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LLC questions - doing business in all states/world

stesta51stesta51 subscriber Posts: 1
edited July 2009 in Business Planning
Hello all - i am searched around a little on the forums...and have found bits and pieces of great info out there...but still have some questions that i was hoping could get fleshed out here.
 
I am looking into forming an LLC with 2 other individuals. Reading through the posts - it looks like the common advice is to form in your home state for convenience. (which i understand)
 
So - if our LLC plans on doing business everywhere...all states, nations, etc...reading through my home state`s LLC documentation, a "foreign" company must pay $250 to be authorized in this state for business. If you do the math...at least for the 50 U.S. states...you are in the $13,000 range (fees vary)...which is a little steeper than we were intially looking at spending.
 
I guess this leads me to wonder - is an LLC not the most optimal solution in this case?
 
Do LLCs out there skip the Certificate of Authority in other states hoping not to get caught? (as in, who checks to see if revenue flows back to a foreign LLC)
 
I am just curious how first time LLCers have handled this issue...don`t want to break any laws here...and make sure we are covered.
 
Thanks in advance for any advice!
 

Comments

  • patentandtrademarkpatentandtrademark subscriber Posts: 103
    this is an important question.  would you trust the future of your company to a person that gave you free advice on the internet? 
     
  • stesta51stesta51 subscriber Posts: 1
    Not sure how to answer that one...i think you are implying that we seek professional help...which is a tough option for us financially. (i.e. very little capital and would hope to find some pro bono work if possible)
     
    I was basically just looking to see how others handled this (LLC or S-Corp or C-Corp)...or even, did they handle it? (again, when i pressed the person at my SOS office, they had no idea how to tell where revenue was coming from...at least this person did not)
     
     
     
     
  • traveljobstraveljobs subscriber Posts: 0
    while I agree, trusting advice from a site like this is not the best idea in the world, I too had the same question. 
    If you are setting upa business in a state, you only have to file LLC paperwork in that state. You can do business with other states and countries under that LLC. It is when you establish a physical presence in another state that you would run into a problem. So if you expand into another state, and have an office there OR if you have a semi perminant sales team in another state, THEN you would need to worry about it. From the information you gave in your OP I would guess that you will be fine just filing in your home state. I would recommend you look into further on your states website. Here in Michigan all the information you need can be found by searching directly from michigan.gov , hopefully your state has similar information available.
  • stesta51stesta51 subscriber Posts: 1
    Excellent - thanks for the post!
    We will be an internet based business...with members living in two states (at the moment). So, i will look into filing in both states just to cover ourselves and the physical locations.
    I have been searching the Secretary of State sites for each state and there is a ton of good documentation there.
    Thanks again.
  • infiniqueinfinique subscriber Posts: 0 Member
    It's good to start small and a LLC is very suitable setup for you.
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