Stripe Atlas next steps

Running your business

Accepting payments with Stripe

After completing your company formation process, you can activate your U.S. Stripe payments account. When it’s activated, you’ll need to add your bank account to your Dashboard, and then you can start processing live payments. Read more about Stripe payments.

Opening a business bank account

Stripe Atlas founders can open a business bank account with one of our partners after forming a company. Our banking partners determine supportability and they may not be able to support all businesses. You can read more about adding your bank account to your Dashboard.

Mercury

After you complete company formation, you have the option to open a bank account with Mercury. Both C Corporations and LLCs are eligible to apply for Mercury. Current residents of some countries may not be eligible for Mercury (you may still be eligible if you’re a citizen but not a current resident). For details see Mercury’s FAQ.

Mercury setup

When you apply for a Mercury business bank account, you’ll need to provide the following information:

A description of your business and link to your website (if available)
Filed formation/incorporation documents from the state of Delaware (accessible on the Dashboard)
IRS-issued EIN document (Form CP575, Form 147c, completed Form SS-4, or a screenshot of the EIN confirmation from the IRS’s website)
International passport or U.S. government ID for each founder or majority owner (more than 25%) of the company
Residential address (does not have to be in the U.S.) of each beneficial owner of the company
Email address for each beneficial owner of the company
U.S. Social Security number for each beneficial owner of the company (if applicable)
Phone number of each beneficial owner of the company

Mercury fees

Visit Mercury’s FAQ and Mercury’s pricing page.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)

After you complete company formation, you have the option to open a bank account at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

SVB setup

During the application process, you’ll be prompted to select administrators for your SVB account. After you open the bank account, the administrators receive a temporary password to log in online.

You can link your SVB account to your Stripe account to have Stripe payments automatically deposited. As soon as your business banking account and Stripe payment accounts are open, you can begin accepting live payments.

SVB fees

For details, visit SVB’s website.

Stripe Atlas partner benefits

Stripe Atlas provides additional benefits to its users beyond helping them create a U.S. company and obtain a U.S. tax ID for the company. Stripe Atlas founders can activate a Stripe account, open a bank account with one of our banking partners, access free credits, and receive exclusive access to free products and discounted pricing from our partners (including up to $100,000 USD in credits). Be aware that our partners may have specific rules and expiration dates for offers relevant to their program—check with each benefit partner for the terms of each benefit.

Additional resources

Stripe Atlas users have access to legal guides and to a tax guide, accessible on the Dashboard. We also encourage you to read and refer to our Stripe Atlas guides—primers explaining accounting, taxes, employment, and more.

The Stripe Atlas Community

Stripe Atlas members join the Stripe Atlas Community, a global community of entrepreneurs. Atlas members can connect with founders and get practical advice. You’ll get access to the community after you receive your company’s EIN. After you’re granted access, use your Stripe account details to log in.

If you have co-founders, you can grant them access to the Stripe Atlas Community by making them administrators of your Stripe account.

Registered agent service

Delaware requires that companies have a registered agent to receive official notices. A registered agent is included as part of the initial $500 USD setup fee and is renewed automatically each year. Your registered agent may contact you directly to share legal notices and communications from Delaware with you. Your registered agent address is not a general purpose mail-forwarding address for your company and shouldn’t be listed as a company address. You can separately choose to use a virtual address service to receive general mail and for customer contact.

Legal

Stripe Atlas users have access to legal guides and free annotated legal templates that can be customized for their company’s next steps after incorporation, accessible in your Dashboard.

Stripe Atlas users also have access to a network of startup attorneys who can provide a short free consultation and flat-rate legal packages for Atlas users. You can contact us after forming your company to get in touch with our partner law firms.

Bookkeeping

Stripe Atlas users have access to bookkeeping services at preferred pricing; you can sign up in your Dashboard after you complete forming your company. We also have written a guide about startup bookkeeping and accounting that you can read at any time.

Taxes

Companies formed in Delaware are subject to yearly tax obligations, including:

U.S. federal and state corporate income tax as applicable
Delaware franchise tax (for C Corporations) or annual LLC tax (for Limited Liability Companies)
A similar annual tax if your Delaware company also operates in other U.S. state(s)

Stripe’s partners can assist you in meeting tax requirements for states outside Delaware.

Make sure to watch the calendar, and plan ahead to meet any tax deadlines that apply to your business.

Stripe isn’t an accounting firm and can’t provide tax or accounting advice. You should consult legal and tax professionals for advice on how to meet ongoing obligations that apply to your company. You might want to review the Stripe Atlas guide to business taxes before you get started.

2022 Key tax season dates

Plan ahead to meet any tax deadlines that apply to your business. For companies active in 2021, these include:

C Corporations

March 1, 2022: Delaware franchise tax due (penalty for late payments: $200 USD fee and interest of 1.5% per month on the tax amount originally due)
April 15, 2022: U.S. federal corporate income tax due date
October 15, 2022: If you filed for an extension, this is the due date for filing U.S. corporate income taxes

Also, if your U.S. company has employees, or makes payments to U.S. vendors, it might be required to file a U.S. W-2 or 1099 form by January 31, 2022.

Tax partners

Each US business is required to pay income taxes. We have partnered with tax advisors that specialize in working with startups to provide you affordable options for filing your corporate income taxes. These services are used by top startups and offer discounts for Stripe Atlas users. Each service specializes in a different area—choose the one that’s right for your company:

Standalone tax prep along with optional bookkeeping services

Atlas partners with EarlyGrowth and GBS Tax for standalone tax preparation. This can be useful if you do not yet need, or already have, a bookkeeping service.

EarlyGrowth (1, 500 USD one-time): This package includes a federal tax return, one state tax return, and a 30-minute consultation with an accountant.
GBS Tax & Bookkeeping (from 299 USD one-time): GBS offers all-inclusive bookkeeping and tax packages starting at 1,500 USD per year, or tax-only packages from 299 USD.

Subscription bookkeeping with included tax preparation

Bench and Pilot offer tax preparation as part of their bookkeeping services.

Bench (from 249 USD per month): Tax prep and bookkeeping done for you as part of a monthly subscription. Stripe Atlas users get 30% off their first 3 months of Bench. Not available for founders based outside of the US.
Pilot (from 1,950 USD per year): Pilot offers full tax preparation services tailored to your company. Pilot provides you with a dedicated tax preparer with decades of tax experience who can answer all of your questions.

Filing taxes in Delaware

Your company’s tax and reporting obligations in Delaware depend on whether you’re forming a C Corporation or a Limited Liability Company (LLC).

All Delaware C Corporations are required to pay the Delaware franchise tax and to file an annual report, which can be paid online if you’d like to complete it yourself. Even companies with no revenue in the previous fiscal year should expect to pay some amount.

If you want to hire a tax professional to complete this, you can work with one of our tax partners or a tax advisor of your own choosing.

Delaware franchise tax

You have the option to recalculate your taxes due on the Delaware website. Follow the steps below. Delaware sends notices using a calculation method that results in large tax bills for companies with more than 5,000 shares. Most Atlas companies find they pay less tax when they use the Assumed Par Value Capital method instead of the default Authorized Shares method. You can read about these methods on Delaware’s website. If the franchise tax isn’t submitted by March 1, there is a $200 USD late fee and interest of 1.5% per month on the tax amount originally due.

How to pay Delaware franchise tax

Login to the state of Delaware’s website with your seven digit Delaware Business Entity File Number
- You can easily find your company’s file number in two ways:
  1. Use Delaware’s entity search tool with your company’s legal name
  2. Find the State of Delaware stamp on page 2 of your Filed Certificate of Incorporation, accessible in your Dashboard
Click on the file annual report link
Enter your company information:
- Complete the stock information section to adjust your taxes owed shown in the upper right corner: enter the number of shares your company has issued, your gross assets (your total assets on your corporate income tax return), and your asset date (the same as your end of fiscal year). Then click the recalculate tax button (can take some time to reload)
- Complete all of the remaining required fields indicated with a red star
- If you haven’t adjusted your list of officers or directors since you incorporated, you can find these individuals in your Board Approval document, accessible in your Dashboard
When all required information is complete, press the green continue filing button to review your information for accuracy
After you verify you entered all of the correct information, press the green proceed to payment button
- You can choose to pay Delaware franchise tax and annual report filing fee either by credit card or ACH. After inputting your payment information, push the green submit button to finalize your Delaware state taxes

You can save your work and return to it later, just make sure to save your session number, which the Delaware portal gives you the option of sending to an email address for easier access.

If you have additional questions regarding Delaware state taxes, you can get in touch with our tax partners.

State taxes beyond Delaware

If your company operates in any U.S. states other than Delaware, it might be subject to annual taxation, registration, and reporting requirements in the other states. Stripe recommends that you consult legal and tax professionals about what requirements apply to your business.

Filing U.S. Income Tax

Before working with an accountant and filing taxes, you should prepare as much of your company’s year-end financial data as possible. This is part of your bookkeeping responsibilities. There are several tools like Xero, Bench, and Pilot that can help with this, and you might want to view our guide to tax season.

The information to prepare depends on whether you are forming a C Corporation or a Limited Liability Company (LLC).

Be sure to have the following information for your corporation (as of the last day of the fiscal year for which you’re filing):

General information about your business. This includes your EIN.
The company’s financials. You can learn about year-end financial reports in our guide to tax season. If you don’t have any revenue or expenses for the past fiscal year, you may still need to file taxes.
Company ownership. Your corporation might have shares held by individual shareholders or business entities. Make sure the information reflects the current ownership.
Additional information. If your company employs people, owns property, operates locally in the U.S., or operates abroad, you might have additional tax and reporting requirements. Some of the taxes you might want to ask about include:
- Transfer pricing, if you’re based outside the U.S.
- State taxes, if you have business activity in any U.S. state
- Sales taxes
- Employment taxes

The Stripe Atlas guide to business taxes has more information about tax types that might apply to your business.

Are you waiting for your EIN?

In your tax forms, you can enter Applied For and the application date, which you can find on your Form SS-4 in the Dashboard.

Taxes before dissolving your company

If you aren’t operating your company anymore, you might still be obligated to file taxes every year until you dissolve it. When you dissolve a company, there might be additional tax filings and obligations for the year in which you dissolve the company. You can work with our tax partners to figure out what your obligations may be.

C Corporations can be dissolved in the state of Delaware only after they pay Delaware franchise tax and file their annual report. LLCs can be dissolved only after they pay annual LLC tax (no annual report is required).

Stripe Atlas users who need help closing their company’s operations can work with a lawyer to dissolve their company. If you need help finding an attorney, Stripe Atlas can connect you with lawyers who can assist you.

When to form your company

If you plan to form your company near the end of the calendar year, potentially wait until the start of the new year to form your company, given 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 U.S. federal corporate income tax for the outgoing year. It might also owe taxes to a U.S. state other than Delaware, depending on where the LLC operates.

Additional tax resources

Here are some additional resources that may be helpful to learn more about business taxes: