Choose your business structure
Decide whether you will trade as a sole proprietor, an LLC, or a corporation before you file anything.
About 45 min · easy · free
Why this matters
Every later step - the EIN, the bank account, how you are taxed - follows from this one decision.
Doing it
Step by step
Write down what you actually do and who carries the risk
Name the service, the state you operate in, whether anyone else works with you, and whether customers come to you or you go to them.
Compare the three realistic options
Sole proprietor: nothing to file, no liability separation. LLC: a filing and a fee, keeps business and personal liability apart. Corporation: more admin, usually only worth it with investors or specific tax planning.
Decide, and note the reason
One sentence: structure, state, reason. If the reason is a tax question you cannot answer, book an hour with an accountant before filing.
Official help
- Open official page
The only official place to get an EIN, free of charge.
Get your AI to help
Hand this to your AI
Choose a business structure
Help the owner reach a defensible decision on sole proprietorship, LLC or corporation for a small local service business.
How should it behave?
It stops and asks you before going further: Stop before telling the owner to file anything. Filing is their action, taken on the official state site or through a service they choose.
Legal, tax and financial rules differ by state and change. This is process guidance, not legal, tax or financial advice - for a binding answer, use the official agency source or a licensed professional in your state. Any tool named is a suggestion to evaluate, not a requirement.
You're done when
You can state, in one sentence, the structure you are forming, the state you are forming in, and why.
- Not yet
You have chosen a structure and can say why
Sole proprietor, LLC or corporation, the reason matters more than the label.
Check it worked: Write the sentence down. If you cannot say why, you have not decided yet.
Almost there
Still to confirm: You have chosen a structure and can say why.
If it goes wrong
If liability or tax treatment is genuinely unclear for your trade, that is a question for a licensed accountant or attorney in your state, not for a website or an AI.