An offshore LLC can make it more difficult for competitors to monitor your business activities. This is sometimes useful for developers of inventions, computer code, copyrights and trademarks.
Some jurisdictions take privacy very seriously. Business privacy is protected by law and by custom. You can tap that commitment to privacy by choosing such a jurisdiction for your LLC and by hiring a Nominee Manager. The Nominee Manager takes directions from the LLC’s owner (you) but has legal power to execute documents on the company’s behalf.
Many of the offshore trust companies that are in the business of forming LLCs will also serve as a Nominee Manager. When, for example, you want to file a patent application with the U.S. Patent Office, the application could be filed in the name of your LLC. The only individual whose name would appear on the application would be that of an officer of the Nominee Manager. You would be invisible to any competitor who examined the application.
Using a Nominee Manager would not make your ownership of the LLC invisible to the U.S. government. You would still need to file the report discussed at Reporting Requirements .
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