LLC & Trust State Planner

Forming in DE, WY, or NV does not avoid state taxes where you actually operate. If your LLC has an office, employees, inventory, or real property in another state — or meets that state’s economic-nexus threshold — you must register as a foreign LLC there and pay its franchise/income taxes too. The cheapest formation state is rarely the only state you owe.

Every state requires a registered agent with a physical street address in that state (no P.O. boxes) during business hours. You can be your own agent in your home state, but you’ll need a commercial agent in every foreign state where you register. Using a formation service or statutory agent keeps your address off public records and avoids missed-service default judgments.

A single-member LLC is a disregarded entity by default — profit flows to your personal return and is subject to self-employment tax. Electing S-Corp status (Form 2553) lets you split salary and distributions, potentially saving SE tax once profit clears roughly $60–80k after a defensible reasonable salary. Multi-member LLCs default to partnership taxation (Form 1065).

Under FinCEN's interim final rule effective March 26, 2025, entities created in the United States, including US-formed LLCs, and their beneficial owners no longer have to file Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reports or update earlier ones. BOI reporting now applies only to companies formed under foreign law that register to do business in a US state; they generally file within 30 days of their registration becoming effective and do not report US-person owners. Check FinCEN's BOI page for the current rules before relying on this.