Understanding the LLC
- What is an LLC?: what a limited liability company is, what its liability shield covers and doesn't, and how the IRS taxes one by default.
- LLC vs S corp: why S corporation status is a tax election an LLC makes, not a different company, and who qualifies.
- LLC vs sole proprietorship: the same federal tax by default, but different liability, names and yearly costs.
- LLC vs corporation: shares and a board against an operating agreement, and profit taxed twice by default against once.
- Articles of organization: the filing that creates an LLC, what it asks for, and each state's name and fee for it.
Naming the LLC
The state rejects a name it can't tell apart from one already on its register, or one missing the LLC ending, so the name comes first.
- LLC naming rules: the ending every LLC name needs, the words a state restricts or forbids, and how offices decide whether two names are distinguishable.
- How to reserve an LLC name: when holding a name before you file is worth the fee, how long a reservation lasts, and what happens when it runs out.
- LLC name generator: name ideas built from your own words, each one ready to check against your state's register.
- LLC name search by state: each state's naming rules, its official search, and a check of the name against the companies we hold there.
Checking the name against the state's own register before you file avoids the most common reason a filing comes back.
Forming it
- How to start an LLC: the steps in every state, from the registered agent to the EIN, with each state's own guide, form and filing fee, and what the first year costs in all.
- LLC operating agreement: a free agreement built for your state's LLC law, with versions for a single-member LLC and a multi-member LLC, and an amendment for changing one later.
- How to get an EIN, on our sister site: the IRS's free application, whether a single-member LLC needs its own number, and what to have ready.
Keeping it in good standing
- LLC annual reports by state: when each state's report is due, what it costs, the late penalties, and the yearly taxes some states charge beside it.
- Registered agents by state, on our sister site: what each state calls the agent, and the filing and fee to change yours.
An LLC that misses its reports loses its good standing and, in time, is dissolved by the state. Putting the due date on a calendar the day the LLC forms is the cheapest habit an owner can have.
Changing and growing it
- How to change an LLC name: the members' approval, the amendment every state files and its fee, and how to report the new name to the IRS without a new EIN.
- Foreign LLC registration: when an LLC doing business in another state has to register there, what each state calls the filing and charges for it, and what not registering costs.
Closing it
- How to dissolve an LLC: the members' decision, winding up, final taxes and the state's closing filing, with each state's form, fee and tax clearance rule.
Each guide reads its facts from the state offices' own pages and statutes, and marks anything it couldn't confirm there. Fees and forms change, so the state's own page has the final word before you file.