IANAL but I was looking into starting a US consulting company recently, and one of the tricky things is you have to "foreign-qualify" (IIRC) your Delaware/Nevada LLC in California if you are going to do any business there, which for a tech consultancy is quite likely. Then your tax situation suddenly becomes complex and (relatively) expensive, in case that is related to your interest in Delaware or especially Nevada.

Now, whether you can get around this by being fully remote and effectively saying "no, CaliCorp came to Nevada to do business with me, not the other way around" -- that's an interesting question.

Hey biztos, arjun here from doola, you're 100% correct here. A common mistake people make is form an LLC in a state that they don't live in. They then have to "foreign qualify" in the state they "do business in" = the state they live in. The definition of "do business in" is essentially you have a physical presence there = you live and work there, have a physical office there, W2 employees etc.

The best advice to "what state should I form my LLC in?" is: - IF you live in the US: form in the state you live in (to avoid the foreign qualification in another state). - IF you don't live in the US: you can choose any state. The most popular states we see at doola are Delaware and Wyoming but Wyoming is the most popular due to the lower ongoing annual fees ($50 to WY vs $300 to DE) and Wyoming has demonstrated it's willingness to innovate when it comes to regulation (like the DAO LLC legislation passed on 7/1/21.)

For more on DAOs check out this blog post: https://www.doola.com/blog/what-is-a-dao-llc-your-complete-g...)

And for a complete answer to "Best state to form an LLC in" check out this blog post: https://www.doola.com/blog/what-is-the-best-state-to-form-my...

It's 100% normal for cali companies to contract non-cali companies. Especially DE/NV corps.

As long as your corporate residency is in check, you file annual reports and pay taxes you are 100% in the clear.

Yup, we at doola have a Delaware C Corp but because we "do business" in NYC (physical office, HQ is there, employees there) we have to do the "foreign LLC filing" to stay compliant and in the clear.

wow $200/mo recurring fee.. and they don't do your taxes? operating a compliant LLC isn't that complicated. I'd be curious to hear what they're doing that is worth $2500/yr.

Hey steve, arjun here from doola, this is really valuable feedback because *we do your taxes (form 5472/1120) AND your annual compliance as part of our plan! Our messaging / copy clearly doesn't indicate this / message this properly so we are going to implement a fix asap that improves this.

As to justifying the cost for our plan, if you factor in the cost of having a lawyer/CPA do your IRS filings (there can be heavy fines up to $25K for not filing or incorrectly filing form 5472 https://www.doola.com/blog/filing-requirements-for-foreign-o...) and certain CPAs can charge well upwards of $1000 for this filing alone + your annual report with the state + registered agent, US address, our entire perks and rewards database (https://www.doola.com/rewards), and access to us on a monthly bases for free tax consultations, LLC amendments etc, we've heard there is lots of value BUT we are always on the lookout to add more and as a little sneak peek, stay tuned for some bookkeeping, payroll + banking stuff we have in the works (note we can help with all three of these things now but we do it through partners, we have some ideas to more tightly integrate / embed this in to our offering to provide even more value and a better customer experience).

Yeah, that's abrasive even by the warped incorporation services standards.

They take advantage of people that have an initial negative reaction to doing anything that sounds "legal-y" but really all they are doing is submitting 2 forms (certificate of organization with the state, application for EIN with IRS), giving you some template document for an operating agreement, and then once a year filing a one-page form to keep the company in good standing. If you're paying more than $100 for this, you're being taken for a ride.

It costs around $150 to file articles of corporation/llc, and then an annual report is $99-149 depending per state.

EIN is free. You can do all above, in less than 30 minutes.

Not to defend, atlas, or this or any other service, but if they act as an agent or offer a virtual address, they may be why the cost is high. You do need a physical office address, even if it's a virtual office, for service, and paperwork.

You should be able to find the agency/agency of incorporation for the state - https://corp.delaware.gov/howtoform/ this is for Delaware, and right there #2 is registered agent.

Depending who you go to for virtual office, it may be $50-200/month.

Now, is it a business idea to offer this service yourself, rent a space, and also have an accountant, - yes.

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But it's pretty cheap in general, other countries in the world, the cost of doing business for this meta/paperwork is double or triple.

In Indonesia, Doing a PT. PMA, sort of similar to a LLC, minimum setup cost is about $4000, but it nets you a visa.

Japan, requires $50,000 fiat, getting a hanko - and while it gets you a visa, is much more complicated.

Hey! Responded to steves comment above with more color on what is included in our plan (tldr we do include IRS tax filing + annual compliance and more) but it is again very valuable for us to see that we are not messaging this clearly enough on our pricing page!

I presume they're charging for knowing what to do & how to do it correctly, not just for the time spent doing it.

Hi! Arjun here from doola. This is spot on, we have worked with 1000s of customers and we believe we're experts BUT that doesn't justify not having enough value in our offering and we are always on the lookout / prowl to add additional services/products to our suite to truly provide a "one-stop-shop" offering!

even that's a high charge. if I showed you the processes they were doing then you would laugh. Only exception would maybe be if you were creating a Delaware corporation.

Looks like a good service. Often the problem with setting up a business in a foreign country is not registering the company, but opening a bank account for the business, so you can get paid easily by customers in that country - which is really the whole point of the exercise.

Thanks Jack You are 100% correct, people don't really want an LLC, they want a way to transact globally in the US dollar and to do that they need a US bank account + US payments.

We work with many different banking and payment partners (https://www.doola.com/rewards) and not only help folks go from 0 -> bank account but also keep the LLC compliant in the background (annual compliance, IRS tax filings, and more!)

Hey Brajeshwar, Arjun from doola here, thank you so much for sharing us

I formed an LLC for 350$ through a service, online. Yearly I pay additional 190$ for maintenance and address.

edit: They also helped me open a Mercury bank account

Hey! If you're interested in other banking options check out https://www.doola.com/rewards. Feel free to email us at hello at doola dot com as well and we can see if we can intro you to the banking partner!