clean through its first April, written from the year-one mistakes we fix most often.
Weeks 1 to 4
- EIN. Apply as the responsible party yourself, by fax or phone if you have no SSN. Keep the CP575 letter forever; banks and platforms ask for it years later. Do not let a formation agent list themselves as the responsible party.
- Operating agreement. Even for one member. Banks ask, and it fixes the LLC's tax classification and your capital account on paper.
- Bank account. Mercury, Wise Business, Relay and similar accept non-resident-owned LLCs with the formation documents, EIN letter and your passport. Open it in the LLC's name and use it only for the LLC.
- Registered agent. Confirm who it is, that the renewal is calendared, and that mail forwarded by the agent reaches an inbox someone reads. A $25,000 IRS notice arriving at a dead address is the worst version of this year.
Months 1 to 12: the ledger
Keep a record of every transfer between you and the LLC: capital in, expenses you paid personally, money you took out, loans either way. This is the content of Form 5472 and the thing nobody has when April arrives. A spreadsheet is enough in year one; QuickBooks Online or Xero on the Micro plan is better because the bank feed does the remembering.
Separate the money. Personal expenses through the LLC card and LLC income into a personal account create reportable transactions and audit questions in equal measure.
Platforms and forms
- Stripe, Shopify, Amazon and clients ask the LLC for a W-9: the LLC is a US entity, so it provides one, with its EIN.
- Any US payer asking you personally gets a W-8BEN instead, so they do not withhold 30%.
- If a platform sends a 1099-K at year-end, keep it; it is matched against filings.
The state's calendar
The annual report or franchise tax comes due on the state's own schedule, often within the first year: Delaware's $300 LLC tax by June 1, Wyoming's report on the formation anniversary, Florida by May 1. Calendar it now, with the fee. New Mexico and Arizona want nothing; Texas wants a franchise report by May 15 even with nothing to pay.
The US income question
Decide, and write down, whether the LLC's activity creates US-connected income: where the work is done, whether there is US inventory, staff or an office, whether a treaty applies. The answer decides whether you file Form 1040-NR next April and whether you need an ITIN. Most founders selling from abroad with no US presence owe no US income tax; the ones with a US warehouse or a US contractor doing the core work often do. Getting this settled in month three is much cheaper than in month fifteen.
April 15 of year two
Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120 for the formation year, fax-filed, transmission report kept. Form 7004 by April 15 if the ledger is not ready, which moves it to October. Form 1040-NR if there is US-connected income. And the home-country disclosure of the foreign entity on your own return.
Records to keep, permanently
Formation certificate, operating agreement, EIN letter, every state filing confirmation, every fax report, bank statements, the owner-transfer ledger, and the platform W-9s and W-8BENs. Ten years is a safe rule.
The check: is there a date in your calendar for the state annual report, and one for April 15? If not, those are the two entries to add today.