Your US LLC Is Formed. What Comes Next?

Keep the formation documents in one place

The state's approval gives you the company's founding record: Articles of Organization in Wyoming, a Certificate of Formation in Delaware, with a filing date and a state file number. That document is the first thing a bank, a payment platform or a mailbox provider asks for, and it fixes the company's legal name exactly as the state recorded it, punctuation included.

Save the stamped copy, the state's approval notice and anything that names the registered agent. Copy the legal name from the document, don't retype it, and use that version on every application that follows. Our formation documents guide explains what each state document contains. Registate customers find the filed papers in the panel under Documents, in the Formation Documents tab.

Apply for the EIN

The Employer Identification Number is the company's federal tax number. You need it to open a business bank account, to sign up with payment providers and to file anything with the IRS. The IRS doesn't charge for it: "You never have to pay a fee for an EIN" (IRS).

If you don't have an SSN or ITIN

The IRS online application only works when the responsible party has an SSN or ITIN, and it isn't available when the principal place of business is outside the US (IRS). Everyone else files Form SS-4 by fax or mail. Applicants with no US residence, place of business or office can also apply by phone, and the caller must be authorized to receive the EIN and answer questions about the form (SS-4 instructions). The instructions say a fax reply comes "generally within 4 business days" and mail takes "approximately 4 weeks"; the IRS posts current backlogs on its processing status page, which has recently shown longer fax times. The full walkthrough is in How to apply for an EIN without an SSN.

Keep the confirmation letter

The IRS confirms the number with a CP 575 notice. The original "cannot be duplicated or recreated", and if it's lost the replacement is a Letter 147C (IRS). Banks and platforms ask for one of the two, so scan it the day it arrives. Our guide to CP 575 and 147C covers which letter you get and how to ask for a 147C. If the responsible party or the mailing address changes later, tell the IRS on Form 8822-B; a change of responsible party must be reported within 60 days (IRS).

Registate offers EIN application support for founders without an SSN. Customers find the EIN confirmation letter in the panel's Tax Documents tab.

Put the operating agreement in writing

The operating agreement is the members' own rulebook for the company: who owns what share, who manages it, how money comes in and goes out, and what happens when a member leaves. It isn't filed with the state, and the state doesn't review it.

Whether it must be written depends on the state. Delaware's LLC Act defines the agreement as one that can be "written, oral or implied" (6 Del. C. § 18-101) and lets it be made before, at or after the filing of the certificate of formation (§ 18-201(d)). New York goes further: its members "shall adopt a written operating agreement", which may be entered into up to ninety days after the articles of organization are filed (N.Y. LLC Law § 417). For the state you formed in, read its LLC statute or ask a lawyer.

Even where it's optional, a written agreement earns its keep. Banks ask who owns the company, and some list a signed operating agreement among the documents for multi-member LLCs (Relay does, for one). With one member, it's the simplest written record that the company, not you personally, owns the business. Registate lists an Operating Agreement among its package items; pricing shows which packages include it.

Open the business bank and payment accounts

With the formation document and the EIN letter in hand, you can apply for a business account. Every US bank runs the same two baseline checks. Under the customer identification rule it collects a name, date of birth, address and an identification number; for a non-US person that number can be a passport number with its country of issue instead of an SSN (31 CFR 1020.220). Under the beneficial ownership rule it identifies each person who owns 25 percent or more of the company and one person who controls it (FinCEN).

On top of that floor, each provider sets its own rules for addresses, documents and countries. Stripe, for example, says the business name "must exactly match the legal business name registered with the IRS" (Stripe). Read the provider's page before you apply:

• US banking and payments: banks, fintech accounts and payment platforms, and what each one checks
• A business bank account without an SSN: what replaces the SSN on the form
• Provider pages: Mercury, Relay, Wise Business, Stripe and Payoneer

Registate prepares documents for these applications. It doesn't open accounts, and the bank or platform makes its own decision.

Set up a business address and mail

Your company now has two kinds of address to think about. The registered agent's address is where the state and courts deliver legal papers. The business address is where everything else goes: bank cards, IRS letters, customer post. They are different jobs, and providers treat them differently. Stripe's address checks, for example, are built to detect addresses tied to registered agents, mailbox services and virtual address services (Stripe).

A virtual mailbox gives you a street address at a commercial mail receiving agency (CMRA) with a private mailbox number. USPS requires a signed Form 1583 and two forms of ID for each mailbox before the agency can receive your mail (USPS, DMM 508). Registate's virtual mailbox handles Form 1583 online and scans, forwards and stores mail.

If a bank or platform asks for proof that the company is at an address, a mailbox alone may not be enough. Registate's proof-of-address lease asks for the formation document, the EIN letter and a photo ID, which is one more reason to finish the EIN first. Each provider still makes its own decision.

Keep the registered agent in place

You named a registered agent on the formation filing, and the state expects one every day the company exists. Wyoming says all businesses are required to "continuously maintain a registered agent" (Wyoming SOS). In Delaware, if an agent resigns and the LLC doesn't designate a new one within 30 days, the certificate of formation "shall be canceled" (6 Del. C. § 18-104).

Put the agent's renewal date on the calendar next to the state deadlines, and keep the agent's contact details current so state notices reach you. With Registate, the registered agent is included in every formation package and renews with the package.

Put the first deadlines on the calendar

State: annual report or annual tax

Each state sets its own yearly filing. For the two most common choices for non-US founders:

Our compliance calendar builds the dated list for a Delaware or Wyoming company from its formation date, and exports it to your calendar.

Federal: Form 5472 for a foreign-owned single-member LLC

A single-member LLC is disregarded for income tax by default (IRS). When that single member is a non-US person, the LLC is still treated as a corporation for Form 5472 purposes. It files a pro forma Form 1120 with only the name, address and items B and E completed, and Form 5472 attached (Form 5472 instructions). Reportable transactions include amounts paid or received in connection with the entity's formation, including contributions to it, so the first year can require a filing even if the company had no sales.

The return is due by the 15th day of the 4th month after the tax year ends, and a new company's first return covers the short period from formation (Form 1120 instructions). A foreign-owned disregarded entity can't file Form 5472 electronically, can extend with Form 7004, and faces a penalty for not filing or for not keeping the required records (IRS). Read Form 5472 and pro forma 1120 for the line-by-line view, and US tax obligations for a foreign-owned LLC if your LLC has more than one member or elected corporate treatment. Registate doesn't prepare tax returns; a US tax professional does.

BOI: where it stands

On August 11, 2026 FinCEN issued a final rule under which US companies "are no longer required to file BOI reports" (FinCEN). The rule took effect on August 14, 2026 (FinCEN Q&A). An LLC formed in a US state therefore has no BOI report to file; reporting now covers entities formed under a foreign country's law that register to do business in a US state. See BOI reporting: which companies need to file.

A checklist for the first 90 days

The order matters more than the speed: each step uses something the step before produced. Dates in the state and federal rows come from the rules above; the rest is a working order, not a legal deadline.

1. 1
   Save the filed formation documentCopy the legal name exactly as the state recorded it and use it everywhere from here on.
2. 2
   Apply for the EINOnline with an SSN or ITIN; otherwise Form SS-4 by fax or mail, or by phone if you have no US office. Scan the CP 575 when it arrives.
3. 3
   Sign the operating agreementOwnership shares, management and what happens when a member leaves. In New York, within ninety days of filing.
4. 4
   Set up the business address and mailForm 1583 and two IDs for a mailbox; keep the registered agent address for legal papers only.
5. 5
   Apply for the bank and payment accountsFormation document, EIN letter, passport and the address, with matching names on every page.
6. 6
   Write down the yearly datesState: June 1 in Delaware, the first of the formation month in Wyoming. Federal: Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120 by the 15th day of the 4th month after the tax year ends, if it applies. Agent: the renewal date.