Formation
Filed right,
filed fast.
LLC or corporation, formed in New York with your EIN the same day, plus a plain-English guide to what each entity type means for your taxes, and the deadline calendar that keeps you out of trouble.
Included
What every package covers
Filing services hand you documents and wish you luck. The paperwork is the easy part, what actually costs you money is picking the wrong entity, missing the publication deadline, and running your first year without books. All three are handled here.
| What you get | Worth |
|---|---|
| Articles of Organization filed with New York State | $300 |
| EIN obtained, free from the IRS, my fee covers doing it right and same-day | $150 |
| The entity decision kit, a plain-English comparison of how each structure is taxed, a decision checklist, and Form 2553 prepared and filed at your direction if you elect S-corp | $400 |
| Publication tracked to the 120-day deadline, the one nobody else watches | $250 |
| FreshBooks set up and configured, with 90% off your first 6 months | $232 |
| Year-one filing calendar, every federal, state, and city deadline | $150 |
| Bank account guidance, what to bring, which accounts avoid monthly fees | $100 |
| Total | $1,582 |
Three speeds
Identical work in all three. What you are buying is position in the queue.
3 to 5 business days
Priority
$549
Fast enough for a bank appointment or a signed lease.
Choose PriorityEvery price is plus state filing fees, passed through at cost with receipts. I do not mark up government fees, and nothing here recurs. No registered-agent subscription, no compliance plan, nothing that auto-renews. When the filing is done, we are done.
Newspaper publication is required by law for LLCs and is not included in any package. It is a separate opt-in, explained below.
About that $232. It's not a made-up number. FreshBooks' Plus plan is $43/month; through my partner link it's $4.30/month for six months. That's $232.20 you keep, and it's the one line on this list you can verify before you pay me anything.
The guarantee
Filed within one business day of your approval, or my fee is free.
Not "if the state rejects it," because a rejected name is usually a name you picked, and I'll refile it either way at no charge. This guarantees the part I actually control: once you say go, your paperwork doesn't sit on my desk. State processing time after that is outside anyone's hands, and I'll never pretend otherwise.
The one thing I don't do
I can't draft your operating agreement. That's legal work, and I'm not an attorney, anyone selling you a "custom" one without a law license is doing something they shouldn't.
What I will do is make sure you know you need one. New York requires every LLC to adopt an operating agreement, and most people forming through a cheap online service never find out. If you're a single member, a straightforward agreement covers it. If you have partners, money, or anything unusual, get a lawyer, and I'll refer you to one. That conversation costs you a few hundred dollars and prevents the disputes that cost tens of thousands.
Entity choice
How the three actually differ
Framed by what each does to your taxes. Legal differences, liability structure, ownership rules, operating agreements, are an attorney's territory, and I'll say so again below.
| LLC (default) | LLC + S-corp election | C-corp | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who pays the tax | You, on your personal return | You, on your personal return | The corporation, separately |
| Self-employment tax | On all net profit | Only on your salary | Not applicable, you're an employee |
| Payroll required | No | Yes, you must pay yourself a reasonable salary | Yes |
| Roughly when it makes sense | Starting out, or profit still modest | Once profit comfortably exceeds a reasonable salary for your role | Outside investors, retained earnings, certain benefit structures |
| Admin burden | Lowest | Moderate, payroll filings all year | Highest |
| Watch out for | SE tax on every dollar of profit | Paying yourself too little, the IRS scrutinizes this | Double taxation on distributed profit |
The S-corp election is where most of the money is, and where most of the bad advice is. It saves self-employment tax on profit above your salary, but it obligates you to run payroll and to pay yourself a defensible wage. Elected too early, the payroll cost exceeds the saving. The table above is general information, the same for every reader, it isn't a recommendation for your situation. Run your own numbers against it, and when the choice turns on liability, partners, or investors rather than tax mechanics, spend an hour with a business attorney before you elect. I file whichever you choose.
ADD REAL THRESHOLDS ONCE YOU'VE VERIFIED THEM for the current tax year, the profit level where the S-corp election typically breaks even, and current SE tax rates and wage bases. Do not publish specific dollar thresholds until you've checked them against current IRS figures; they move annually and a stale number here is worse than none. This is also the paragraph to link to the S-corp calculator once it's built.The part nobody warns you about
New York's publication requirement
Every new LLC in New York must publish a formation notice in two newspapers designated by your county clerk, one daily, one weekly, once a week for six consecutive weeks. You don't get to pick the papers. Then you file a Certificate of Publication with the state.
It catches nearly everyone, because the cheap online filing services quote you a formation fee and never mention it. Then a bill for four figures arrives from a newspaper you've never heard of.
What actually happens if you skip it
Here's the part almost nobody will tell you straight, and you've probably already heard it from someone who formed an LLC and never published: nothing happens right away. There are no fines. No late fees. No penalty interest. The state does not dissolve your LLC and nobody comes looking.
Plenty of New York LLCs operate for years unpublished and never notice a thing.
What the statute actually does is suspend your LLC's authority to conduct business. That sounds severe and mostly isn't, because of what it leaves alone: your LLC still legally exists, your contracts stay valid and enforceable, and your personal liability protection is completely untouched.
Where it does bite is narrow but real:
- You can't sue anyone in New York courts while suspended. Other people can still sue you, the disadvantage runs one direction.
- You can't get a Certificate of Good Standing. Banks ask for one on business loans. Commercial landlords ask on leases. Buyers ask if you ever sell the business. Some vendors and larger clients ask before signing.
And it's fixable whenever. Publish late, file the Certificate of Publication with the affidavits, and the statute annuls the suspension, no penalty for having waited.
So the honest advice: budget for it and do it, because the moment you need it done is always the moment you're under time pressure for something else, a loan closing, a lease signing, a lawsuit. But if you formed an LLC last year and never published, you're not in trouble. You're in the same position as a large share of New York LLCs, and it's a solvable problem.
What it costs
| County | Typical publication cost |
|---|---|
| Queens | $700 to $1,450 |
| Manhattan (New York County) | Highest in the state |
| Brooklyn (Kings) | Above Queens |
| Bronx / Staten Island | Generally lower |
| Upstate counties | Substantially lower |
Plus a $50 Certificate of Publication filing fee to the state.
VERIFY AND FILL IN THE EXACT FIGURES before publishing. The Queens range is researched and current; the other counties are directional only. Call the county clerks or check current designated-newspaper rate cards and put real dollar ranges in every row. A precise borough-by-borough table is the single most linkable thing you could put on this site, it's what makes this page rank and what makes people trust the rest of it. Do not publish vague rows if you can get real ones.Can you avoid it?
Corporations aren't subject to it, only LLCs. Some people form in a cheaper county, but your published county must be where the LLC's designated office actually is, and misrepresenting that creates a different problem. The honest answer is usually that it's a cost of doing business as an LLC in New York, and it should be in your startup budget from day one.
Handling it, your two options
The obligation is yours either way. What is optional is whether you pay me to run it.
Do it yourself
Call the Queens County Clerk, get the two designated newspapers, place the notice, collect both affidavits after six weeks, then file the Certificate of Publication with the state.
Perfectly doable. The failure mode is forgetting the affidavits or missing the 120 day window while you are busy running a new business.
Add it to your filing
I place both notices, track the six weeks, collect the affidavits, and file the certificate. You hear from me when it is done.
Newspaper and state costs passed through at cost with receipts. Cost varies by county; Queens sits below Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Verify the requirement at NY Department of StateScope
What I do, and what I don't
Said plainly, because the line matters and plenty of services blur it.
Filing, at your direction
Formation documents as you direct them, EIN, Form 2553 filing, deadlines, publication compliance, bookkeeping setup. You choose; I execute.
Legal judgment
Operating agreements, bylaws, partner arrangements, anything contested, and the entity choice itself when it turns on liability or ownership rather than taxes. I'll refer you to one.
A CPA or an attorney
I'm a bookkeeper and tax preparer. If your situation needs a licensed opinion or IRS representation, I'll tell you rather than take the work.
Questions
What people ask
What happens if I just don't publish?
No fines, no late fees, no dissolution, and you've probably met someone this happened to. Your LLC's authority to do business gets suspended, but the LLC still exists, contracts stay valid, and liability protection is untouched. It bites in two places: you can't sue in New York courts while suspended, and you can't get a Certificate of Good Standing, which banks want for loans and landlords want for leases. You can publish late at any time and filing the certificate wipes the suspension out. My advice is to budget for it anyway, because you'll need it done on the day you're least able to wait three weeks.
Do corporations have to publish too?
No, corporations are exempt entirely. The requirement comes from Section 206 of the LLC Law and covers LLCs, PLLCs, limited partnerships, and foreign LLCs registering here. If you form an Inc. or a Corp., publication never applies and that cost disappears from your budget. It's occasionally a real factor in choosing between the two.
How fast is it really?
Filing goes in the same day I have your details, and the EIN usually lands within the hour. State processing time is outside my control, though expedited options exist. The publication then runs six weeks in the background, you're operating long before it finishes.
What's the total I should budget?
My fee plus the state filing fee plus, for LLCs, publication. In Queens that realistically means my fee plus somewhere around a thousand dollars in unavoidable government and newspaper costs. I'll give you the exact number before you commit to anything.
Can I just do this myself?
Yes, genuinely. The state's filing portal is public and the EIN is free at IRS.gov. If you're organized and have an afternoon, you'll save my fee. What you're buying is that I do this every day, I won't miss the publication deadline, and everything arrives done, organized, and on time.
Should I be an LLC or an S-corp?
An S-corp isn't an entity, it's a tax election made on top of an LLC or corporation. Whether it helps depends on your profit relative to a reasonable salary for your work; below a certain point the payroll costs exceed the savings. The comparison table above lays out the mechanics for every reader. The choice is yours to make, and when it involves partners, liability, or investors, it's a question for a business attorney, not a filing service. Once you've chosen, I prepare and file the election at your direction.
Do you handle other states?
New York is what I know cold, and the publication rule alone makes it its own specialty. Ask me about other states and I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right person.
What happens after I'm formed?
You'll need books and a tax return. I do both, bookkeeping is here, but there's no obligation, and I'll hand you clean records either way.
Let's get you filed.
Tell me what you're building and I'll tell you what it costs, the whole number, not the teaser.