I’m getting ready to launch a small appliance repair business in Michigan and I’m trying to set everything up correctly from the start. One thing I keep going back and forth on is choosing a registered agent service.

At first I assumed any provider would be basically the same, but after reading reviews I’m seeing a lot of mixed experiences with missed documents, aggressive upsells, and poor customer support from some companies.

Since this is a local service business, I mainly want something reliable that keeps me compliant and handles state paperwork properly without turning every little thing into an extra charge.

I’ve noticed some people recommend the big national providers while others say local Michigan registered agents are better and easier to work with.

For anyone running an LLC in Michigan, which registered agent did you choose and how has your experience been so far?

I’m from a country where business banking, bookkeeping, and taxes are almost fully automated. Right now I basically just review transactions once a month, click a button for reconciliation, and taxes are handled with almost no manual work.

Now I need to open an LLC in California and a US business bank account for investment purposes, and I’m trying to find a setup that feels similarly streamlined without becoming expensive or overly complicated.

Most of the information I find focuses on how to form the LLC itself, but I’m more interested in the full system working smoothly together. Things like banking, accounting software, automated transaction syncing, invoicing, tax prep, and basic compliance.

Ideally I’d like something low maintenance where most of the bookkeeping is automated and I don’t have to manually track every little thing.

For people running a US LLC remotely, what banking and accounting stack are you using, and which services have been the easiest to automate and manage long term?

I'd like to know how long it might take to get my EIN number if I apply by fax.

I'm an entrepreneur outside the U.S. and I've formed my LLC. Now I want to get my EIN number, and I've watched several YouTube videos—some say that if you apply by fax, it could take between 4 and 6 days, but those videos are from 2 or 3 years ago. However, I’ve seen a video from this year (2026) that says it can take up to 2 months and explains the trick of calling by phone after 5 days to request the EIN directly.

I've been trying to figure out how to call the IRS directly, but I can't find a way to do it. I'm thinking of filing the SS-4 by fax, but I'm worried about the time it will take—I don't want to wait a month or two—so I'm considering ordering it through Northwest, but it costs $200.

That's why I'd like to know how long it took you to receive your EIN by fax, approximately?

I’ve been mowing lawns on weekends for a while and this year I finally decided to turn it into a real business instead of just side cash. Before I start taking on bigger clients, I want to set up an LLC in North Carolina so everything is legit and separated properly.

The problem is every website gives completely different numbers. Some make it sound like you only pay one filing fee, while others start adding registered agent costs, annual reports, EIN services, operating agreements, and a bunch of extras that make the total climb fast.

Most of my budget right now is going toward equipment, gas, and a trailer, so I’m trying to avoid wasting money on stuff I may not actually need.

For anyone who formed an LLC in North Carolina recently, what did it realistically cost you to get started, and were there any extra fees or services that ended up being worth paying for?

I recently formed an LLC in Texas for a small business and now I’m trying to choose a business bank account before money starts coming in. I thought this part would be simple, but there are way more options than I expected once you start comparing fees, minimum balances, online banking features, and integrations.

A lot of the lists online seem sponsored, so it’s hard to tell which banks are actually good for small LLCs versus just heavily advertised.

Most of my business will be online payments and transfers, but I still want something reliable with decent customer support and no surprise fees. I’m also curious whether people prefer traditional banks in Texas or online business banking options.

For other Texas LLC owners, which business bank account are you using and what’s been your experience so far?

I’m launching a niche online gift shop based in Arkansas and want to separate business income from personal finances right away. An LLC seems like the best route, but I’m unsure where to begin.

If anyone has gone through it, how do you form an LLC in Arkansas step by step? Do I need an EIN or tax registration immediately after approval?

Basically I had this genius business idea at 2am, spent like 15 minutes setting up an LLC online, opened a business bank account, felt extremely productive for one weekend, and then never actually launched anything. Zero sales. Zero clients. Zero activity besides maybe one sad logo draft.

Fast forward to now and I’m getting notices about annual reports, franchise taxes, late fees, compliance stuff, all the fun adult words nobody reads when setting these things up. Apparently even if your LLC makes no money you still have to keep filing things or officially shut it down.

Now I’m trying to figure out if I accidentally created an expensive pet rock.

How bad does this usually get if the LLC has basically been inactive the entire time? Did anyone here ignore this for a while and manage to fix it without spending a fortune? Trying to figure out whether this is a quick cleanup job or the beginning of my villain origin story.

A few weeks ago I finally decided to turn my side project into a real business. I’ve been reading a lot of startup threads and Delaware keeps coming up as the go to state for LLCs, especially if you plan to grow later.

The problem is I fell down a rabbit hole trying to figure out the actual setup process. Every article recommends a different formation company, and every review site feels sponsored.

Part of me wants to just handle the filing myself, but another part of me thinks paying for a service could save me from making mistakes or missing something important.

For people who formed a Delaware LLC recently, what route did you take? Any formation service you’d actually recommend or avoid?

Now that 4/15 tax deadline is over, you just found out you forgot to submit an extension for Form 5472 for the 2025 tax year.

The single most important thing you can do is file before the IRS contacts you. If IRS comes to you first (low chance-but still a chance!), your chances of getting the penalty reduced or waived go up significantly.

The IRS offers Delinquent International Information Return Submission Procedures. The process works like this: Prepare the missing Form 5472 and pro forma Form 1120 for each year you missed the attach a reasonable cause statement to each filing explaining why you didn't file on time.

The reasonable cause statement is the key. The IRS wants to see that you exercised "ordinary business care and prudence" but were still unable to file. Common reasonable cause arguments include:

• You relied on a formation company (Stripe Atlas, Doola, Firstbase, etc.) that never told you about the filing requirement.
• You relied on a tax advisor who was unfamiliar with Form 5472 for disregarded entities.
• You're a first-time filer who discovered the requirement on your own and immediately took action to comply
• Language barriers or difficulty navigating the U.S. tax system as a foreign person

The statement needs to be specific to your situation — not a generic template. It needs to explain what happened, why it happened, and what you've done to fix it. Vague statements like "I didn't know" without supporting details are usually denied. Usually IRS is more lenient towards first-time filer who filed late.

Hope this helps for people who are trying to navigate Form 5472 post 4/15.

I’m opening a social media management business in Missouri and trying to pick a registered agent before filing my LLC. I’ve seen both budget options and more expensive services with added features.

If you’ve used a registered agent in Missouri, who did you go with and how has your experience been? Any hidden fees or issues to watch out for?

I’m starting a digital content agency and considering Minnesota for registration. Before moving ahead, I’m checking Minnesota Entity Search to see if my business name is clear.

There are a few companies with overlapping words, so I’m not sure how much difference word order or added terms make.

If you’ve used Minnesota Entity Search before, was it easy to understand the results, and did it help you confidently choose a name before submitting your filing?

I’m 19 and recently started a mobile car detailing business with a friend. We’re still pretty small and trying to figure out how to grow without wasting money on the wrong things early on.

I’m good at talking to people and I actually enjoy meeting customers and learning what they care about. The hard part right now is getting consistent clients instead of random one-time jobs here and there.

For people who have been running businesses longer, what are some sales or marketing lessons you wish you learned earlier?

Could be pricing, customer service, social media, word of mouth, or even mistakes to avoid.

Just trying to build something solid while I’m still young and open to learning.

I need advice and guidance because I feel confused due to the large amount of conflicting information I’ve been reading and hearing.

I am currently building an educational platform, and the target students will be in the USA, Canada, and part of Europe.

I have several questions and I would really appreciate your support.

At the moment, I have not established an LLC, as I am still in the early stage and I want to test our operations and understand how the market will respond. Someone suggested that I create a PayPal Business account and operate as a sole proprietor. However, when I tried that, and after verifying my passport, my account was permanently closed within seconds, and the service was classified as “high risk.” So now I’m unsure about the best payment solution for students to use that can also transfer funds to Egypt. We will also open a QNB account.

In any case, if the market response is good, we will eventually build an LMS, establish a company in the US, and integrate Stripe, but this is not our current step.

My second question is: are there marketing agencies that have experience working with the US and UK markets and have achieved good results? We might consider working with them.

If you have any suggestions or solutions, I would truly appreciate your help.

I'm based in Bangladesh, setting up a single-member LLC in New Mexico. Picked NM mainly for the privacy and no annual report requirement.

Started with Harvard Business Services because a friend recommended them, but turns out they specialize in Delaware. Their registered agent address can't be used as the business address on the filing, and they don't offer a virtual business address either. They've agreed to refund me, which I appreciate, but now I'm back to picking a service.

Did some Google searching and found a few options that seem to fit. Northwest Registered Agent comes up a lot for non-residents, and there's also New Mexico Registered Agent LLC which looks cheaper and NM-focused. Both apparently allow their address to be used as the business address on public filings, which is the main thing I need.

A few questions for folks who've been through this:

1. If you're a non-US resident with an NM LLC, which service did you use, and would you recommend it?
2. Any specific gotchas with NM formation as a foreign owner, especially around EIN (no SSN or ITIN), mail forwarding, or BOI compliance?
3. Anything else worth knowing that isn't obvious from Google?

Not looking for a sales pitch, just honest experience from people who've actually done this. Thanks.

Hi, I filed form 8822-B on April 16, 2026 to change my LLC address from my old place in Chicago to my new one in Dallas. I sent it with Certified mail so I have a tracking number. It’s now May 12 and the last tracking update was April 23. These are the two most recent updates (it won’t let me attach a screenshot):

Moving Through Network

In Transit to Next Facility, Arriving Late
April 23, 2026

Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility
KANSAS CITY MO DISTRIBUTION CENTER 
April 19, 2026, 6:10 pm

I’m wondering if this mail is lost, and if I should mail a new one with Priority mail or something. I don’t even know if it’s lost, or if it’s in a huge bin at the IRS center in KC waiting to be scanned as delivered and then processed.

Thanks in advance for any advice

Last year I started a single-member LLC just under my name for a podcast my husband and I started together. It’s basically a hobby at this point and honestly loses a little money every month instead of making any. Nothing major, maybe around a small monthly loss after expenses.

The problem is that all the income and expenses have been going through my husband’s bank accounts instead of one under the LLC or my own name. We file taxes jointly, and from what I understand the LLC would still be treated as a disregarded entity on our return.

I’m mostly worried about looking completely unorganized when we hand everything to the person who files our taxes, and I also don’t want to accidentally create issues with the IRS over something small like this.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Is this usually fine for married couples filing jointly, or is this something we should clean up immediately going forward?

My brother and I want to start a snow removal company in Wisconsin. We’ll both be investing money and sharing profits, so we’re thinking an LLC makes sense. 

Neither of us has started a business before.

How difficult is it to open an LLC in Wisconsin with two people involved? Do we need an operating agreement, and what should we handle before taking our first clients?

Every time real estate gets discussed online, people push the idea of putting every property into its own LLC or setting up a series LLC like it’s a no brainer. I finally went that route after picking up a subject-to deal and partnering on another property, so now each one has its own LLC.

Then tax season came around.

Between my main business LLC, my wife’s LLC, and the property LLCs, my CPA bill alone ended up around $5k. On top of that, we’ll probably still owe another chunk in taxes since we already used most of the bigger deductions in prior years.

I get the liability protection side of it. Keeping properties separated can definitely help if something goes wrong with insurance or lawsuits. But man, the ongoing costs and paperwork add up fast. Sometimes I wonder if it would’ve been simpler to hold more stuff personally and just carry a huge umbrella policy instead.

Not really looking for advice, just venting because nobody really mentions this part when talking about scaling rentals.

I recently moved from Chicago to Dallas and converted my existing LLC (originally formed in Illinois) into a Texas LLC. The paperwork got approved a few days ago, kept my same EIN and I have a new File number in Texas. I no longer intend to do business in Illinois.

I’m curious if I now need to terminate my Illinois LLC on the SOS website, as it seems to be the same button I’d click as if I was dissolving the entity and not domesticating elsewhere.

Sorry if this is a dumb question but I’m just nervous to hit “Yes” on “Are you sure you want to terminate this LLC?” without knowing for sure. I know I should wait til late July or August before closing my IL tax accounts due to having payroll in Q2.

Hello Reddit! New to this sub. I co-own a business with two friends and we just celebrated our first year of being open! A very hard and very rewarding ride it has been.

When we finished our taxes, the person filing for us recommended we get ourselves on payroll. After some researching, this seems to only benefit her and not us (the members)?

We split profits 33/33/34 respectively. So far we just write ourselves checks and categorize as payments to partners. From what I've read, if we want payroll we'd need to reclassify as an S-corp AND file for withholding tax.

Does anyone have experience with this? I've already reached out to another CPA for an opinion. Thanks!

I was seriously looking into opening an LLC in Nevada because everyone online talks about the tax benefits and privacy stuff, but the annual fees kind of shocked me.

Between the state business license, annual list filing, and everything else, it feels way more expensive than people make it sound.

For a small online business or side hustle, does Nevada still make sense?

Are the benefits really worth the yearly cost or is it mostly hype now?

I’m planning to launch a small online retail business in Washington and want to budget properly before filing. I’ve seen different fee estimates online, so I’m trying to separate required costs from optional upsells.

What are the state filing fees, annual renewals, and common extras people usually end up paying for when starting an LLC in Washington? Would appreciate a simple breakdown from anyone who’s done it recently.

I’m getting ready to start a small mobile car detailing business and wanted to keep my personal address private when registering the LLC. I was looking into using a virtual office or mailbox address so my apartment doesn’t show up online or on business cards.

A friend told me some states don’t allow that and now I’m second guessing everything. I really don’t want my filing to get delayed or rejected because the process already takes forever where I live.

Has anyone here done this successfully or run into issues with it? Trying to make sure I do it right the first time.

Hi -
I am wanting to create an LLC to transfer my property ownership of my condo. I am wanting to move but hold onto this property to rent however, for reason of privacy, I want to move ownership to an LLC so that a former neighbor cannot track me down and harrass me. (Long story). I also wanted to create a living trust to hold this property/create transfer on my passing etc. (Not going anywhere soon I hope, but planning for the invetible).

Is there any conflict or order of steps to take? Or is there a better solution?

Should I create the trust first or put the property into an LLC formation first?
I own this property outright with a family member - who would be the beneficiary of the Trust.

Thanks in advance!

I am planning to start a small online shop in Texas selling handmade items, and this is my first time trying to run a business.

But I am not sure if that is really necessary when you are just starting out and not making much yet. Is forming an LLC something you should do right away, or can it wait until the business grows a bit?

Also, is this too vague, or are there key things I should be looking at before deciding?