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A US LLC as a holding company for founders outside the United States

A holding company owns other things: shares in other companies, domains, trademarks, investments. A Wyoming LLC is an inexpensive, private and well-understood way to do that. Whether it does anything useful for you depends mostly on the rules where you live.

Start a company The honest part

Usually
Structure
Wyoming LLC
Plan
Starter
On the day
$391.40
Every year
$179

01Why a US company

What it does for founders forming a holding company.

Founders use Wyoming LLCs as holding companies because they cost $60 a year to the state, keep the owners off the public record, and can own almost anything: shares in a US or foreign company, intellectual property, domain names, and investment accounts at brokers that accept US companies. A US holding company also gives a group one US company for banks and partners to deal with.

02What stands in the way

Three things in the way, and one way through.

Wall 01Brokers and banks

Accounts for US companies, not foreign ones

Some brokers and banks will open an account for a US company but not for a foreign one.

Wall 02Public registers

Several ventures, one private owner

You may want several ventures under one owner without putting each one on a public register.

Wall 03Investors and buyers

A parent for the operating company

A US operating company may need a parent company for investors or a future sale.

The door

A US LLC, with its EIN and a US bank account.

One company, one EIN and one bank account, which is what everything above asks for.

03The honest part

What to know before you order.

01

Your own country's rules decide

Many countries have controlled foreign company rules. If a resident controls a foreign company earning passive income, that income may be taxed at home as if the company weren't there. A holding company formed to put off or avoid that tax usually doesn't, while one formed to organise and hold assets, or to give a group a US presence, can be perfectly sound. Take this question to an adviser at home before forming anything.

02

What it doesn't do

It doesn't make US investment income tax-free. Dividends from US companies paid to an owner abroad are withheld at 30% or the treaty rate, and the LLC is looked through to its owner for that. It isn't the right home for US property either, because an LLC holding property belongs in the property's state.

The plan that fits

Starter, usually.

A holding company files and pays little. Starter covers the company, the operating agreement that records what it holds, and the calendar.

StarterFits founders forming a holding company

For your first company, when it needs to exist and nothing more yet.

To start

$391.40 once

Includes the $102.40 Wyoming fee · then $179 a year

04Questions

Questions from founders forming a holding company.

If yours is not here, email us at [email protected] before you order.

Usually, subject to your country's rules on foreign ownership of local companies and on residents owning foreign companies. Both are questions for a local adviser.

Its members and managers aren't on Wyoming's public record. Banks, brokers and the IRS still know who owns it, and US-formed companies no longer file beneficial ownership reports with FinCEN.

Ready when you are

Answer the questions. We do the filing.

It takes about four minutes. You see the whole order, state fee included, before anything is charged.

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Company name

LLC · WY

Name checked first · Same business day

Start a company

Starter$289 + $102.40 WyomingSame day