For coaches, consultants and creators
You sell to a U.S. audience. Run a real U.S. company.
Course creators, coaches, consultants, newsletter operators, community builders. If your revenue comes from U.S. customers, sponsors and platforms, a U.S. entity with a real back office makes you easier to pay, easier to sponsor and cleaner at tax time. The first section below is the test for whether you need one yet, including the case where you do not.
- No SSN
- Needed for the EIN — Form SS-4 line 7b takes “foreign”
- 60 days
- To tell the IRS your address or responsible party changed
- 31 Aug 2026
- Every figure below re-checked
- 5
- Signals that decide whether you need a U.S. entity at all
- 8
- Services below, each with its delivery state stated
- 4
- Primary government sources cited on this page
- 1
- Of them we say outright that we do not do yet
The straight answer
Do you need a U.S. company yet? Sometimes not.
A platform account in your personal name works until it does not: a sponsor wants to contract with a company; a platform holds a payout pending business verification; a tax year ends with income across four platforms and no records. The right time to set the company up is before those moments, not after. If none of them applies to you, the last row is the honest answer.
| If this is true of you | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You invoice U.S. clients directly | Worth it | You are contracting in your own name today. A company is the counterparty a U.S. client expects on the contract and on the invoice. |
| A sponsor wants to contract with a company, not a person | Worth it | This is the moment most creators discover they need one, and it usually arrives with a deadline already attached to it. |
| A platform is holding a payout pending business verification | Worth it | Verification asks for an entity and a federal number. Neither can be produced retroactively in the week the payout is due. |
| Your income lands across four platforms and nothing reconciles it | Worth it | One set of books beats four dashboards at tax time, and it is the difference between a year-end you file and a year-end you reconstruct. |
| Your platform handles the payments and you invoice nobody directly | Not yet | Then you may not need a U.S. entity yet, and we will tell you so honestly rather than form one you do not use. |
What this table is, and is not
Who this is for
However you sell to a U.S. audience.
Course creators and educators
Selling courses, cohorts, or coaching programs to students across the U.S.
Coaches and online consultants
1:1 or group coaching, invoicing U.S. clients directly or through a platform.
Newsletter and community operators
Paid subscriptions, sponsorships, and memberships billed to a U.S. audience.
Online service businesses
Creative, technical, or professional services sold remotely to U.S. customers.
Who this is not for
- ×Creators whose platform pays them and who invoice nobody directly — You may not need a U.S. entity yet. We would rather say that than form one you will not use.
- ×Anyone who needs a tax position rather than a filing — Where a position needs a licensed professional we say so, and we refer.
- ×Anyone who needs U.S. payroll running this month — Payroll is not built. We coordinate with payroll partners rather than sell you a date we do not control.
Scope
What Prolify covers, and what it does not.
Included means a plan covers it today. Partner-led means we coordinate a licensed third party and the outcome is theirs, not ours. Not yet available means exactly that — we would rather say so than sell you a waitlist.
LLC formation, in the right state for an online business
A written recommendation on the state that fits how you actually sell, before anything is filed.
EIN without an SSN
The federal number every platform and sponsor asks for. The IRS online application requires an SSN or ITIN; the fax and international telephone routes do not, and Form SS-4 line 7b takes the entry “foreign” where the responsible party has neither and cannot obtain one.
Registered agent and a real U.S. business address
A street address rather than a PO box, and an agent in every state you register in: the kind a sponsor or a platform actually verifies.
Banking and payout readiness
The banking application prepared and routed, plus Stripe and payout readiness for course and community platforms. Approval is the bank's decision, never ours to promise.
Multi-platform bookkeeping
Bookkeeping support on eligible plans, reconciling platform fees and payouts across every platform you sell on.
Year-end tax filings
Coordinated with licensed partners, including Form 5472 with a pro-forma Form 1120 where foreign ownership makes it apply.
Operating Calendar and Founder Dashboard
Live from day one, so you always know what is due and when, rather than finding out from a notice.
1099 preparation for sponsor income
Not built. Today we coordinate with partners where needed, and your bookkeeping keeps sponsor income organised either way.
What actually goes wrong
Six ways a creator business acquires a problem it did not choose.
Waiting until the sponsor asks
A sponsor that wants to contract with a company arrives with a deadline. Formation, a federal number and a bank account are not a same-week project.
Running payouts through a personal account
It breaks reconciliation before it starts, and it is the first thing that unravels when a platform reviews the account.
Ending a tax year with income on four platforms and no records
Every platform reports its own slice and none of them reports the whole. Reconstructing that in April costs more than keeping it in January.
Missing Form 5472
A U.S. disregarded entity wholly owned by a foreign person files Form 5472 with a pro-forma Form 1120, and it cannot be filed electronically. The penalty is $25,000.
Moving country and not telling the IRS
A change of address or of the responsible party must be reported on Form 8822-B within 60 days. Creators move more than most owners do.
Assuming the company sleeps when the business does
A Delaware LLC owes its annual tax on 1 June whether or not it sold anything that year, and loses good standing if it does not pay.
Straight answers
The questions creators actually ask.
Do I need a U.S. company if my platform (Substack, Kajabi, Patreon) handles payments?
Not always, but often, yes. A U.S. entity helps when you invoice U.S. clients directly, sign U.S. sponsor deals, want a business bank account for payouts, or want your income organized in one set of books instead of scattered across platforms. We'll tell you honestly if you don't need one yet.
Can you handle 1099s from sponsors?
1099 preparation is coming soon. Today we coordinate with partners where needed, and your bookkeeping keeps sponsor income organized either way.
I'm outside the U.S. Does that change anything?
That's our home turf. EIN without an SSN, a U.S. address, a banking pathway matched to your country, and Form 5472 coordinated where applicable.
Cost
Which plan suits which need.
Prolify's plan price never includes state filing fees. Those are set by the state, they vary by state and entity type, and we quote them before you pay rather than folding them into a headline number.
| If you are | Plan |
|---|---|
| Solo, and you want the entity kept in good standing | Starter |
| Compliance and tax handled for you, year round | Growth |
| Compliance, tax and multi-platform bookkeeping coordinated together | Elite |
Next
Answer one question at a time, free.
The first three are audience pages that overlap this one. Rather than pretend the overlap is not there, each says what it covers that this page does not.
Course creators
If the revenue is course and cohort sales, that page goes further into multi-platform books and subscription accounting.
/course-creators
Newsletter creators
Paid subscriptions and sponsorships specifically, from setting the business up to getting the payouts clean.
/newsletter-creators
Agencies and consultancies
If you bill U.S. clients as a team rather than as a person, including W-9 readiness.
/agencies
Check which EIN route is open to you
The four routes to an EIN, and which of them work when the responsible party has no SSN.
/tools/ein
Check whether Form 5472 applies
The test for a foreign-owned U.S. disregarded entity.
/tools/form-5472
Generate a U.S. company invoice
What a U.S. client expects to receive, before the entity exists.
/tools/invoice
See every deadline the entity owes
Federal, state of formation, and every other state it touches.
/compliance
Who files Form 5472, and the cost of getting it wrong
The full guide, with the IRS instructions cited throughout.
/guides/form-5472
Sell to a U.S. audience from anywhere. Be a company they can actually pay.
A platform tells you what it paid you. A sponsor tells you who to invoice. Neither tells you what the company owes next.