You advise a software company in Austin, coach founders in Toronto, or run workshops for a team in Berlin. They want an invoice from a business, a bank they can wire to, maybe a card link. A US LLC gives you all three without a visa or an SSN. The part most people get wrong is tax: US tax on service income follows the place you perform the work, not the client's address and not the state on your paperwork.
Pick your country to see the invoice, the checker and the home tax notes for you.
It fits when your clients sit abroad, you work from home, and you want US rails to get paid.
Say you're a supply chain consultant in Lisbon. Two of your three clients are American. One pays on a 45-day cycle and asks every quarter for "your W-9", the other wants to pay by card. Your bank charges you for every incoming wire and converts at a rate you never agreed to. That's the person this structure was made for.
The LLC itself is simple. It's a company registered in one US state, with you as the only member. For federal tax the IRS ignores it and looks straight through to you. It isn't a tax trick. It's a business wrapper your clients recognise, with a US bank account and payment tools attached.
If you sit on the left side of that table, keep reading. The next chapter turns the tax rule into numbers for your own year.
The IRS sources personal services by where they're performed. Count your days.
The US rule sits in Table 2-1 of IRS Publication 519: for business income from personal services, the factor that decides the source is where the services are performed. A nonresident is taxed in the US on US-source income and on income effectively connected with a US business. Work done at your desk abroad is neither, in the usual case. Work done on a trip to the client is US source. When a contract mixes both, Publication 519 splits self-employment income in many cases on a time basis: days you worked in the US over all the days you worked.
Rough numbers are fine. Nothing leaves this page.
Where most of your clients are An office, staff or someone signing deals for you in the US?The checker applies the IRS source and time-basis rules to the numbers you enter. It doesn't apply your tax treaty or your home country's law, and it isn't tax advice for your case.
A two-day workshop in Chicago makes those two days US income. The rest of the year stays where it was.
The IRS page on effectively connected income says foreign persons are generally engaged in a US trade or business when personal services are performed in the US. Publication 519 goes further: performing personal services in the US at any time during the tax year usually puts you in a US trade or business. Income from that work is taxed at the graduated rates, after deductions, on a Form 1040-NR.
Say you bill US$96,000 in a year and work 240 days. You spend 12 working days at client offices in New York and Chicago. On a time basis:
| Line | Working | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Total fees | All 240 days | $96,000 |
| US-source share | 12 of 240 days, 5% | $4,800 |
| Foreign-source share | 228 of 240 days, 95% | $91,200 |
| Effectively connected, reported on Form 1040-NR | Before deductions | $4,800 |
The $91,200 doesn't become US income because you also visited. And the $4,800 isn't necessarily taxed in the end: many US treaties tax a foreign resident's business profits in the US only if there is a permanent establishment there. Relying on a treaty position like that usually means filing a return anyway and disclosing it on Form 8833. Whether your treaty has that article, and whether its conditions fit you, is a question for an adviser who reads your treaty. Our double tax treaty guide explains how the articles work.
An office, staff or an agent who signs contracts for you in the US is a different matter. Activity that is "considerable, continuous and regular" in the US, in the IRS's words, can pull far more of the business into US tax. That's the line where you want a US tax adviser before you sign a lease.
A W-8BEN in your own name, an invoice from the LLC, a contract the LLC signs.
New vendors go through onboarding. A US client will usually ask for a tax form, bank details and a signed agreement. Get these three right on day one and you skip the back and forth that delays your first payment.
A single-owner LLC owned by a foreign person is disregarded, so the owner documents themselves. The W-9 instructions are blunt: the foreign owner of a disregarded entity completes a W-8 instead, even with a US tax number.
If a client sends a W-9, reply with a W-8BEN and the rule above.
The LLC's legal name, its state, its address, an invoice number, the client, a clear description of the work, and the payment details of the LLC's US account.
Never invoice in your personal name and get paid to the LLC.
The LLC is the party; you sign for it. That signature block is what keeps the contract's obligations with the company.
Add a liability cap and a place-of-work clause (chapter 06).
A line on the invoice listing any days you worked in the US costs nothing and makes the time split in chapter 03 easy to support later. Your client's payables team may also ask for the LLC's EIN confirmation and articles; both come with your New Mexico or Wyoming formation. The full form-by-form logic, including when a W-8BEN-E is right instead, is in our W-8BEN-E guide.
Clients pay the LLC's US account. You move profit to yourself when you choose.
The flow that keeps your records clean is short:
Opening the account is part of every Heirson LLC: we complete the business bank application with you, and it almost always goes through. US banks that onboard non-residents ask for your real business address, not the registered agent's, plus the EIN letter and your passport. Our US bank account guide covers what each type of bank asks.
With a US LLC and its bank account you can apply for a US Stripe account. Stripe's own rule for US companies is that a business representative without an SSN or ITIN gives a tax ID from their own country and supporting documents; once lifetime volume passes US$500,000, owners give SSN or ITIN digits. Stripe's country list shows whether you could open one at home instead.
Paying yourself is an owner's draw from the LLC account to your personal account. For the IRS it's you moving your own money. What your home country makes of it is chapter 07.
It keeps the company's debts off you. It doesn't erase your own mistakes.
Most results for this search promise the LLC "protects your personal assets" and stop there. For a consultant, the honest version matters, because your product is advice. Wyoming's LLC Act, section 17-29-304, is typical of the rule: the company's debts and obligations, whether in contract or tort, are the company's, and they don't become a member's solely because they're a member or manager.
No US tax on work done abroad usually means the profit is taxed where you live.
The US looking through the LLC doesn't mean every country does. Where you're tax resident, your own rules decide how the profit is taxed.
The US filing doesn't go away either: a foreign-owned single-member LLC files Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120 every year, even with no US income, and the IRS penalty for missing it starts at $25,000. Social contributions are another home-country matter: Publication 519 says nonresident aliens aren't subject to US self-employment tax unless a social security agreement says otherwise.
For a solo service business, the cheapest state to keep usually wins.
Your clients won't care which state the LLC is in, and neither will the IRS: federal tax is the same everywhere. What changes is the yearly cost and paperwork, and how the record looks to a bank. For someone who sells hours and expertise from abroad, that points to two states.
| State | Year one with Heirson | Every year after | Why a consultant picks it |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Mexico | $99 | $69 | No annual report and no state fee after formation. The lowest cost to keep a one-person LLC. |
| Wyoming | $181.40 | $130.44 | A long record with banks and lawyers, a short annual report and a $60 minimum license tax. |
| Delaware | $269 | $539 | Worth it mainly if investors or a large client insist; the $400 yearly tax is included at cost. |
| Florida | $254 | $207.75 | If you spend time in Florida or your clients are there. |
| Nevada | $504 | $419 | Rarely the right pick for consulting; the annual list and business licence add up. |
Prices are the totals on each state page, with state fees at cost. Forming in one state doesn't stop you working for clients anywhere in the US. The state comparison in depth is on our US LLC guide.
From $168 over two years in New Mexico, plus whatever you pay for the yearly IRS form.
Two years is the honest horizon: the first renewal is where many cheap offers make their money. The darker bar is year one, the lighter one year two.
| New Mexico, line by line | When | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| State filing fee, at cost | Year one | $50 |
| Heirson: filing, registered agent for twelve months, operating agreement, EIN without an SSN, bank application with you | Year one | $49 |
| Registered agent renewal; no state report or fee | Year two | $69 |
| Two years, everything the state and we charge | $168 | |
| Optional: we prepare Form 5472 and the pro forma 1120 | Each year | $179 |
Costs you may have on top, and that no formation price includes: a home-country accountant for your own return, professional indemnity insurance, and bank or card fees once money moves.
Most of the waiting is the EIN. The rest is a few evenings.
No. Plenty of US companies pay foreign consultants directly. The LLC earns its keep when you want a US bank account and Stripe, when clients prefer a US vendor on their books, or when you want the business kept apart from your personal accounts.
A client holding your W-8BEN treats you as a foreign person, so Form 1099 is not the form for you. Pay for days you worked in the US is US source and can be reported to you on Form 1042-S instead.
Publication 519 says nonresident aliens are not subject to self-employment tax unless a social security agreement puts them in the US system. Your home country's social contributions are a separate question.
Yes. They pay the LLC's US account by wire or card through Stripe. No US form is involved. For VAT, an EU business buying services from outside the EU usually accounts for it itself under the reverse charge.
Partly. It keeps the company's debts and contracts away from your personal assets. A claim that you personally gave negligent advice can still be brought against you as the person who did the work, so pair the LLC with a liability cap in your contracts and professional indemnity insurance.
For most solo consultants, New Mexico: no annual report and no state fee after formation, $99 in year one with Heirson. Wyoming suits you if you want the longer record with banks and lawyers, $181.40 in year one. Delaware makes sense mainly if investors or a large client insist on it.
We file the LLC, get the EIN without an SSN and open the bank account with you. You keep doing the work from where you live.
