Company types

Form a C Corporation or an LLC using Stripe Atlas.

Stripe Atlas supports two options for forming a US company in Delaware: C Corporations and Limited Liability Companies (LLC).

With Stripe Atlas, you can only form a standalone LLC. You can’t form an LLC as a subsidiary. If you choose to form an LLC, you establish a new company that’s owned by one individual or a group. The following list contains some of the characteristics of an LLC:

Capital: LLCs are common for self-funded or small businesses with no plans to raise outside capital.
Tax treatment: Profits and losses of an LLC flow through to its members, and the LLC has no entity-level tax. If you have more than one member or if you have a non-US member for your LLC, however, tax filings can become complex.

For information about LLCs as an alternative to C Corporations, take a look at our Stripe Atlas guide on picking an entity.

When to form your company

If you plan to form your company near the end of the calendar year, it can make sense to wait until the start of the new year to form your company because of the tax implications. C Corporations active in Delaware any time before December 31 owe at least the minimum Delaware franchise tax for that year. LLCs active before December 31 owe the full annual LLC tax for that year.

Neither the franchise tax nor the LLC tax is prorated. Your company might also owe US federal corporate income tax for the outgoing year. It might also owe taxes to a US state other than Delaware, depending on where the LLC operates.

Company types

When to form your company

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