Starting a new business venture can be an exciting yet daunting task. There are many legal and logistical steps involved in making your business official, from choosing a business structure to filing paperwork with the state.
Forming a limited liability company (LLC) in Pennsylvania is a popular choice for many small business owners in the state. An LLC provides liability protection and pass-through taxation, meaning your business income and losses pass through to your personal tax return. This avoids double taxation.
While you can form an LLC yourself by filing articles of organization with the Pennsylvania Department of State, using an online LLC formation service can make the process smoother and more efficient. These services take care of completing and filing all the necessary paperwork for you, as well as providing useful tools and resources for your new business.
Here are the top 5 LLC formation services in Pennsylvania to consider for starting your business:
Disclaimer: the rates and offerings below are subjected to changes made by the service providers.
Before diving into the various LLC formation services, let’s go over the basics of what an LLC is and why it’s an attractive option for many small business owners.
An LLC, or limited liability company, is a business structure that combines aspects of partnerships and corporations. Like a corporation, an LLC provides liability protection for its owners, called members. The members’ personal assets are generally protected from any business debts and legal issues. LLCs are also pass-through entities like partnerships, meaning the business profits and losses pass through to the members’ personal tax returns. The business itself does not pay taxes on income. This avoids the double taxation issue that C-corporations face.
Some key benefits of forming an LLC in Pennsylvania include:
LLCs are formed by filing articles of organization and an operating agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of State. You’ll also need an EIN from the IRS and may need additional business licenses.
While forming an LLC yourself is possible, using an online service can save you time and effort with the initial paperwork and ongoing compliance requirements.
Tailor Brands is an online small business platform that provides LLC formation services as well as tools to build your brand.
Tailor Brands offers a comprehensive suite of services, covering LLC registration, compliance, taxes, business banking, branding, marketing, and more. For LLC formation, you simply select your state and answer a few questions to generate customized articles of organization. Tailor Brands will file these articles with Pennsylvania for you and obtain your certificate of organization.
We can also provide an operating agreement, EIN, and assist with applying for business licenses and sales tax permits. Ongoing compliance services are available to keep your LLC in good standing, such as annual reports, amendments, and transactional filings.
In addition to LLC formation, Tailor Brands provides useful branding and marketing tools like logo design, website builders, business email addresses, digital business cards, and printed marketing materials. This allows you to establish your brand identity in tandem with forming your legal business entity.
You also get access to tax professionals for consultations, accounting services, and assistance with yearly filings. Plus business banking solutions, legal documents, and business insurance options.
Tailor Brands offers transparent and affordable LLC formation pricing, starting at $0 plus state fees to form your LLC.
Tailor Brands aims to provide a centralized platform to not only form your LLC officially but also establish your brand identity and access business services. The affordable pricing options and variety of business formation, compliance, branding, banking, legal, accounting, and tax services make Tailor Brands the ultimate business builder.
ZenBusiness is one of the most well-known and top-rated LLC formation services. They focus solely on streamlining business formation and compliance.
For LLC formation, ZenBusiness offers three packages: Starter, Pro, and Premium. All include preparation and filing of articles of organization, obtaining your EIN, and a full compliance guarantee.
The Pro and Premium plans add increasing levels of expedited filing, rush processing, operating agreement templates, annual report filings, and pro features like domain name registration. ZenBusiness also provides registered agent service.
While ZenBusiness handles all the essentials of LLC formation and ongoing compliance, they do not offer as wide a range of additional services and resources as some competitors. The focus is strictly on LLC registration and maintenance.
ZenBusiness uses an à la carte pricing model for its various LLC services.
Overall, ZenBusiness provides streamlined LLC filing and maintenance at very reasonable costs. The Pro plan offers a nice balance of essential perks for an affordable annual fee.
ZenBusiness earns very high marks for ease of use, transparent pricing, and excellent customer service. They take care of all the bureaucratic hassles of LLC formation and compliance so you can focus on building your business.
ZenBusiness delivers quick, headache-free LLC filing backed by superb support. They are a great option for solo founders and bootstrappers who just need the bare essentials to launch.
Recognized as the first company to offer online legal document preparation, LegalZoom is perhaps the most established brand in the online legal services industry.
True to its history, LegalZoom offers a robust library of customizable legal documents covering various aspects of starting and operating a business.
For LLC formation, LegalZoom will prepare your articles of organization, obtain EIN, and file with Pennsylvania. They also create customized operating agreements and assist with getting necessary business licenses.
Beyond LLC filing, LegalZoom provides tools for incorporation, trademarks, DBA registrations, annual reports, compliance, as well as estate planning, taxes, and personal legal documents. Add-on services include registered agent, business funding, websites, and legal advice plans with direct access to their network of attorneys.
LegalZoom has tiered pricing plans for LLC formation:
While not the cheapest option, LegalZoom offers a very comprehensive suite of legal services and documents for forming and maintaining your LLC.
As an established veteran in the online legal services space, LegalZoom offers a polished experience with extensive resources for LLC formation and beyond. However, some users find the pricing and upsells less competitive than other top providers.
LegalZoom is ideal for founders who desire access to a full suite of legal tools and attorney support from a trusted brand. But lean startups looking for the basics may fare better with a more budget-friendly provider.
Rocket Lawyer differentiates itself by blending DIY legal document creation with on-call attorney assistance starting at just $39.99 per month.
For LLC formation, Rocket Lawyer offers three packages: Basic, Standard, and Premium. All include preparing and filing your articles of organization, with increasing levels of extras – EIN, company records, expedited filing, compliance alerts, and banking resolution. Also included is unlimited access to their Q&A platform to get legal advice from licensed attorneys on any new topic. Plus document defense for protection if ever challenged in court.
Beyond LLC filing, Rocket Lawyer provides a vast library of legal forms, incorporation services, trademark registration, tax filing, and personal legal documents. Attorney consultations are also available à la carte.
Rocket Lawyer’s LLC pricing breaks down as:
Overall pricing is very competitive, especially factoring unlimited legal advice access with a membership plan.
Rocket Lawyer makes legal services more affordable by blending DIY document creation with on-demand attorney assistance. For LLC formation and beyond, this provides helpful guidance at an accessible price point. However, some users report upsells and add-ons quickly increase costs, while attorney quality can be hit or miss. But the value is tough to beat for lean startups seeking budget-friendly legal support.
Founded by a team of entrepreneurs, BizFilings aims to provide small businesses the most intuitive tools and guidance for company formation and compliance.
BizFilings offers three packages for LLC formation: Basic, Standard, and Premier.
All include preparing and filing your articles of organization, as well as lifetime support via phone and email.
The Standard plan adds an operating agreement, EIN, company records, banking resolution, and S-corp tax election assistance.
The Premier plan expedites document filing and includes ongoing compliance maintenance. Beyond LLC filing, BizFilings provides registered agent service, DBA/fictitious name filings, annual reports, amendments, mergers & acquisitions, compliance alerts, and dissolution services.
They also offer business license research tools, incorporation services, and sales tax registrations. Along with extensive educational resources on their website.
BizFilings LLC formation packages are priced as:
The pricing is very competitive, especially considering the lifetime support guarantee and wealth of educational materials included.
BizFilings earns strong marks for ease of use and transparent, affordable pricing. Their website offers a wealth of resources and guidance for new business owners throughout the formation process and beyond.
While support is top-notch, BizFilings’ focus remains narrowly on company formation and compliance services. They lack ancillary services like websites, banking, taxes, legal advice, etc. But they deliver a smooth incorporation experience at competitive prices.
While this guide has focused on the benefits of using an online service for forming your Pennsylvania LLC, it is possible to do it yourself directly through the Pennsylvania Department of State. This simply involves filing your articles of organization and operating agreement along with the standard forms and fees.
The state does provide the articles of organization form as well as instructions for completing each section. You would also need to obtain an EIN directly from the IRS yourself. Additionally, you would have to stay on top of all ongoing compliance filings and updates yourself.
This may work fine if you have the time and knowledge to navigate the legal requirements. However, for most new business owners, using an online service like the options reviewed above can significantly simplify and streamline the bureaucratic aspects of getting your LLC up and running. The peace of mind of having specialized support can be well worth the affordability cost.
Forming an LLC can be one of the most important legal and financial steps when starting a new business.
While the DIY approach is certainly an option, partnering with a specialized service provides invaluable support. Focus on bringing your business vision to life, and let the friendly experts handle the legal logistics from LLC formation to ongoing compliance. Then you can get back to what matters most – growing a business you love.
This portion of our website is for informational purposes only. Tailor Brands is not a law firm, and none of the information on this website constitutes or is intended to convey legal advice. All statements, opinions, recommendations, and conclusions are solely the expression of the author and provided on an as-is basis. Accordingly, Tailor Brands is not responsible for the information and/or its accuracy or completeness. It also does not indicate any affiliation between Tailor Brands and any other brands, services or logos.
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