State approval is not the end of the formation process. It is the beginning of an operating and compliance system. What happens during the first 90 days often determines whether a U.S. company can open accounts, pay employees, collect the right taxes, close its books, and support future banking, fundraising, or audit requests.
The checklist below is designed for U.S. LLCs and corporations owned by a foreign parent company, non-U.S. founders, or international investors. Exact requirements vary by entity and state, but the sequence is broadly applicable.
Days 1–15: Establish the Company’s Legal and Tax Identity
1. Organize the formation records. Keep the state approval, certificate or articles of formation, bylaws or operating agreement, capitalization records, registered agent details, and ownership records together. Legal names, ownership percentages, and authorized signers should match across all documents.
2. Obtain an EIN and confirm the responsible party. The EIN is commonly needed for banking, tax filings, payroll, and vendor onboarding. Errors in the entity type, address, or responsible party can create delays later.
3. Confirm the federal tax classification. An LLC is a state-law entity, not a federal tax status. A single-member LLC is generally disregarded by default; a multi-member LLC is generally taxed as a partnership unless an election is made. A nonresident alien generally cannot be an S corporation shareholder, so an S election should never be made casually.
4. Open a business bank account and define funding procedures. Capital contributions, shareholder loans, parent-company advances, and customer revenue should be separately identified. Avoid running routine business activity through personal or foreign-parent accounts.
Days 16–30: Build the Accounting and Payment Infrastructure
1. Create a chart of accounts that reflects the actual business. Separate revenue, sales tax, payment-processing fees, payroll and employer taxes, inventory, fixed assets, equity, related-party balances, and debt.
2. Connect bank and credit-card feeds, but do not confuse bank feeds with bookkeeping. Automated rules can help classify recurring items, but they cannot determine the business substance of a transaction. Bank and credit-card reconciliations are still required.
3. Create an accounts receivable, accounts payable, document retention, and approval process. Even a small company should know who issues invoices, approves bills, releases payments, and reviews accounting changes.
4. Collect tax documentation from vendors when they are onboarded. U.S. vendors commonly provide Form W-9; foreign vendors may provide an appropriate Form W-8. Waiting until January to request tax forms creates unnecessary 1099 and withholding problems.
Days 31–60: Evaluate State, Sales Tax, and Employer Obligations
1. Determine where the company is actually doing business. A company formed in one state may need to foreign-qualify in another because of employees, an office, inventory, a warehouse, or sustained local activity.
2. Perform a sales tax nexus review. Employees, inventory, third-party fulfillment, trade-show activity, or state sales thresholds may create obligations. Marketplace collection does not always eliminate registration, return-filing, or direct-channel responsibilities.
3. Before hiring, register for state withholding and unemployment accounts and establish a compliant payroll process. Paying an employee directly from a bank account is not a substitute for payroll. Workers’ compensation, new-hire reporting, paid-leave rules, and local requirements must also be considered.
4. Identify state and local licenses. Food service, construction, professional services, retail, importing, and warehousing may require permits from more than one government agency.
Days 61–90: Establish a Repeatable Close and Compliance Calendar
1. Complete the first formal month-end close. Reconcile banks, credit cards, payroll, sales tax, receivables, payables, inventory or fixed assets, and intercompany balances. Review both the income statement and balance sheet.
2. Build one compliance calendar covering annual reports, franchise taxes, federal and state income tax, sales tax, payroll filings, W-2/1099 reporting, and license renewals. Assign an owner and reviewer for each item.
3. Identify foreign-owner information reporting. A 25%-foreign-owned U.S. corporation and a wholly foreign-owned U.S. disregarded entity may have Form 5472 obligations when reportable related-party transactions occur. For a foreign-owned single-member LLC, capital contributions, distributions, and payments made on the owner’s behalf may be relevant even when there is no revenue.
4. Document related-party transactions. Management fees, technical services, royalties, loans, interest, inventory purchases, and expense reimbursements should be supported by agreements, invoices, pricing logic, payment records, and consistent accounting on both sides.
What “Ready” Looks Like at Day 90
- The company knows its federal tax classification and first federal and state filing obligations.
- State registration, income tax, sales tax, and payroll exposure has been mapped.
- Company cash, equity, debt, and intercompany activity are recorded separately.
- Bank, card, marketplace, and payment-platform activity can be reconciled.
- Vendor tax forms are collected at onboarding.
- Payroll registrations, insurance, I-9 procedures, and the payroll system are ready before the first employee starts.
- A month-end close checklist and lock date are in place.
- A single annual compliance calendar exists.
- Cross-border charges and funding arrangements are documented.
- Management receives timely, reliable financial statements.
The earlier these controls are established, the less expensive compliance becomes. Waiting until a tax notice, bank review, financing round, or year-end return often means correcting the books and filing history at the same time.
