Do agencies need a US LLC?
Agencies invoice rather than take card payments, so the Stripe argument barely applies. What applies is procurement: a US client's finance team wants a W-9, a US entity on the master services agreement, and somewhere domestic to send the money.
The essentials
Verified July 28, 2026
- Main driver
- US client procurementEnterprise vendor onboarding commonly requires a US tax form and a US entity on the contract.
- Tax form involved
- Form W-9A US entity with an EIN completes a W-9 rather than a W-8BEN-E, which is the simpler path for the client's accounts payable.
- Formation cost
- $249 + $100 Wyoming feeGrowth plan, including EIN guidance and first-year Registered Agent.
- What it does not change
- Your tax residenceWhere you personally owe tax follows where you live, not where the agency is registered.
What's included
- A US entity with an EIN that can complete a Form W-9 for US clients
- A US company name to put on master services agreements and statements of work
- The ability to invoice and be paid in USD without a currency conversion at both ends
What's not included
- Any change to where you are tax resident, or to what you owe there
- Professional liability or errors-and-omissions insurance, which clients increasingly ask for separately
- Employment structuring for contractors you engage, which is its own set of rules
Forming the entity and still failing vendor onboarding
The LLC clears the entity requirement and founders assume that is the whole gate. It usually is not. Enterprise vendor onboarding often also asks for a certificate of insurance, a W-9 signed by an authorised person, sometimes a certificate of good standing from the state, and a bank account in the entity's name rather than yours. Founders discover the last one late, because the LLC is formed but banking is the genuinely hard part for a non-US resident — Mercury's published prohibited list excludes several of the countries we serve. Sort out where the money will land before you sign the contract, not after.
Why the W-9 matters more than it sounds
When a US company pays a foreign entity, its accounts payable process involves withholding analysis, a W-8BEN-E, and often a treaty position they have to evaluate. When it pays a US entity, it collects a W-9 and pays. The second path is dramatically less work for the client, and in procurement, being the easier vendor to pay is a real commercial advantage — occasionally the deciding one on a close call.
Banking is the constraint, not formation
For an agency the LLC is the easy part. Getting a US bank account as a non-resident is the hard part, and it varies enormously by where you live: Mercury publishes a prohibited-countries list that includes Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia among others. Our country banking pages set out provider by provider what is actually open to you. Read the one for your country before you commit to a client contract with US payment terms.
Certificate of good standing comes up more than you expect
Larger clients and some procurement platforms ask for a certificate of good standing — a state-issued document confirming your entity exists and is current on its filings. It is inexpensive to obtain but impossible if you have let an annual report lapse, which is a reason to take the compliance dates seriously even when nothing appears to depend on them.
Worth knowing
This describes what a US entity does in a procurement process. It is not tax or legal advice, and a master services agreement is a document to have reviewed rather than signed on the strength of a formation service's web page. RazorFile files companies and keeps them in good standing; contract review is not something we do.
Common questions
Do I need a US LLC to work with US clients?
No — plenty of agencies invoice US clients as a foreign entity. It becomes worth doing when procurement friction starts costing you deals: repeated W-8BEN-E requests, clients unable to pay internationally, or vendor onboarding that assumes a US counterparty.
What is the difference between a W-9 and a W-8BEN-E?
A W-9 is what a US person or entity gives a payer; a W-8BEN-E is what a foreign entity gives. The practical difference is the work it creates for your client's finance team, including withholding analysis and treaty questions. Being a US entity moves you to the simpler form.
Will an LLC get me a US bank account?
It is a prerequisite, not a guarantee. Providers set their own country rules based on where the owner lives, and several exclude countries we serve. Check our banking page for your country before assuming Mercury is available to you — for a good number of our clients, it is not.
Which state is best for an agency?
Wyoming for most, at $100 and $60 a year. If your clients are concentrated in one US state and you have any physical presence there, forming in that state avoids a foreign registration — but a purely remote agency has no such nexus and can choose on cost.
Form your US LLC with RazorFile
Wyoming filing, Registered Agent and EIN guidance from $249 plus the state fee. Filed in one to three business days.
RazorFile files companies. We are not a law firm or tax advisor, and nothing on this page is legal or tax advice.