Insights
Written when we find that something widely repeated is no longer true, or was never true. Each one says where the facts came from and when they were last checked.
Five pieces, each checked against the source.
- The beneficial ownership report you almost certainly do not have to fileFinCEN removed the requirement for companies formed in the United States. Filing services are still selling it. Here is what the rule actually says now.4 September 2026, 6 minute read
- Getting an EIN when the IRS online tool refuses youError reference number 101 is not something you did wrong. It is the tool telling you that you are outside what it handles.4 September 2026, 5 minute read
- Form 5472: the return that costs $25,000 to forgetIf a foreign person owns a quarter or more of your US company, there is an annual filing due whether or not the business did anything at all.4 September 2026, 6 minute read
- Do you actually need a US company, or were you told you did?Canadian owners arrive with the decision already made and a reason attached. Some of those reasons are solid. Two of the most common are not.4 September 2026, 7 minute read
- Why a Wyoming LLC saves a Californian nothingThe most expensive piece of advice on the internet, worked through with the actual filings on both sides so you can see where the money goes.4 September 2026, 7 minute read
How we keep this current.
Formation and tax rules change more often than the articles written about them. These are the rules we hold ourselves to so that what you read here is still true on the day you read it.
Every claim points at the page it came from.
If a piece says the IRS does something, it links to the IRS page that says so, not to another firm's summary of it. Where the source is a statute, a final rule or a set of form instructions, we name the document and the section. Secondary sources are fine for finding a question. They are never the answer.
Each piece carries two dates.
The date it was first published and the date somebody last read every source in it again. Those are different things, and most sites only show the first. A rule can change the week after an article goes up, and a published date alone tells you nothing about whether anyone noticed.
When the answer changes, we say so at the top.
If a federal rule or a state fee moves and it changes the conclusion of a piece, the correction goes in the first paragraph with the date, rather than being edited in quietly. The beneficial ownership piece is the obvious example: the rule changed more than once in eighteen months, and anyone who read an older version deserves to know which part moved.
We write about what we actually file.
The pieces here cover the filings we prepare as ordinary work: the EIN without an SSN, the name a state will reject, the Form 5472 a foreign owned LLC owes even in a year with no income. If a subject sits outside the work we do, we do not write it up as though it were inside.
Nothing here is ranked for anyone's benefit.
No piece recommends a bank, a payment processor or a software product in exchange for anything. When a provider is named, it is because clients ask about it, and the piece says what we have seen happen rather than what the provider says about itself.
Where the facts come from.
- Federal
- irs.gov for the EIN, Form SS-4, Form 5472, Form 1120 and the S corporation election, and fincen.gov for beneficial ownership.
- State
- Each Secretary of State, or the Arizona Corporation Commission, for filing fees, annual reports and what goes on the public record. Each state revenue department for franchise tax and sales tax.
- Checked
- Every source in every piece is read again at least once a quarter, and whenever an agency announces a change.
If you find something here that no longer matches the source, tell us. Email info@llamafilings.com with the page and the line, and we will check it and correct it, with the date, the same week.