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Written by : Cathrine Crotwell |
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want to quickly start an llc in iowa for free i'll help you do just that in this step-by-step tutorial i'll make sure to cover any critical requirements and important tricks that you should not miss when forming your llc then also as a bonus later on in the video i'll show you a trustworthy registered agent who will set up your llc for free and save you the time and hassle so make sure to stick with me until the end let's first take a look at the steps required for forming an llc by yourself step 1 name your business before anything else you'll have to think of the llc's legal business name each llc in iowa must have a distinct llc name that is not currently in use you must include the terms limited liability company or an abbreviation such as llc you cannot include phrases such as corporation which would lead people to believe you are a different business type finding out if your business name has been taken or not is very easy simply go to google and type in the words business entity records iowa secretary of state and click the first search result i'll also leave the link in the description below for your convenience it will lead you to the official page of business entity records in iowa scroll down a little and you will see some search options which makes checking the availability of your business name easier generally you can click the first option entity name and type in your business name for example i'm typing a very common business name here a1 cleaning service which will give you a list of existing business names a unique business name will say no match is found just like this random name i typed in the secretary of state must reserve the llc's trade name before filing name reservations are a one-of-a-kind requirement and iowa is one of the only states that mandates them which will unfortunately add an extra step to the usual process you can make a name reservation for 10 and this reserve name lasts up to 120 days from the acceptance date of the application with a usual processing time of around one week by completing the iowa llc name reservation request form by going to this link don't worry i'll also have this link down in the description below you can click the document link download the pdf file fill it out print it and mail it to the secretary of state step 2 get a registered agent iowa requires llcs to have a registered agent an agent has a physical address spo box is not allowed and is available during normal business hours this agent will serve as the llc's primary point of contact for receiving key legal papers tax warnings summons subpoenas and so on you or someone in your company can become this registered agent however i highly recommend you utilize a professional registered agent as they have much more knowledge of protecting your company in cases of possible issues like problems concerning court schedules or filing reports with the secretary of state etc besides hiring a professional registered agent is very affordable these days in fact an honest and reliable company i recommend inkfile offers a free registered agent as part of their package when you form your llc through them but i'll talk more on this later in the video step 3 filing the iowa llc certificate of formation the next app requires you to file the certificate of information with the ios secretary of state business services division the iowa state filing cost for llc is 50 with the option of online application or through mail to the secretary of state you would have to download and print this document from their official website making sure you read all the requirements carefully so your form gets accepted when physically mailing it through this whole process should take between 10 to 15 business days step 4 preparing an operating agreement now an operating agreement is a good idea to have in place with the other members if your llc has more than one member although a limited liability company operating agreement is not required for iowa your operating agreement should clarify how your company or business will handle big picture issues these include the transfer of membership interest profits losses and distributions initial investments decision making powers voting rights team management and lastly dissolving the business step 5 obtain an ein next we need to get an ein for your llc an ein or employer identification number is a federal tax id issued by the irs to your company your ein is used by the irs to readily identify your firm on tax filings all iowa firms pay a business privilege tax and the state requires you to have an ein to file you may also be required to provide your ein when opening a bank account or applying for municipal permits or licenses obtaining an ein is a slightly longer process compared to the previous steps i'm sure you know anything to do with the irs is confusing and tedious first you have to have complete knowledge of your llc such as your company information managing member information business address business information company details and even the critical information regarding vehicular assets and federal excise taxes this is another reason why getting a professional registered agent is way more convenient as they can do this for you as part of their service and inkfile the service i recommend above is one of the best companies out there to help you form your iowa llc you can click on the link in the description or type this into your browser to get access to this package ink file is one of a kind as it offers a free silver package with services such as preparing and filing your articles of organization well you still have to pay 50 for the state fees which you would have to do anyway if you chose the diy option but looking at the bigger picture all other companies will still charge for their service fee on top of state filing fees but infile does not collect this fee this plan already includes a free registered agent for your first year of subscription and 119 dollars annually moving forward if you decide to continue the service after the first year however inkfile's gold package is the one i would recommend to everyone as it will save you a lot of time and hassle for an extra small fee inkfile will obtain your ein business tax number and create an operating agreement which will eliminate the overall steps 4 and 5 from above now if you are in a hurry and require expedited filings or you want to have a domain name with a business email address then their platinum package is also worth considering otherwise i would stick with a gold package now i want to guide you on the next step to take when starting your llc so if you have chosen the diy option then i recommend you check out this video which will help you pick the best bank accounts for your business to avoid comingling funds and piercing the corporate veil but if you've chosen option 2 of using a professional formation service but want more information on ink file then check out this video where i've done an in-depth tutorial and review on them so check it out and i'll see you over in that next video
Thanks for your comment Elise Herschaft, have a nice day.
- Cathrine Crotwell, Staff Member
what's going on guys in this video I want to show you how easy it is to set up an LLC now I'm gonna be doing this for Iowa but your state is gonna be very similar the best part is I just set up my second LLC this morning and so we're gonna follow the template that I used ever since the first LLC I'll also include a template of the articles of organization which is basically all you're gonna need to do this now I have to say this purely from a cya and that is this is purely for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial and legal advice it's best to consult an attorney when forming an LLC now having said that let's take a look at the process now for all the states you're gonna go to your Secretary of State's website now this particular one again is Iowa's and so you can do all kinds of business related things on this website but what we're looking for is we're looking for fast-track filing your state might call it something different like electronic filing or once we click that gonna load up the page where we can create our login the good part is is I've already set up a burner email so we're just gonna use that in order to to do this process alright here we are and what we're gonna do is again we're gonna sign up for an account it's totally free we're just gonna add up I'm making up some stuff making some kind of burner password and then we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna submit the form okay they have sent a confirmation email which we have here you're gonna go ahead and confirm it anyway I'll log in with those lovely credentials again our inside where we need to be and we are going to make a document file a document and we're looking to form a limited liability company or LLC fill out this form and then it's gonna basically you're gonna be able to submit it and take a look at the template that I was telling you guys about you may want to pause at this point in the video to take a closer look at this let's kind of do this briefly so that I don't totally kill this and again I would put that LLC name also in here then my actual name my address my actual city my state all that good stuff I go with member manage but again you may want to consult a legal representative for the viability purposes of that also you're gonna be a hundred percent owner unless you have a partner or something and you'll have to split that up accordingly the cool thing is like I say this is a template so if you pause the video here you can use this template to create yours this might change too you may not be a Commerce you may be something different LLC name LLC name your name here of course update the date again I did this just today so that's why the information is as such so let's pretend that we did in fact do that and we'll go ahead and save that select if your partnership or not then again you put in your LLC name make sure that you have a lile c at the end because that's part of the deal if you don't it's gonna give you this air well it looks like I gotta put in the date you want her to be perpetual which means it's gonna continue on and still not allow me to check name which kind of sucks whatever we're gonna go with that and then we're gonna find that lovely thing that I just showed you save it as a PDF now we'll jump back to the website again where we and then you'll fill out your information I'm not gonna click this button because that might not be very smart but I'm gonna click the save work which I can't I think won't show you far enough down there we go you barely just saw it there and I'm just gonna save this now if I was gonna continue this I'd actually check that under perjury you know this information is true and correct which again I can't really do that because this address stuff is made up I could do that and then I could just go down to review and pay which would go ahead and make this a formal deal and then the state would get back to you in about 24 hours and that guys is how easy it is to form an LLC if you have any questions though let me know below I'd be happy to answer them
Thanks burleG your participation is very much appreciated
- Cathrine Crotwell
About the author
I've studied cryogenics at Northern New Mexico College in Espanola and I am an expert in european history. I usually feel predatory. My previous job was radio operators I held this position for 29 years, I love talking about graphic design and web development. Huge fan of Mark Twain I practice cycling: mountain bike) and collect books and periodicals.
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