For a few months now, owners of US LLCs who live outside the US have been getting letters from Mercury that pack a punch: the bank wants proof of "US operations". If you cannot provide it, your account gets restricted and closed for good after 60 days.
Messages about it are piling up in our channels. Some people have already lost their account. Others panicked, dissolved the LLC along with it and are now forming a new one, hoping things will go better with a different state. Both are unnecessary. In this article we show you what Mercury really wants, why the whole thing is far more harmless for your taxes than it sounds, and how to deliver the proof cleanly within a few days. Including a method we have tested ourselves.
What happened?
For years Mercury was the first port of call for foreign-owned US LLCs: account opening fully online, no US visit needed, a modern interface. That is exactly why, after the end of Silicon Valley Bank, practically the entire market of non-resident founders ended up at Mercury. And with it a flood of shell companies without any real activity.
Mercury responded by tightening the rules:
- Registered agent addresses, PO boxes and UPS boxes are no longer accepted as a business address
- Every company must state existing or planned US activities
- Anyone who states they have no US activities and plan none gets the 60-day deadline
Important for understanding this: Mercury is not a bank but a fintech whose partner banks hold the deposits. The tightening is an attempt to protect those partner banks from the accusation of serving thousands of offshore vehicles without substance. It is not harassment aimed at you personally. It is a filter. And filters can be passed.
What Mercury specifically wants to see
Mercury names three categories of proof. One of them is enough:
Employees in the US: employment contracts with US employees including full name and address, or payslips.
An office or location in the US: a lease, proof of a coworking membership or a recent utility bill.
Customers, partners or suppliers in the US: invoices or contracts that document business relationships with US companies. Sales to US customers may even be submitted as screenshots.
Add one condition many people overlook: the documents should show up in your account activity. An invoice from a US supplier is convincing when the payment for it actually went through your Mercury account. Paper alone is not enough; the story has to add up.
All clear: US customers do not make you taxable
The most common worry in the discussions goes something like this: "I formed the LLC to be tax-free. If I now have to show US customers, I'll be paying US tax and the whole model collapses."
That is a misunderstanding, and a fundamental one.
Your LLC's tax-free status does not depend on where your customers are. It depends on whether you carry on a "US trade or business", meaning you are active in the US with your own people, your own premises or dependent agents. If you provide your services from your residence outside the US, the income stays foreign income, even if one hundred percent of your customers are in New York. A Texan who subscribes to your software or books your coaching does not make you taxable, as long as you do the work from outside the US. You will find the details in our primer on the tax treatment of the exempt LLC.
There is one relevant exception: if you sell physical goods from US warehouses, for example through Amazon FBA with inventory in the US, you are playing in a different league and need individual advice. For the typical service, consulting, agency or software LLC: US customers are not a tax problem. So you can show Mercury US business relationships with a clear conscience, without putting your model at risk.
And just as clearly: closing the LLC in a panic and forming a new one in a different state solves nothing. More on that shortly.
The easiest proof: US suppliers
Here comes the good news. The third category does not only mention customers but explicitly partners and suppliers too. And almost every LLC already has US suppliers, often without thinking about it:
- Software subscriptions with US providers: OpenAI, Adobe, Google Workspace, AWS, Zoom, Notion and similar
- US payment providers such as Stripe
- Service providers around your LLC itself: the invoices from our firm in Austin are invoices from a US company to your LLC too
What matters is the form: the invoice must be in your LLC's name, and the payment should go through your Mercury account. If you have been paying for your US software with your personal credit card, switch that now. Collect three to five such invoices from recent months, add the matching account statements, and you have a proof package that fits Mercury's grid exactly.
The practical tip: US freelancers on Upwork
If you have had no US touchpoints at all so far, there is a route that creates genuine US business relationships, costs little and that we have tested successfully ourselves: hire a freelancer in the US through Upwork.
It works like this:
- On Upwork you search specifically for freelancers located in the US. The filter for that is built in.
- You award a real, small project. A logo refresh, proofreading for your English website, research, data maintenance. Even projects in the range of 100 to 300 dollars generate a contract and an invoice.
- Upwork automatically creates contracts and invoices that show the freelancer's US location.
- You pay from your Mercury account.
That gives you everything at once: a contract with a US counterparty, invoices and the matching transaction in the account. Exactly the combination Mercury wants to see.
Two notes on this. First: the project must be real. You pay for a real service that you also use; this is not paper theater. Second, on taxes: a self-employed freelancer who works on their own account for many clients is an independent contractor and does not create a US trade or business for you. They are your supplier, not your employee. It would be different if you hired someone permanently who works only for you in the US, on an ongoing basis and under your direction. That is exactly why the freelancer route is clearly preferable to the employee route.
The state myth: out with Wyoming, in with Florida?
The theory keeps coming up in discussions that the problem is the state: Wyoming is supposedly burned with banks because of its anonymity, and a Florida LLC works better. Some people closed their Wyoming LLC for that reason and formed a new one in Florida.
You can save yourself the trouble. The theory confuses two completely different levels.
The anonymity of Wyoming (and ten other states) relates to the public business register: your name does not appear there. Toward the bank, however, you were never anonymous and never will be. Mercury collects every beneficial owner with 25 percent or more at every account opening, with passport and address, completely regardless of the state. The bank knows exactly as much about you with a Wyoming LLC as with a Florida LLC.
Mercury's requirement is called US operations, not US state. Turn up with a Florida LLC without any US connection and you get the same 60-day deadline as before with Wyoming. A new formation costs you money, time, a new EIN and a new account opening with stricter review than ever, and it does not move the actual issue by a millimeter.
Your website as evidence
One point that is on no Mercury list but makes the difference in practice: your website.
During the review, the compliance team looks at whether your company presents itself as a business with a US connection. An LLC without any web presence, or with a site in a language other than English that clearly targets only customers in Europe, tells the wrong story.
It does not take a big presence. An English one-pager is enough if it does three things:
- It clearly describes what your LLC offers, consistent with the business description in your Mercury application
- It explicitly addresses the US market as well, with wording such as "serving clients across the United States"
- It names the LLC by its full name as the operator, with a working way to get in touch
A page like that is built in an afternoon. And the proofreader who polishes your English can, by the way, be your US freelancer from Upwork. That is how the building blocks fit together.
What else helps
Use the account actively. An account where nothing happens for months is a red flag for any compliance department. Run your LLC's ongoing income and expenses through Mercury, especially the US payments.
The right address. Mercury explicitly accepts your private home address abroad as a business address. Use it. What no longer works are registered agent addresses and PO boxes. If your Mercury file still shows such an address, correct it before someone flags it.
Be honest about "planned". Mercury also accepts planned US activities. If you are just starting out, describe concretely what you intend: first US customers through your English website, US freelancers for design and content, a US software stack. A credible plan plus first evidence is stronger than an empty claim.
Never just one account. Whatever the outcome: an LLC with a single account is a concentration risk. Open a second account with a provider that accepts US LLCs without a US focus, such as Wise Business or Airwallex. Which providers currently work reliably is kept up to date in our overview of LLC account opening.
What you must not do under any circumstances
No forged or embellished documents. Invented leases, favor invoices without a real service, fictitious customer relationships: that is not a gray area, that is making false statements to a US financial institution. The risk is out of all proportion to a bank account that can be saved legally with a few software invoices.
No office facade. There are offers going around to book a US office address or a pro forma coworking contract for little money, a place nobody ever enters. We advise against this for two reasons. First, Mercury recognizes collective addresses where dozens of LLCs "reside" just as reliably as registered agent addresses. Second, and this is the more important point: of all three categories of proof, a documented US office is the only one that can actually endanger your tax-free status. A fixed place of business in the US is exactly the indicator of a US trade or business that you, as a tax-free non-resident, do not want to create, and a gift to any tax authority in your home country that examines your structure. US suppliers and US customers strengthen your account and leave your tax position untouched. A US office on paper does the opposite.
No panic closure. Dissolving the LLC and forming a new one elsewhere costs substance, history and money, and puts the same question in front of you at the next bank.
Your 7-day plan
If the 60-day email is already in your inbox, work through this list:
- Day 1: Take stock. Which US providers do you already pay today? Download the invoices from the last three to six months and check that they are in the LLC's name.
- Days 1 to 2: Switch payment methods. Pay all US subscriptions from the Mercury account from now on, personal cards out.
- Days 2 to 5: Award an Upwork project to a US freelancer, for example for the English version of your website. Secure the contract and invoice, pay through Mercury.
- Days 3 to 6: Put an English one-pager live that clearly addresses the US market, consistent with your business description at Mercury.
- Day 6: If you have them: export sales to US customers as screenshots.
- Day 7: Put the proof package together and submit it: supplier invoices, the Upwork contract and invoice, account statements with the matching transactions, a link to the website, a short cover letter. In parallel, apply for a second account.
That way you are not delivering a single document but a coherent story: your LLC buys in the US, works with US freelancers and addresses the US market. That is exactly what Mercury means by US operations.
If you want support
Our firm in Austin has supported clients for years with formation, banking and ongoing support for their US LLC, with written correspondence in your language. If Mercury has given you the 60-day deadline, your case has special features (such as FBA inventory in the US) or you want to make your account structure more robust overall, talk to us; consultations are held in English. How to set up your US business account properly from the start is covered in our banking guide for the US LLC.
Book a consultation now (held in English only)