Yes. A non-US resident can own a US LLC with no Social Security number, no visa, and no US address; no state requires citizenship or residency to form one. Wyoming ($100 to file), New Mexico ($50), and Delaware ($110) are the standard choices, and the IRS issues an EIN to foreign owners by fax or phone using Form SS-4. A single-member LLC with no US trade or business owes no US income tax, but it must still file Form 5472 every year. Skipping that one form costs $25,000.
Key takeaways:
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A US LLC (limited liability company) is a state-level legal entity, and no US state restricts LLC ownership by citizenship or residency. A founder in Lagos, Kraków, or São Paulo can own 100% of a Wyoming LLC without ever entering the United States. At Anna Money, where we served 60,000+ small businesses, I watched founders run exactly this setup to take Stripe payments and invoice American clients; the ones who got burned always missed a filing, not a tax.
To form the LLC you need three things:
You do not need a US bank account, a US phone number, or a US mailing address to complete the formation itself. Those come later, and the banking step is the one with real friction, covered below.
Wyoming is the default choice for most non-resident founders, New Mexico is the cheapest, and Delaware only earns its fee when US investors are on your roadmap. If your LLC will have a real physical presence in a specific state (an office, inventory, employees), form it there instead; the three states below are for location-independent businesses run from abroad.
| Factor (2026) | Wyoming | New Mexico | Delaware |
|---|---|---|---|
| State filing fee | $100 | $50 | $110 |
| Annual cost | $60 minimum license tax, with annual report | $0 — no annual report exists | $300 flat annual tax |
| Annual deadline | First day of your anniversary month | None | June 1 (late penalty $200 + 1.5%/month interest) |
| Members on public record | No | No | No |
| State income tax on the LLC | None (no state income tax) | None if you have no New Mexico operations | None if you have no Delaware operations |
| Best for | Most non-resident founders | Lowest lifetime cost | Founders planning US venture investment |
Fee sources: Wyoming Secretary of State fee schedule, New Mexico Secretary of State, Delaware Division of Corporations.
Wyoming's annual license tax is $60 or $0.0002 per dollar of assets located in Wyoming, whichever is greater; for a non-resident with no in-state assets, that means $60 a year. New Mexico wins on pure cost because it never bills you again after the $50 filing, though fewer banks and payment processors recognize it on sight. Delaware's $300-a-year franchise tax buys legal prestige that matters to venture capital funds, not to a freelancer invoicing US clients; most non-residents who pick Delaware "because startups do" are paying $240 a year extra for nothing.
None of the three states list LLC members in the public formation filing, so your name stays off the public record in all of them. New Mexico goes furthest, since there is no annual report to sign at all.
Step-by-step formation walkthroughs: Wyoming, New Mexico, Delaware. To compare all 50 states, use the best state to form an LLC tool, and model ongoing costs with the state calculators (WY, NM, DE).
The IRS issues EINs to foreign owners with no SSN or ITIN; you simply cannot use the online application. An EIN (Employer Identification Number) is the nine-digit federal tax ID your LLC needs for banking, payment processors, and its own IRS filings, and it is free directly from the IRS.
Per the Form SS-4 instructions (Rev. December 2025), an applicant with no legal residence or principal place of business in any US state must apply one of three ways:
On line 7b, where the form asks for the responsible party's SSN or ITIN, the instructions direct you to write "Foreign" if the responsible party is ineligible for either number. That single word is the entire "EIN without SSN" trick; no third-party service is required. Our Form SS-4 line-by-line guide walks through every other field.
The EIN belongs to your LLC; an ITIN belongs to you personally, and most non-resident LLC owners never need one. The ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) is a nine-digit personal tax ID for people who must appear in the US tax system but cannot get an SSN.
| EIN | ITIN | |
|---|---|---|
| Identifies | The LLC (entity) | You (individual) |
| Application | Form SS-4, free, days | Form W-7, usually filed with a tax return, ~7+ weeks |
| Every non-resident owner needs it? | Yes | No — only with a personal US filing obligation |
| Common triggers | Banking, Stripe, Form 5472 | Filing Form 1040-NR, claiming a treaty benefit, some fintech KYC checks |
You need an ITIN only when you personally must file a US return (for example, Form 1040-NR because your LLC earned effectively connected income) or when a specific institution demands one, as Relay currently does. Full application details are in our ITIN guide for non-US founders.
Yes, remotely, through US fintechs; traditional branch banks still generally require an in-person visit. The realistic options as of July 2026:
| Provider (as of July 2026) | Non-resident policy | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| Mercury | Accepts non-resident founders of US LLCs, no SSN required, case-by-case approval; some countries of residence are not supported | US LLC, EIN, passport |
| Relay | Requires an SSN or ITIN from applicants after tightening rules in 2026; contact support before applying without one | US LLC, EIN, SSN/ITIN |
| Wise Business | Not a bank; provides USD account details (ACH routing + account number) that work for Stripe, Amazon, and client payments; broad country coverage; no FDIC insurance | US LLC, EIN, passport |
Every provider runs KYC (know-your-customer) review, and approval depends on your country of residence, business model, and documentation. A common pattern is to start with Wise for receiving USD, then add Mercury once the business has activity to show. Whatever you open, keep the account exclusively for LLC transactions; mixing personal spending through the company account creates exactly the reportable-transaction mess that makes Form 5472 painful.
A single-member LLC owned by one foreign person is a "disregarded entity" for US tax purposes: the LLC itself pays no federal income tax, and the owner owes US income tax only on income effectively connected with a US trade or business. If your LLC has no US trade or business, your business profit is taxed in your home country, not in the United States.
Effectively connected income (ECI) is income tied to running a US trade or business (USTOB): regular, continuous business activity physically carried on inside the United States, per the IRS ECI definition. Serving US clients from your home country does not, by itself, create a USTOB; what matters is activity in the US, such as an office, inventory or employees there, or a dependent agent who habitually concludes contracts for you on US soil. A designer in Portugal billing New York clients through a Wyoming LLC typically has no ECI and files no US income tax return; the same designer who hires a US-based salesperson closing deals likely does, and then Form 1040-NR (plus an ITIN) enters the picture. The line is fact-specific, tax treaties can move it, and this is the one question worth paying a cross-border tax advisor to answer for your exact setup.
Two supporting mechanics: US clients or platforms that ask for a tax form should receive Form W-8BEN from you (the individual owner, since the LLC is disregarded; a foreign company owning the LLC provides Form W-8BEN-E instead), which certifies foreign status so they do not report you as a US person. And US-source passive income (dividends, certain royalties and interest, called FDAP income) follows a separate 30% withholding regime that treaties often reduce; that regime exists independent of your LLC.
"No US tax" never means "no US paperwork." Every foreign-owned single-member US LLC has a mandatory annual IRS filing, and the penalty for missing it is the single most expensive mistake in this entire topic.
| Obligation | Deadline | Cost of skipping |
|---|---|---|
| Form 5472 + pro-forma Form 1120 (IRS) | April 15 (extendable to Oct 15 via Form 7004) | $25,000 automatic penalty |
| Wyoming annual report | First day of anniversary month | Administrative dissolution |
| Delaware annual franchise tax ($300) | June 1 | $200 penalty + 1.5%/month interest |
| New Mexico | No annual report | — |
| Form 1040-NR (owner) | Only if you have ECI or claim treaty benefits | Penalties + lost treaty claims |
Since 2017, a foreign-owned single-member US LLC must file Form 5472 attached to a pro-forma Form 1120 reporting its transactions with you and other related parties; even wiring your own money in as a capital contribution counts as a reportable transaction. Failure to file triggers an automatic $25,000 penalty under IRC §6038A. The mechanics, the reportable-transaction list, and the penalty-abatement path get a full walkthrough in our Form 5472 guide for foreign-owned LLCs. For how a disregarded LLC is taxed generally, see the single-member LLC tax guide.
BOI reporting is no longer your problem. Under FinCEN's interim final rule of March 2025, companies formed in the United States, including your Wyoming, New Mexico, or Delaware LLC, are exempt from beneficial ownership information reporting. Only entities formed under foreign law that register to do business in a US state still file. Plenty of 2024-era articles still say every LLC must report; that guidance is outdated.
Tomasz, a web designer in Kraków, forms a Wyoming LLC to invoice US startups in dollars. His year-one numbers: $100 Wyoming filing fee, $99 registered agent, $0 for the EIN (Form SS-4 faxed to 304-707-9471; EIN back in four days), and a Wise Business account for USD invoicing. He works entirely from Poland with no US office, employees, or agents, so he has no US trade or business, no ECI, and no US income tax return of his own. His two recurring US obligations: the $60 Wyoming annual report each year in his anniversary month, and Form 5472 with a pro-forma 1120 faxed to the IRS by April 15 reporting his capital contributions and owner draws. Total recurring US cost: $159 a year plus his own bookkeeping discipline. His design profits are taxed once, in Poland.
Assuming no tax means no filings. The $25,000 Form 5472 penalty does not care that you owed zero tax. The filing is mandatory precisely because the IRS otherwise has no visibility into the entity.
Paying an "EIN service" $200+ or borrowing someone's SSN. The IRS issues EINs to foreign owners free by fax or phone, and listing someone else as the responsible party misstates who controls the company on a federal form.
Missing Delaware's June 1 franchise tax. The $300 becomes $500-plus immediately ($200 penalty plus interest), and repeated non-payment voids the LLC's good standing.
Applying to Relay without an ITIN in 2026. Requirements tightened this year; without an SSN or ITIN you will likely stall in onboarding. Start with providers that accept a passport alone.
Following 2024 BOI advice. US-formed LLCs stopped being FinCEN reporting companies in March 2025. Paying a compliance mill to file a report you do not owe wastes money and shares your data for nothing.
Form 5472 reports the money that moved between you and your LLC, so a non-resident founder's real job is keeping that ledger clean all year. Jupid is an AI accountant that lives in WhatsApp and iMessage: connect the LLC's US bank or fintech account and every transaction is categorized automatically at 95.9% accuracy, with owner contributions and draws kept separate from client revenue and business spend. Ask "how much did I put into the company this year?" in chat and the answer arrives in seconds, in the exact shape your April filing needs. Try Jupid
This guide is for general educational purposes and does not constitute tax, legal, or immigration advice. Whether your activity creates a US trade or business, and how your home country taxes a US LLC, are fact-specific questions. Consult a qualified cross-border tax professional before relying on any structure described here.
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Fintech CEO with 10+ years building accounting and financial technology products. Previously co-founded and scaled an AI-powered accounting platform to $30M revenue and 100K+ business users, achieving 30,000 customers per accountant through automation — recognized by CNBC as a top fintech company. Holds a Master's in Management Information Systems. At Jupid, he leads the development of AI-native bookkeeping, tax, and compliance tools designed for freelancers and small business owners.
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