Any advice on starting an LLC in Nevada?

[Yong Park]

Hello (again),

I would like to purchase a commercial building in Las Vegas. The building has been identified. Now the next step is to create an business entity to purchase the building. It appears that Nevada has favorable LLC laws in place. But the start up costs are not necessarily low. As far as I can tell, I need to obtain a business license, pay for up front fees from the state.

Secretary of State Articles fee $75.00

Secretary of State Initial List fee $150.00

Secretary of State Business License fee $200.00

I will be managing the building from orange county California.

Any recommendations on who to use to set this up?  I realize that I can go online and do it myself.  But I will still need a registered agent, as my accountant has told me to keep the business out of california for tax purposes.  I can use a family member as the registered agent, but that seems a bit less desirable.

Yong Park

[Katie L.]

@Yong Park

California is a sort of beastly state when it comes to taxes and filings. Even if you create a non-CA LLC, if you are managing the business from California, you will be deemed to be "doing business" in California and therefore subject to CA taxes. California charges a minimum tax of $800 a year per LLC, and more if you have gross receipts in excess of $250k. So, if you create an LLC in another state, you will need to register it as a foreign LLC in California. Though, this process will be the same for the other state (if you created a CA LLC you will need to register it as a foreign LLC in the state in which you are doing business/holding property). This means that you will need to pay registration and filing fees in at least 2 states if you don't buy CA property. Be sure to tell your accountant that you now need to file non-resident income tax returns in each state where you own property as well (though I believe NV has no income tax). You'll want to get an attorney to draft the documents for you to form the entity and the operating agreement, and you can ask your questions about agents and whatnot to him/her. Good luck!

*This post does not create an attorney-client or CPA-client relationship.  Readers are advised to seek professional advice.