US Expansion — Wyoming/Delaware LLC, EIN, Banking

Permanent establishment is a tax-law concept — abbreviated PE, and known as Betriebsstätte in German-speaking practice. It has nothing to do with your office in the everyday sense; it answers the question of which country may tax your company's profit. The principle: tax is levied where the company is resident. If it maintains a permanent establishment in another country, that country may also tax the profit attributable to it. For your US LLC that means: where it is registered matters less than where it is actually run. Run it actively from Tbilisi and a permanent establishment may arise in Georgia under Art. 27–29 GTC — turning the attributed profit into Georgian-source income instead of tax-free foreign income under Art. 82.

There are three practical connecting factors: the place of management (who makes the operational decisions, and from where), a fixed place of business (premises from which the activity is carried on with permanence) and the dependent agent (who habitually concludes contracts in the company name). The Revenue Service examines the actual circumstances rather than contractual labels — the general anti-avoidance rule, GAAR (Art. 73.9 GTC), explicitly permits recharacterising a structure according to its economic substance. A paper construct without a lived division of roles does not survive that examination.

It is not a penalty provision but a shift in taxing rights — with tangible consequences: the attributable profit becomes Georgian-source income and is taxed normally. Because a permanent establishment arises from the actual circumstances and not from its discovery, the reassessment also reaches back over prior years. On top of that come registration and filing obligations whose breach is sanctioned separately. That is why the design is part of the setup, not a later repair.

Yes, but via a different route than most people assume. Permanent absence from Georgia means no permanent establishment arises there — the director solution becomes unnecessary. But tax residency is then reachable only through the HNWI programme: assets above 3m GEL or income above 200,000 GEL in each of the last three years, Georgian real estate of at least USD 500,000, plus either a residence permit or at least 25,000 GEL of Georgian-source income, renewed annually. And the permanent-establishment risk does not disappear; it moves to whichever country you are actually staying in.

No. The tax identification number (TIN) is issued by the Revenue Service almost immediately, even without any presence — it is an identifier and says nothing about residency. Banks, CRS self-certifications and tax treaties all require the tax residency certificate, and that presupposes 183 days in any 12-month period or HNWI status. This confusion is the single most common design fault in self-built structures.

No. A visa governs immigration status, not tax status — two separate legal regimes. Thailand, for example, ties tax residency to 180 days in a calendar year regardless of whether you are there on a tourist stamp, an Elite membership or a DTV. Individual programmes do carry a genuine tax benefit, but that is the exception and has to be verified per country and per programme.

No. An LLC can be formed by non-US persons without an SSN/ITIN — the Articles of Organization do not ask for it. For the EIN application, Form SS-4 is filed by fax or mail (online is not possible without an SSN), processing 4-6 weeks. In urgent cases a phone application via the IRS international hotline is possible.

For the LLC itself: no, only a registered agent (which we provide). For US banks (Mercury, Wise Business, traditional banks): usually a commercial US address (a PO box is often not enough). We set up a real address with mail forwarding for about USD 200-400/year.

Yes, provided the LLC has a US EIN, a US bank account with a routing number and you can demonstrate a plausible business activity. Stripe runs KYC on the owner (an EU or other passport + Georgian tax residency is a clean profile). Verification time: 3-7 business days after application.

For a single-member LLC without a US trade or business: no, there is no US federal income tax on the LLC. Pass-through means the owner is taxed — and the owner lives in Georgia (territorial). State tax: 0% in Wyoming, 0% in Delaware on out-of-state income. Sales tax can become relevant depending on where your customers are. If you are tax-resident outside Georgia, your home country taxes the pass-through profits — check your home-country rules.

Wyoming LLC: about USD 60 state fee + USD 100 registered agent + USD 200-400 US address + USD 400-800 Form 5472 filing/year = **about USD 800-1,400/year** in direct costs. Delaware: an additional USD 240 franchise tax difference. Plus optionally our ongoing service at EUR 50-100/month for compliance reminders + filings.

LLC formation: 1-3 business days (Wyoming) or 5 business days (Delaware standard). EIN: 4-6 weeks by fax (or same day via an IRS hotline call). Mercury bank account: 2-7 business days after the EIN. Stripe verification: 3-7 business days after the US bank opening. Realistically: **6-8 weeks from engagement to fully operational** with Stripe live.

Wyoming: filing a Statement of Dissolution + Cancellation, about USD 60, done in 1-2 weeks. Delaware: Certificate of Cancellation + final franchise tax filing, about USD 200. The EIN formally remains but is inactive after dissolution. We coordinate the wind-down — no minimum term, no penalty payments.

Stripe Atlas is just a convenience service bundling LLC formation + bank account + Stripe account into one package. Functionally, a directly formed Wyoming LLC + Mercury + a manual Stripe application is identical — and usually cheaper and more flexible. We build the direct variant.