Vol. 1 · No. 03 · May 2026
The Journal.
The honest way to read about U.S. company formation. Every piece is editorially locked before we run any affiliate link, and we date our freshness checks like a legal filing.
Lead story
Form an LLC in Alaska (2026)
The $250 Articles of Organization, the separate $50 Business License, and the biennial report most owners miss.
laska is the unusual state where forming an LLC is only half the compliance story. The Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing (CBPL) accepts your Articles…
Editor's selection
Guides
How to Form an LLC in Indiana (2026 Guide)
Filing Articles of Organization with INBiz, paying the $95 fee, and filing the biennial business entity report.
Guides
How to Form an LLC in Idaho (2026 Guide)
Filing the Certificate of Organization with the Idaho Secretary of State, paying the $100 fee, and filing the free annual report.
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The full index
- №451 ZenBusiness review (2026) The cleanest $0 formation on the market, and a genuinely useful post-formation dashboard — if you can keep your thumb off the Pro-plan upsells.
- №450 New Hampshire LLC formation: a practical guide $100 to file, $100 annual report, no sales tax — and two business-level taxes you need to know about.
- №449 New York LLC: the publication requirement gotcha Forming an LLC in New York costs far more than the filing fee. The six-week publication requirement runs in rural counties and exceeds ,000 in Manhattan.
- №448 What is an LLC? The plain-English guide (2026) A limited liability company is a legal wrapper around a business. The tax code treats it as whatever you want — that's the whole trick.
- №447 Wisconsin LLC formation: the Badger State guide A $130 online filing, a $25 annual report, and Wisconsin's new Chapter 183 LLC statute — what founders need to know in 2026.
- №446 How to form an LLC in Delaware Two-thirds of the Fortune 500 are incorporated in Delaware. Almost every founder who Googles "where should I incorporate" ends up here. Most of them shouldn't.
- №445 The LLC operating agreement: what it is and why you need one Most states do not require an operating agreement. You still need one. Here is what an operating agreement does, what must be in it, and why even a single-member LLC without one is taking an avoidable risk.
- №444 How to Form an LLC in Illinois (2026 Guide) Filing Articles of Organization with the Illinois Secretary of State, paying the $150 fee, and what the franchise tax phase-out means for new entities.
- №443 Nevada LLC formation: a practical guide The tax haven with a $425 filing fee, a $350 annual bill, and a Modified Business Tax most blogs forget to mention.
- №442 Northwest Registered Agent review (2026) The only national LLC service whose default posture is to put their address on the public filing, not yours — worth the small premium if privacy matters at all.
- №441 Form an LLC in Alabama (2026) The $200 Certificate of Formation, the zeroed-out Business Privilege Tax, and the filings most vendors still get wrong.
- №440 New Mexico LLC: the honest privacy pick The cheapest LLC filing in the country, with real but narrow anonymity. When a New Mexico LLC is the right tool, and when it is a trap.
- №439 How to get an EIN (free, 10 minutes, 2026) The IRS gives you an Employer Identification Number free of charge. Here is the only process you need, and why you should never pay a third party to file it for you.
- №438 Nebraska LLC formation: a practical guide $105 to file, $10 biennial report — and a newspaper publication requirement most founders forget.
- №437 Washington LLC formation: the B&O tax state No corporate income tax — but a gross-receipts B&O tax that hits from dollar one. Here is how the Evergreen State actually works.
- №436 How to Form an LLC in Hawaii (2026 Guide) Filing Articles of Organization with the DCCA BREG, paying the $50 fee, and handling Hawaii's General Excise Tax.
- №435 Montana LLC formation: a practical guide $35 to file, $20 per year — the cheapest legitimate U.S. LLC, if you actually live or operate there.
- №434 The DBA, a decade in: still useful, still not a shield What a trade name actually does in 2025, and the one thing the March FinCEN rule changed about it
- №433 Washington in late 2025: the $70 annual report and the B&O problem A low formation cost, a low annual fee, and a gross-receipts tax that changes the calculus entirely
- №432 The formalities that keep your LLC from becoming you What veil piercing actually looks like, and the unglamorous hygiene that prevents it
- №431 When the filer is a language model: AI disclosure at the SoS level States began legislating AI disclosure in 2024, and by fall 2025 the edges of what counts as a truthful filing are being redrawn in real time