
Anonymous LLC - wslh
https://www.l4sb.com/lpa/anonymous-llc/
======
jcrawfordor
Pricing on these services is pretty high. They charge $404 + filing fees, but
at least in New Mexico, one of the states that permits anonymous LLCs, you can
form one yourself in about 30 minutes of effort and $100 or so in fees plus
$100 or so to hire a registered agent. Hard to justify the $404 on top of
fees...

~~~
nikanj
$200 is for doing it. $404 for knowing how to do it.

~~~
jcrawfordor
Most secretaries of state publish pretty detailed instructions on LLC
formation, and more support is usually available from a state small business
advocate. Sure, there is value in professional advice, but I wouldn't say LLC
formation is the kind of thing that requires it.

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eddieroger
It's not even necessarily the advice, it's literally just throwing money at a
problem. Even if there are clear instructions, some people would rather throw
money at having someone else do it. This service is for these people.

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meirelles
As far as I know, it's possible open an anonymous LLC, but to open a bank
account must disclose the owners.

~~~
brianwawok
It takes 3 clicks to find the owner of a llc online. No such thing exists for
banks (how do i get the bank account number of xxxx llc?)

~~~
libertymcateer
Totally incorrect. I have formed very, very many LLCs and they all use
registered agents. You'd have to sue in order to find out the actual owners.

For the record, I am a practicing attorney licensed in NY State.

~~~
brianwawok
Sorry I can add more text.

You can go from LLC Name (Foo, LLC) to Registered Agent Name in 30 seconds.
You cannot do the same with Company Name to Bank Account (or from Bank Account
to Owner Name).

I also use a registered agent for all my LLCs, but you don't have to. You can
totally put your own address down when doing paperwork, and then your home
address is open to the world.

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jcg8802
LLC's are already anonymous depending on the state. This is such a marketing
gimmick.

~~~
ringaroundthetx
haha, that is what is funny about this. But you really should use a lawyer to
form your entities, because the registered agent can be subpoena'd and you
would never know. The lawyer can lock that up under client-attorney privilege.

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llc_throwaway
Do I need something like this if I want to work on side projects that touch
legal gray areas? Let's say asking users to upload/annotate stuff that might
be copyrighted for a ML pipeline?

The only step taken to staying anonymous is hiding WHOIS on the domain. But I
feel like if someone really wants to sue me they can still send a court order
to DNS host or something so I want to limit personal liability if it's stuff
that I am just doing for fun.

~~~
OzzyB
The desire for Anonymonity doesn't have to be for nefarious reasons. Like you
said ppl like to use Private WHOIS records so that their private info isn't
broadcast all over the web.

Another possible use-case for Anon-LLCs is Apple's App Store, apparently the
only way you can register an app there is either through your own name or a
corp -- using an Anon-LLC is this case would be along the lines of electing a
private whois.

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rcdwealth
There is no such thing as "anonymous LLC". Being in that business far longer
than that company existed, I should know it. We have registered LLC companies
all over states for decades.

Anonymity is not absolute. The simple fact that manager and member names need
not be disclosed to Secretaries of States does not make the LLC "anonymous".

Anonymous means having no known name or identity or known source.

Each LLC company must have its organizer, the person registering the company.
Organizer may me the member of the LLC or the agent.

Each LLC company must have its registered agent, and such agent must keep
information of members and managers ready in their offices, and shall give it
to Secretary of State upon request, or to any courts upon court orders.
Failures to maintain correct information of the members/managers of the
company are penalized.

The title is misleading.

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jlgaddis
FYI, any attorney can do this for you. You just pay them and they act as the
registered agent. Actually, anyone can act as your registered agent (in my
state, at least).

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therein
Is it truly anonymous even with a FEIN registration? The owner will need to
file an SS-4 with their SSN or already registered FEIN anyway.

NM looks the most attractive to me right now.

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cgb223
What are the use cases for an anonymous LLC?

~~~
sseveran
Assembling property for development. Concealing ownership of certain assets.
Keeping your name from appearing in certain public records.

~~~
icelancer
>Assembling property for development

This is definitely the most common reason for anonymous LLCs. For elaboration,
think about buying up a ton of crappy property in a specific area. Doing it
all under a single LLC with traceable names can cause property agents and
banks to notice and raise prices / hold out on existing property that the
developer may need.

~~~
bbanyc
It predates the LLC era, but this was how Disney bought up its huge swaths of
land just outside Orlando to build Walt Disney World.

[http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-disney-shell-
companies...](http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-disney-shell-
companies-20160408-story.html)

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suyash
Anyone know how if it is possible to form Anonymous LLC in California or
Nevada, is yes, how?

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nodesocket
If I live in California though, my understanding is that I must have a
California LLC. Is that not true?

Basically either way if I have a California LLC or Delaware LLC, I'll still be
required to pay California income tax and the flat $800 a year LLC fee.

~~~
trevyn
If you're physically in California, you're required to qualify/register your
LLC with California (and pay the taxes), but it does not have to be a
California LLC. See, for example: [http://www.nolo.com/legal-
encyclopedia/qualify-foreign-busin...](http://www.nolo.com/legal-
encyclopedia/qualify-foreign-business-california.html)

~~~
nodesocket
So there would be no financial advantage to switching to a Delaware LLC if I'm
going to continue living in California other than the courts are more
favorible to business in Delaware. Is that right?

~~~
buu700
My understanding is that the primary benefit of Delaware incorporation is that
it has the most well established case law of any state, not that its courts
necessarily have any particular bias toward businesses over individuals
(although this may very well also be the case).

~~~
ringaroundthetx
Which is a totally overrated benefit.

Judges in any other state can lean on Delaware court outcomes if their state
has never seen the issue before. But what if you don't like the direction the
case law went? Then its better for you to create a new outcome in literally
any other state.

You think literally all 50+ states' legislatures just sat idly over the last
30 years while Delaware's marketing machine was churning out the non-income-
tax-related revenue scheme for their government?

Just think about it for a second, it doesn't matter what the collective
conscious currently thinks right now, just think for yourself on it. There are
over 50 US jurisdictions that could have any number of things in their law
books and case law related to business.

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jhoutromundo
I'm recieving Firefox warnings about my privacy in this website.

~~~
jasondrowley
Same on Safari

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backtoyoujim
in WA state

[https://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=](https://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=)

with a UBI will tell the agent and the governor(s) of the LLC.

If you use the current search function on the SOS website like this one :

[https://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_results.aspx?ubi=](https://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_results.aspx?ubi=)

then you get a group of listing with a click through that does not list the
governor(s).

Weird quirk.

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mrbluesman
JJ Luna is a well known expert in this space: [https://jjluna.com/Resources-
LLCs](https://jjluna.com/Resources-LLCs)

A recent podcast with him: [https://inteltechniques.com/wp/2017/01/17/the-
complete-priva...](https://inteltechniques.com/wp/2017/01/17/the-complete-
privacy-security-podcast-episode-014/)

~~~
nataz
Not sure who JJ Luna is, but reading through his FAQ on ghost addresses
doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Specifically his description of INTERPOL
"holding someone's feet to the fire". That's not how INTERPOL even remotely
works. They aren't a Supra national police org, they don't even have the power
to make arrests. They are a data clearing house for individual state police
authorities. At most they could put out some kind of notice, but it would be
the Spanish police org in his example that would be doing all the work.

Understanding your adversary is the first step to rational risk assessment.

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gravypod
I've always been confused about the different protections afforded to
different cooperate structures. Why do you want an anonymous LLC rather than a
different legal entity? How much anonymity is provided via this service? Is
this actually a benefit?

~~~
colbyh
IANAL but my understanding is that 1) it keeps your activities private when
doing business as the LLC since no one has to disclose the owner of the LLC
and 2) tax liabilities are not passed to the owner of the LLC, so if a
business deal goes underwater the creditors can't pursue you personally.

I'm sure some details there aren't 100%. most people I know using them are
privacy freaks so my experience is biased towards that end of it.

~~~
sillysaurus3
It would've prevented [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8fU2QG-
lV0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8fU2QG-lV0) from getting caught. Not
that that's a good thing, but it's an example of the type of business an
anonymous LLC would be used for.

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grizzles
Anyone besides stripe/atlas operate a service like this that comes with a bank
account?

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djyaz1200
Website still says copyright 2016, not a strong signal regarding their
attention to detail.

~~~
jszymborski
Or maybe it's an indication of their proper understanding of copyright
notices...

The year in the copyright notice is suppose to be the date of the creation of
the work or the year in which it was first published, which is not necessarily
the current year [0].

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_notice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_notice)

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tehabe
Anonymous companies are a problems for years now, people are hiding their
taxable income behind those companies. They are also used to avoid
responsibility in case something goes wrong. See the panama papers a few years
ago. Delaware is a paradise for those companies.

The NGO Global Witness is fighting anonymous companies for years now
[https://www.globalwitness.org/en-gb/campaigns/corruption-
and...](https://www.globalwitness.org/en-gb/campaigns/corruption-and-money-
laundering/anonymous-company-owners/)

~~~
joering2
But what is the problem?

When you run some sort of SilkRoad website, I doubt you can ride it long just
because you happen to incorporate in Delaware. After all, its still a part of
USA.

~~~
tehabe
I think it is a huge problem, because it makes corruption easier and if you
put enough anonymous companies between you and what you do, nobody can find
out what you are doing. At least those people hope they can. That is why a
public register is important. Companies were never a tool for being anonymous,
they were always a tool of distributing risk.

