Startups: How to Decide Where to Register the Company?

My clients, a married couple, recently started a new consulting business and were anxious to do everything correctly. In their eagerness to get started, they fell prey to the current fad and registered their LLC in Nevada.

Now I had to give them some bad news: they also have to register as a foreign LLC in Georgia because that’s where their company is actually based.

Foreign qualification is required for any state in which the company is physically located or receives a significant amount of revenue. This means that, besides the filing fees and annual fees they already paid to the State of Nevada, they’ll need to pay filing fees and annual fees to the State of Georgia. And they’ll have continuing tax liability in both states.

In their case, registering in Nevada was totally unnecessary.

If you’re planning to start a new business in the new year, give me a call for some professional help with the decision on where to register the company.