A US LLC for a founder abroad: Stripe Atlas, Firstbase and doola costs, and the yearly filings that carry a $25,000 penalty

You build software in Lisbon, Lagos, Toronto or Kuala Lumpur, and most of your customers pay in dollars. Sooner or later someone tells you to open a US company: Stripe works without fuss, US buyers trust an American invoice, and a business bank account is a few clicks away. All of that is true. What the formation sites say less loudly is that a US company owned by someone abroad has a yearly tax form of its own, and that missing it costs $25,000 even if the company earned nothing.

This piece puts numbers on the whole thing for a one-owner LLC: the formation packages of Stripe Atlas, Firstbase and doola as their pricing pages show them on 1 November 2026, the state fees of Delaware and Wyoming from the states' own schedules, getting an EIN without a Social Security number, the Form 5472 filing and its penalty, where the beneficial ownership report stands now, two bank accounts, and what year one and each later year add up to.

The short version

What the three formation services charge

We read each pricing page on 1 November 2026. The prices below are what the page lists; state fees are the states' own (next section).

Two details matter when you compare them. Firstbase's $99 does not include a registered agent, and every US company must have one, so the real Firstbase entry price is $99 + $299 + the state fee. And Atlas forms only in Delaware, which is the right state for a C corporation that will raise venture money but the expensive one for a small LLC (see the state table). doola's pricing page does not say whether Starter covers the Form 5472; its Tax and Compliance plan is the one that lists federal filings.

Delaware or Wyoming: the state fees

Over five years the yearly charge alone is $2,000 in Delaware against $300 in Wyoming. A founder abroad running a software business from home has no assets in Wyoming, so the $60 minimum is what applies. Delaware's annual tax for LLCs, LPs and GPs is $400 from tax year 2026 (it was $300); an LLC formed in 2026 pays its first one by 1 June 2027. Delaware still makes sense if investors ask for it, and they will usually ask for a C corporation, not an LLC, which is a different set of costs and taxes.

Getting the EIN without a Social Security number

The company needs an Employer Identification Number before Stripe, a bank or a payment platform will pay it. The IRS online application needs an SSN or ITIN, so founders abroad send Form SS-4 by one of three routes, which the IRS sets out in the SS-4 instructions:

On line 7b, where the responsible party's SSN or ITIN goes, write "foreign": the instructions say an entry is required and that is the one to use when you have neither. The formation services above file the SS-4 for you, usually by fax, and their "expedited EIN" means they handle that fax; the IRS timing is the same. If you are comfortable on an international call, the phone route is free and the fastest.

Form 5472: the filing that carries the $25,000 penalty

A single-member LLC owned by someone who is not a US person is, for income tax, a "disregarded entity": the company itself pays no federal income tax and its income is treated as the owner's. Since 2017, though, the IRS treats such an LLC as a corporation for one purpose: reporting transactions with its foreign owner. Every year it files Form 5472 attached to a pro forma Form 1120.

The penalty adds up quickly. Say the 2026 form is never sent. The IRS charges $25,000. It writes to you; you miss the letter, and four months after the 90 days are up you are at $25,000 + 4 x $25,000 = $125,000, for a company that may have taken in $30,000. The penalty is per failure, not a share of revenue, which is why it hurts small companies most. A late filing with a written reasonable-cause explanation can be relieved, but that is a request, not a right.

The trap for new companies is the word "reportable". The money you send from your personal account to pay the formation fee and open the bank account is a contribution from the foreign owner. So is paying the company's software bills from your own card, and so is moving profit from the company account to yourself. Almost every foreign-owned LLC has a reportable transaction in its first year, so plan to file from the first April after you form.

Filing it yourself

1. Keep a list through the year of every transfer between you and the company: date, amount, direction, what it was for. Your bank statements are enough if the company has its own account.

2. Fill the pro forma Form 1120: company name, address, EIN, and items B and E on page 1. Write "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" across the top.

3. Fill Form 5472: Part I for the company, Part II for you as the foreign owner (countries of citizenship, residence and business), Part III for you as the related party, Part IV with the totals of what moved between you and the company, and Part V for the contributions and distributions the instructions list.

4. Fax both forms together to 855-887-7737 before 15 April, or fax Form 7004 to the same number by then and send the return by 15 October. Keep the fax confirmation page: it is your proof of filing on time.

A preparer charges for this as part of a full return: Firstbase lists $899 a year for a non-US-owned single-member LLC, and doola's plan with tax filings is $1,999 a year. For a business with one bank account the forms run to a handful of pages.

Beneficial ownership (BOI): no longer needed for a US LLC

In 2024 every new US company had to report its owners to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act, and many formation services still sell a "BOI filing". After an interim rule in March 2025, FinCEN issued a final rule on 11 August 2026, in force from 14 August 2026, which makes the exemption permanent: companies formed in the US do not report beneficial ownership. Only companies formed abroad that register to do business in a US state still report. A Wyoming or Delaware LLC owned by a founder abroad is formed in the US, so it files nothing with FinCEN. Do not pay for a BOI filing, and ignore emails asking for one: FinCEN says it does not ask for payment or send penalty notices by email.

The bank account

Mercury opens accounts for US companies with owners abroad, but not for residents of every country, and its approval looks at whether the business looks real: a website, a product, a description of who pays you. Apply once the EIN letter arrives; a rejected application is easier to avoid than to appeal. Wise is the usual second account: it gives the company USD details to receive ACH payments and lets you move money home at a close-to-market rate. Many founders keep both, Mercury for Stripe payouts and bills, Wise for paying themselves.

What it adds up to

The table shows the cost of the company itself for year one (formation, first agent year, EIN) and for every later year (agent and state charge), then five years with five Form 5472 returns, either done yourself (DIY) or by a paid preparer at Firstbase's listed $899. The Wyoming state fee is taken as $100 in the packages; doola's state fee is paid through doola at the state's price.

The spread between the cheapest and the most expensive route is about $9,800 over five years for the same company, and most of it is the tax return, not the formation. If you are comfortable with forms, the do-it-yourself Wyoming route plus your own fax each April costs under $100 a year after the first. If you are not, the honest comparison is between a preparer you choose and a package that bundles one, not between the $99 and $500 entry prices.

Two costs are not in the table because they do not depend on the route. One is your home country's tax on the profit: a disregarded LLC's income is usually taxed where you live, and some countries treat a US LLC as a company, which changes how. The other is US sales tax, which can apply to a software company with no US staff once its sales into a state pass that state's threshold. Our article on sales tax on software subscriptions has the state thresholds, and if you sell to Europe too, see EU VAT for a non-EU software company.

A calendar for the year

Put these dates in your calendar on the day you form the company, with a reminder two weeks before each. The ones people miss are the IRS form, because nothing arrives to remind you, and the state charge in the second year, because the formation package paid for the first.

Sources

Pricing pages read 1 November 2026: Stripe Atlas, Firstbase pricing, doola pricing, Wyoming Agents ($103 state fee + $25 agent + filing = $153), Mercury pricing, Wise Business pricing; Delaware Division of Corporations: LLC, LP and GP tax instructions ($400, due 1 June, $200 penalty + 1.5% a month); Delaware fee schedule (August 2026); Wyoming Secretary of State: Business Division fee schedule, effective 1 July 2026 ($100 articles, $60 or $0.0002 license tax, $100 and $350 reinstatement); IRS: Instructions for Form SS-4 (international applicants: phone, fax, post, line 7b); IRS: Instructions for Form 5472 (foreign-owned U.S. DE, pro forma 1120, Form 7004, fax 855-887-7737, $25,000 penalties); FinCEN: Beneficial Ownership Information (March 2025 interim final rule, 11 August 2026 final rule in force 14 August 2026). The totals and the penalty example are our own sums from these figures. This is a cost guide, not tax advice: your home country's treatment of a US LLC decides what you owe there, so ask a tax adviser where you live before you form.