The entity is fine. What is usually missing is everything that was supposed to happen after it.
Most founders who come to us already have an LLC. It was formed through a platform, it exists, and on paper everything looks in order. Then a bank asks a question, or a client’s legal team requests documentation, or April arrives and someone mentions Form 5472.
Switching is not about starting over. It is about taking ownership of a structure that nobody has been maintaining.
What switching actually means
Your LLC stays. Same entity, same formation date, same EIN, same bank account, same operating history. Nothing that carries value gets thrown away: that is the whole point.
What changes is who is responsible for it: the registered agent transfers to us in the same state, and the maintenance becomes something with a name attached rather than an auto-renewal you forgot about.
The table above is the full picture of what moves and what does not.
The five-point audit
Before anything else, we look at what you actually have:
1 · Registered agent and standing. Is the agent current? Is the entity in good standing with the state, or has it drifted toward administrative dissolution?
2 · Filings. Has Form 5472 with its pro-forma 1120 been filed every year? State annual reports? Franchise tax where it applies? This is where the expensive surprises live.
3 · The operating agreement. Was it drafted, or generated? Does it describe how the company actually runs (the ownership, the activity, the decision-making) or is it a template with your name inserted?
4 · Banking. Which tier are you on, is the account healthy, and would the file survive a periodic review? Many founders are on a fintech that works today and would not survive a compliance question tomorrow.
5 · Tax fit. The one nobody ran before selling you the entity: does this structure still make sense given where you are tax resident now? Founders move. Structures do not follow automatically.
Not sure how this applies to your case?
Eleven questions and we tell you whether the LLC fits, and if it does not, that too.
What we usually find
Being blunt about the pattern, because it repeats:
- Form 5472 never filed, because nobody told them it existed. This is the most common finding and the most expensive.
- A template operating agreement that would not survive a serious read.
- The wrong state: usually Delaware, chosen for prestige, costing $400 a year in franchise tax (raised from $300 for the 2026 tax year), for a founder with no investors.
- A registered agent about to lapse, or already lapsed.
- A structure formed before a move, now pointing at a jurisdiction the founder has left, or, worse, one they were trying to leave.
None of these are catastrophic if caught. All of them get more expensive with time.
When we tell you to refile
Occasionally the honest answer is that the entity is in the wrong place and tidying it up is not worth it: a Delaware LLC for a founder who will never raise, where the annual cost outweighs the hassle of moving; or a structure whose ownership shape genuinely does not fit what the business became.
In those cases we lay out the trade-off (cost, timing, what happens to the banking relationship) and you decide. What we will not do is recommend a new entity because it is a bigger invoice.
If you are still comparing before committing, the honest three-way is in doola vs Firstbase vs Cheq. If you already know you want out, the assessment is where it starts.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to close my LLC and form a new one?
In most cases, no. Switching means transferring the registered agent and taking over maintenance: the entity, the EIN, the bank account and the operating history all stay exactly as they are. Refiling is only warranted when the entity is in a genuinely wrong state for your situation, and we will explain the trade-off rather than default to it.
Will my bank account be affected?
No. The account belongs to the LLC, and the LLC is not changing. What tends to improve is the documentation behind it, which matters the next time the bank runs a periodic review, or when you apply somewhere else.
What if I have missed filings?
Then that is the first thing we deal with. Form 5472 carries an automatic $25,000 penalty per year missed, so the priority is filing the outstanding years and, where the facts support it, requesting abatement for reasonable cause. Uncomfortable, but far cheaper than the alternative of waiting for the IRS to raise it first.
How long does the switch take?
The registered agent transfer is administrative and usually completes within days. The audit is the part with substance, and how long the fixes take depends on what we find: a clean structure needs little, one with two years of missed filings needs a plan. You get the findings either way, before committing to remediation.
What does it cost?
The audit is scoped on a call, because the work depends entirely on what state the structure is in. What we will not do is quote a flat price before knowing whether we are tidying up a good structure or rebuilding a neglected one.