ANONYMOUS US LLC: PRIVACY & DATA PROTECTION

In the European Union, company ownership, shareholder information, and financial statements are often publicly accessible in commercial registers. In Germany, for example, the annual financial statements of a GmbH are publicly filed and searchable online. Anyone can find out who owns a company, how much it earned, and how much was distributed to shareholders.

The United States operates very differently. Each state has its own rules, and in most states, significantly less information is published. There is no federal commercial register. Financial statements are not filed or published. And in several states, the owner's name never appears in any public document.

In Wyoming, Delaware, New Mexico, and Colorado, only the registered agent appears in the public commercial register. The actual owner's name is never disclosed publicly. ZeroTax LLC serves as the registered agent, so our details appear in the register — not yours.

This means a simple online search will not reveal who owns your LLC. There is no public record linking your name to the company.

In Florida, Nevada, and Texas, at least one member's name must be disclosed in the commercial register. If privacy is a priority, we recommend choosing Wyoming, Delaware, New Mexico, or Colorado instead.

Opening a US bank account for an anonymous LLC is straightforward. Providers like Mercury and Wise Business accept LLCs from Delaware, New Mexico, and Wyoming without any additional scrutiny. The anonymity of the LLC in the public register does not affect the bank account opening process.

Since 2024, all US LLCs must file a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report with FinCEN (the US financial intelligence unit). This report identifies the true beneficial owner of the LLC. However, this information is NOT publicly accessible — it is held in a non-public government database and is only accessible to law enforcement agencies.

This is fundamentally different from EU transparency registers, which are often publicly searchable.

The United States does not participate in the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS) — the international automatic exchange of financial account information. This means that US bank accounts and US LLCs are generally not automatically reported to foreign tax authorities.

However, if you use a European bank (such as Wise) for your LLC's banking, that bank may be subject to CRS reporting. The key is to use US-based banking providers (Mercury, Relay) to maintain the privacy benefits of the US structure.