Formation

Filing a company here takes sixty seconds and creates a token. Filing one in the real world takes an afternoon and creates a legal person — something that can hold a bank account, sign a lease, owe taxes, and be sued instead of you. This is how that second one works.

This is the real one

This page is general information for forming a business in the United States, not legal or tax advice. Requirements and fees differ by state and change over time. Every step below links to the official source; use it rather than trusting a summary, including this one.

The order matters

These four filings depend on each other, and doing them out of order means redoing them. The dependency chain is genuinely rigid:

You cannot get an EIN for a company that does not exist yet, and no bank will open an account without both the formation documents and the EIN. The D-U-N-S comes last because it describes a business that already has an address and a trading history to describe.

1 · Articles of Incorporation

What it is

The document that brings the company into existence. You file it with a state — usually the Secretary of State — and when the state accepts it, a new legal person exists that did not exist before.

The name depends on the entity type, and people mix these up constantly:

• Corporation — Articles of Incorporation (sometimes called a Certificate of Incorporation, e.g. in Delaware).
• LLC — Articles of Organization. Different document, same role. If you are forming an LLC and a website hands you "articles of incorporation", you are on the wrong form.

Why it is worth doing

The entity becomes a separate legal person from you. That separation is the whole point, and it is what gives you:

• Limited liability. Business debts and lawsuits generally reach the company's assets, not your house. This protection is conditional — see common traps.
• The ability to contract as a business. Leases, vendor accounts, and client contracts can be signed by the company.
• A structure for ownership. Shares or membership units, so more than one person can own part of it without a handshake.
• Continuity. The company survives you leaving it.

How to file it

1. Check the name is available. Every state runs a free business name search. The name must be distinguishable from existing registrations and usually must carry a designator — Inc., Corporation, LLC, L.L.C.
2. Pick the state. For most small businesses this is simply the state you operate in. Forming in Delaware and operating elsewhere means registering as a foreign entity in your home state too — two sets of fees and two annual filings. It is worth it for companies raising institutional money and rarely worth it otherwise.
3. Name a registered agent. A person or service with a physical street address in that state who accepts legal mail during business hours. It can be you if you live there and do not mind your address being public record.
4. Complete the form. Typically: company name, registered agent and address, principal office, purpose, the incorporator's name, and — for a corporation — the number of authorized shares and their par value.
5. Pay and file. Most states file online. Fees vary from around fifty dollars to several hundred depending on the state and entity type; check the state's current schedule rather than any figure quoted elsewhere.
6. Keep the stamped copy. The state returns a filed and stamped document. The bank will ask for it. Do not lose it.

2 · Employer Identification Number

What it is

A nine-digit federal tax identification number issued by the IRS, formatted 12-3456789. It is the company's equivalent of a Social Security number, and it identifies the business to the IRS, to banks, and to anyone who has to file a 1099 against it.

Why it is worth doing

• You cannot open a business bank account without one. In practice this is the reason most people get it.
• It keeps your SSN off paperwork. Without an EIN, sole proprietors hand their Social Security number to every client who needs a W-9. An EIN replaces it.
• It is required to hire anyone or to run payroll.
• Corporations and multi-member LLCs need one regardless, because they file their own returns.

How to file it

1. Form the entity first. The application asks for the legal name and formation date. Getting an EIN before the state approves your articles creates a mismatch you will have to correct later.
2. Identify the responsible party. A real human who controls the entity, with their own SSN or ITIN. Not a company, not a nominee.
3. Apply online (Form SS-4). The session is not saveable and times out, so have the details ready. The online tool runs on weekdays during posted hours rather than continuously.
4. Save the confirmation letter — the CP 575. It is issued once. Banks ask for it and the IRS does not casually reissue it.

Applicants without a US taxpayer ID cannot use the online tool and apply by fax or by phone through the international line instead. One EIN is issued per responsible party per day.

3 · The business bank account

Why it is not optional

Running company money through a personal account is the single most common way people lose the liability protection they just paid to create. If your finances and the company's are the same pile, an opposing lawyer will argue the company was never really separate — and courts agree often enough that the argument has a name: piercing the corporate veil.

The separate account also makes bookkeeping, taxes, and any future audit dramatically less painful, and it is where business credit history begins.

What to bring

That ownership question is not the bank being nosy. Federal rules require banks to identify the humans behind a business customer before opening the account, so expect names, addresses, dates of birth and ID numbers for each beneficial owner.

Choosing one

• Monthly fees and how to waive them — usually a minimum balance or a minimum number of transactions.
• Transaction and cash-deposit limits, which bite hardest on retail and cash-heavy businesses.
• Whether they will lend to you later. A bank that already sees your deposit history is the easiest place to get a first line of credit.
• Integration with your bookkeeping, which sounds minor and saves hours every month.

Open the account as soon as the EIN arrives, then move every business dollar through it from day one. Retroactively separating commingled finances is far harder than never commingling them.

4 · The D-U-N-S number

What it is

A nine-digit identifier issued by Dun & Bradstreet, a private company — not a government agency. It keys your business credit file, the way a Social Security number keys a consumer credit file.

What it is actually for

• Business credit. The D-U-N-S file is where trade references and payment history accumulate into a score — D&B's is called PAYDEX and is based on whether you pay suppliers on time.
• Getting taken seriously by suppliers. Vendors offering net-30 terms frequently check it before extending credit.
• Some corporate and international onboarding, where a large customer's procurement system expects one.
• Apple's developer program requires one for organization accounts, which is how many small software companies first encounter it.

How to get one

1. Check whether you already have one. D&B creates files about businesses without being asked. Search their lookup tool before applying.
2. Apply free, directly with D&B. They offer a no-cost route; it is not always the most prominent button on the page. Expedited processing is the paid product.
3. Have the basics ready — legal name, physical address (not a PO box), phone, entity type, formation year, headcount, and rough revenue.
4. Expect the free route to take a while. Days to a few weeks is normal. Apply before you need it.
5. Then feed the file. A D-U-N-S with no payment history says nothing about you. Credit builds from real suppliers who actually report.

Staying in good standing

Forming the company is the small part. Keeping it alive is a recurring obligation, and letting it lapse can administratively dissolve the entity — quietly removing the liability protection you formed it for.

• Annual or biennial report to the state, with a fee. Deadlines vary and the state will not chase you.
• Registered agent kept current. If they resign or move and you do not replace them, you stop receiving legal notice — and a lawsuit can proceed without you knowing.
• Franchise or entity taxes in states that levy them, owed whether or not you made money.
• Federal and state returns on the schedule for your entity type, which is not the same schedule as your personal return.
• Records. Minutes, resolutions, and an updated ownership ledger. Tedious until the moment someone asks whether the company was real.
• Federal beneficial-ownership reporting has changed materially and repeatedly since 2024. Check FinCEN directly for what currently applies to your entity rather than relying on any article, this one included.

Common traps

• Paying for a free form. EIN and D-U-N-S both cost nothing at the source.
• Getting the EIN before the state approves the articles, producing a name mismatch that has to be corrected with the IRS.
• Filing in Delaware by reflex. Unless you are raising institutional capital, it usually means paying two states instead of one.
• Commingling funds. The fastest way to undo limited liability.
• Using a PO box as the principal address. Registered agents and D&B both generally require a physical street address.
• Skipping bylaws or an operating agreement because you are the only owner — the one time it matters is the one time it really matters.
• Assuming an LLC is always right. LLC versus S-corp versus C-corp changes how you are taxed and how you can raise money. One hour with an accountant before filing is cheap compared with restructuring afterwards.
• Letting the annual report lapse. Administrative dissolution is quiet and it is retroactive in its effects.

Official sources

Go to the source rather than an aggregator. Every one of these is the issuing body itself: