Forming a US LLC from Germany

US ownership

100%

US visit or SSN needed to form

No

Home-country regime

Deutsche Bundesbank AWV reporting — residents report cross-border payments above €50,000 to the Bundesbank (threshold raised from €12,500 on 1 January 2025); the LLC's German tax classification is a Steuerberater question to confirm before you form

Membership, year one

$399/yr

The sheet in one view

Forming the LLC is a state filing: Articles of Organization, a registered agent in the formation state, and a fee that in the three states surveyed below runs from $50 to $300. No US address of your own, no US visit, no notary and no share capital — the first GmbH habit that does not transfer. The EIN follows on paper: fax, phone or mail. On the German side there is no permission to obtain, but there are two things to get right from the start: the Bundesbank reporting duty in § 2, which attaches to payments rather than to the formation, and the classification conversation with your Steuerberater, which attaches to everything. Both are cheap at the beginning and expensive as archaeology.

What Germany asks of you

The reporting duty is set by § 11 of the Foreign Trade and Payments Act (Außenwirtschaftsgesetz) with §§ 67 et seq. of the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance (Außenwirtschaftsverordnung, AWV). The Deutsche Bundesbank's own FAQ on cross-border transaction reports states the current rule: all residents in Germany — natural and legal persons whose place of residence is in Germany — must report payments of more than €50,000, or the equivalent in another currency, that they receive from or make to non-residents. The same Bundesbank publications record that the threshold was raised from €12,500 to €50,000 with effect from 1 January 2025; older guides — including, until recently, much of what a search returns — still print the old figure, and a founder who relies on them will either report needlessly or, worse, assume the duty itself has gone away. It has not. Reports go to the Bundesbank by the seventh working day after the end of the reporting month, and the Bundesbank states that “payments” include the contribution of assets and rights in enterprises — the category a capital contribution to your own new company most plausibly travels in.

Read the scale honestly: at formation size, a single founder capitalising an LLC rarely crosses €50,000 in a month. The duty becomes live as the company trades — a large client payment routed to you, a capital top-up in a good quarter — which is why this sheet puts it in the calendar row below rather than treating it as a formation step. Tell your bank and your Steuerberater the company exists before the first large crossing, not after the Bundesbank's letter arrives.

Where this sheet stops. How German tax law classifies a US LLC — by a comparison of its characteristics against German entity types, with consequences for whether its income is yours as it arises or only when distributed — and how the controlled-foreign-company rules (Hinzurechnungsbesteuerung) and the exit-tax rules (Wegzugsbesteuerung) touch a founder's wider position, are questions this sheet names and deliberately does not answer. They turn on your operating agreement's exact clauses and your personal facts. They are, in the German phrase this corridor deserves, Steuerberaterfragen: put them to one before formation, with the draft operating agreement on the table. A GmbH habit that does transfer, profitably, is this one — Germans already expect a company to come with professional advice attached and papers in order. Keep both.

Choosing the state from Germany

German founders in this Atlas most often survey three states. Texas ($300 to form, no Secretary of State annual report) leads on temperament: the recurring state duty is a single Comptroller filing each May 15 — franchise tax with a Public Information Report, paperwork-only below the no-tax-due threshold its dossier records. Florida ($125 to form, $138.75 a year, report due by May 1) is the trading default US counterparties recognise. Colorado ($50 to form, $25 a year) is the minimum-carrying-cost pick. One GmbH habit to unlearn here: the formation state is not a seat you will visit, a register you will be inspected at, or a notarial act — it is a filing, chosen on the five-year table and on where your customers are. If your reading keeps landing on Wyoming or Delaware, both are sold here on the same terms as every other state: this service covers 50 states + DC, at joining and at renewal, and their dossiers — Wyoming and Delaware — carry the verified fees and duties. Puerto Rico is not served by this Atlas.

The EIN from Germany

Your LLC needs its own Employer Identification Number, and you do not need an SSN or an ITIN first. The IRS's routes for an applicant whose principal place of business is outside the United States are: by phone on 267-941-1099 (not toll-free, Monday–Friday 6 a.m.–11 p.m. Eastern — that window is noon to 5:00 a.m. Central European time the following day during US standard time, so an early-afternoon call reaches a desk that has just opened), by fax to 304-707-9471 from outside the US (855-215-1627 from within it), or by mail to the IRS's EIN International Operation in Cincinnati. Fax returns the number generally within four business days when a return fax number is provided; mail takes approximately four weeks; and a new EIN can take up to two weeks to pass the IRS's TIN-matching systems even though it is usable immediately for a bank account, licences and paper returns. On Form SS-4, the responsible party is you — the individual who ultimately owns or controls the company — and line 7b reads “foreign” where that person has no SSN or ITIN and is not eligible for one. The full treatment — EIN basics, the routes compared, the annotated form, and what to do when the confirmation notice (CP 575, or Letter 147C if the original is lost) goes missing — is the EIN guide on this site. One EIN per responsible party per day, by any route — do not fax and phone the same application.

Banking and getting paid

Stripe's global-availability page, read on the survey date, lists Germany — a German founder can hold a Stripe account at home on a German entity today. The LLC's getting-paid case is therefore the same comparative one as the UK sheet: the US account is for the US side of the business — US clients paying a US company, US marketplaces onboarding a domestic entity with an EIN — and each platform decides on each entity's file under its own published terms.

The bank file is the standard one in this Atlas — filed Articles, EIN confirmation, signed operating agreement, identification and address evidence matching character for character, a specific activity description — set out in full on this site's EIN guide. German founders bring one advantage and one habit to it. The advantage: German address evidence and bank documentation are exactly the kind of paper US onboarding teams process without a follow-up round. The habit to watch: do not let the company's US account become the place your German reporting goes vague. The § 2 duty is tested payment by payment against the €50,000 threshold, in the month it crosses — a clean ledger, in which every crossing between you and the company is one identifiable payment with one identifiable purpose, is what makes that test a formality instead of a reconstruction.

The tax map in brief

A single-member LLC owned by a non-resident is disregarded for US federal income tax by default — and since 2017 that status carries an annual information filing: Form 5472 attached to a pro-forma Form 1120, reporting transactions with you, including your own funding of the company. The penalty the IRS states for a missing or late Form 5472 starts at $25,000. Multi-member LLCs file as partnerships instead. When a US payer needs your company's tax status documented, the form in the file is generally Form W-8BEN-E. The German side of the map is § 2's adviser territory: the LLC's classification by comparison, and the anti-deferral and exit-tax questions around it, belong to your Steuerberater on your facts and your draft operating agreement — this sheet states the Bundesbank's reporting duty from the Bundesbank, and no German tax outcome it cannot source. Form 5472 is treated in full on this site's EIN guide. None of this page is tax advice — it is the map of which questions exist, so none of them ambushes you in your second year.

The two-row calendar — home-country + US duty

Cost of ownership

Compare five-year figures, not formation fees: the spread between the dearest and cheapest rows here is $150 across five years — small enough that the state should be chosen on customers and paperwork temperament, not price. The Steuerberater hour in § 2 costs more than the spread and is worth more than all three rows.

Fragen deutscher Gründer (FAQ in German)

Kann eine in Deutschland ansässige Person 100 % einer US-LLC besitzen?

Ja — kein Staat dieses Atlas verlangt einen US-Mitgesellschafter, und das deutsche Recht verlangt für den Besitz einer ausländischen Gesellschaft keine Genehmigung. Was Deutschland verlangt, ist die Meldung bestimmter Zahlungen (§ 2) und eine steuerliche Einordnung, die Ihr Steuerberater vor der Gründung bestätigt.

Muss ich die Gründung der Bundesbank melden?

Gemeldet werden Zahlungen, nicht die Gründung selbst. Nach der FAQ der Deutschen Bundesbank zu grenzüberschreitenden Transaktionsmeldungen müssen in Deutschland Ansässige Zahlungen von mehr als 50.000 € an Nichtansässige bzw. von Nichtansässigen melden — die Schwelle wurde zum 1. Januar 2025 von 12.500 € auf 50.000 € angehoben. Die Meldung ist bis zum siebten Arbeitstag nach Monatsende fällig, und Einlagen in Unternehmen zählen nach der Bundesbank zu den Zahlungen.

Ist die LLC in Deutschland steuerlich transparent wie in den USA?

Das ist die Klassifizierungsfrage aus § 2, und dieses Blatt beantwortet sie bewusst nicht aus einer Zusammenfassung: Die deutsche Einordnung erfolgt durch einen Typenvergleich anhand Ihrer konkreten Satzung (operating agreement), und sie entscheidet, ob die Einkünfte Ihnen laufend oder erst bei Ausschüttung zugerechnet werden. Legen Sie den Entwurf vor der Gründung einem Steuerberater vor.

Brauche ich eine ITIN, um die EIN der LLC zu erhalten?

Nein. Die EIN ist die Nummer der Gesellschaft; sie wird mit dem Formular SS-4 beantragt, mit dem Eintrag “foreign” in Zeile 7b, wenn die verantwortliche Person keine SSN oder ITIN hat und für keine berechtigt ist (§ 4).

Was schulde ich jedes Jahr?

In den USA: die staatliche Pflicht Ihres Gründungsstaates (Tabelle oben), die Mitgliedschaftsverlängerung von $399 ab Jahr 2, wenn Sie bei uns bleiben, und die bundesstaatliche Informationsmeldung Ihrer Struktur (§ 6). In Deutschland: die AWV-Meldungen nach § 2, sobald eine Zahlung die Schwelle überschreitet, und Ihre reguläre Steuererklärung in der Form, die die Einordnung Ihres Steuerberaters ergibt.

Sources: Deutsche Bundesbank — “Frequently asked questions (FAQs) concerning cross-border transaction reports” (§ 11 AWG with §§ 67 et seq. AWV: residents report payments of more than €50,000 received from or made to non-residents; reports due by the seventh working day after the end of the reporting month; payments include contributions of assets and rights in enterprises), bundesbank.de · Deutsche Bundesbank publications — AWV amendments effective 1 January 2025 raised the reporting threshold for capital and payment transactions from €12,500 to €50,000, bundesbank.de · IRS — “Employer Identification Number” and Instructions for Form SS-4 (Rev. December 2025), irs.gov · Instructions for Form 5472 (penalty), irs.gov · Stripe global availability, stripe.com/global, read 2026-11-07 · State fees and duties: data/state-fees.json, verified against official state sources 2026-11-03/04. Surveyed 2026-11-07. Education, not advice: this sheet is formation information, not legal, foreign-exchange or tax advice.