The anonymous US LLC: your name in no public register

What Fritz earns

Say your old school friend Fritz runs a business in Europe, and you want to know how much he made last year (perhaps so you can offer him a stake in your startup). You are in luck: the EU (and its neighbours such as Switzerland and the UK) has caught a full-blown case of transparency mania.

A quick search online and you can look up almost everything about a company, including detailed annual accounts showing the profit distributed to its shareholders.

Thanks to the transparency register, you also know (even through intermediate holding structures or foundations, even abroad) who holds a significant stake in which company. That makes it fairly easy to work out what Fritz earned last year, and whether he can afford to invest in your startup at all.

The great wealth database

Even if your record is spotless and you have nothing to hide, excesses like these quickly turn your stomach. You can only imagine how such a wealth of information might be used against you if it ever came to it.

You do not have to believe in conspiracy theories to find such a detailed, public inventory of people's wealth suspicious.

It fits neatly into the picture of the Great Reset and a possible coming redistribution of wealth (expropriation through taxation?).

So what are the workable alternatives?

Is anonymous company formation in the US really possible?

The answer is: yes and no.

The fact is that the US government collects and publishes far less data on companies.

• Every state has its own laws and runs its own online company register. So the advantages for founders differ from state to state.
• In most states, the register publishes no information on the shareholders of corporations. The authority does not even know who owns the company, because that information is never sent to the register at formation. This anonymity is entirely lawful.
• In many states, a corporation only has to publish one member of its management in the register. That is also the case in Delaware and Wyoming. Complete anonymity is therefore NOT possible with a corporation, unless you use a nominee director.
• Balance sheets and annual accounts are neither filed with the register nor published there.

So the public cannot see who owns a US company or how it is doing financially, but it can see who runs it, at least in the case of corporations.

And what about LLCs?

This website is about LLCs, not corporations, and here the picture for anonymity is even better.

In eleven states, including our favourites Wyoming, Delaware, Colorado and New Mexico, plus Ohio, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, Virginia and Missouri, the only party shown in the company register is whoever was instructed to form the LLC (that is, us): your name appears NOWHERE. The full overview is in the state comparison.

In

• Florida
• Nevada and
• Texas

the name of at least one member (that is, your name) has to be published in the company register.

So anonymity towards the public is possible with an LLC. Towards banks, payment providers and authorities it never applies: there you go through the normal KYC process as the beneficial owner.

What this discretion is worth when it really matters is shown on our page on asset protection.

Is it hard to open an account for an anonymous LLC?

Paradoxically, it makes NO difference to opening an account whether you use an anonymous LLC or one whose register entry shows your name.

You will get an account for a Delaware, New Mexico or Wyoming LLC without any trouble (for example with Mercury or Wise). Expect no delays and no problems.

And the US transparency register?

Here the tide has turned in favour of discretion. From January 2024 the Corporate Transparency Act initially required US LLCs with foreign owners to report their beneficial owners to the federal agency FinCEN as well. Since March 2025, all companies formed in the US have been fully exempt from this reporting obligation. Unlike in the EU, where the transparency register discloses holdings right through holding structures, your details as an LLC member therefore appear in no public US federal register, and if no BOI report was ever filed for your LLC, you do not appear in FinCEN's database either. According to the final rule, FinCEN deletes earlier reports only in part: as a one-off, it deletes the details of people who identified themselves with a US document, such as a US passport or a US driver's licence. If your LLC's report lists a passport from outside the US, that deletion does not cover you, and your details remain in FinCEN's non-public database. Since 14 August 2026 the exemption has been permanent: the final FinCEN rule took effect on its publication in the Federal Register, and we continue to monitor the legal position. And as always: banks and payment providers check your identity regardless. Discretion in the register does not make you invisible to institutions.

In which states do you get anonymity?

When the firm forms your LLC, register anonymity is currently available in eleven states: Wyoming, New Mexico, Delaware, Colorado, Ohio, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, Virginia and Missouri. Our favourites among them: Wyoming (the strongest asset protection), New Mexico (no annual reports), Delaware (the standard) and Colorado (Ltd suffix possible). You will find the full comparison of all states in the state comparison.

Why the US is still the place for discretion

Compared with the EU, the US offers a genuinely workable and practical alternative for digital nomads, perpetual travellers and non-doms when it comes to confidentiality and asset protection.

Of course, companies in the US also report information to the authorities, so you will not be forming a completely anonymous company. In practice, though, that will not be a big problem for you. You are not taxable in the US, and the US does not take part in the automatic exchange of information. That is why the US remains a popular destination for entrepreneurs who want tax freedom and anonymity, and why it has real advantages when you form an LLC.

A far more important advantage for you, for example, is that nobody can get a detailed overview of your wealth simply by googling you. And a company formation in the US gives you exactly that. If you want to form a limited liability company (LLC) for reasons of anonymity, the best step is to get in touch with us and let us take care of you. We are also the right people to talk to if you want to know whether a (Delaware) LLC or rather a corporation is the right legal form for you. As cross-border tax specialists we have a great deal of experience, and in a consultation with us (held in English) you can clear up many questions, whether about forming the company, taxes or the exempt LLC.