A corporate services firm for owners who are not in the room
ICS Corporate Services (US) Limited exists for a specific client: someone building a U.S. company from outside the United States, who needs it incorporated correctly and then actually maintained.
Who we are
Incorporation is the easy part. We are here for what comes after.
Forming an American company is close to a commodity. Filing the certificate takes days and any number of providers will do it cheaply. That is not where clients get hurt.
They get hurt in the second year, when nobody filed the annual report and the entity is no longer in good standing. When a dormant LLC turns out to have owed an information return all along. When a warehouse in one state quietly created a tax obligation in a state nobody had registered in. By then the fix costs many times what doing it properly would have.
So we built the practice the other way round. We start with the structure decision, quote the recurring cost before the set-up cost, and hold the compliance calendar ourselves. The formation is simply the first item on it.
Our clients are founders, investors and operating businesses whose ownership sits outside the United States — which means non-resident filing positions, treaty questions and foreign-ownership reporting are the everyday work here rather than the awkward exception.
- Independent. No audit practice to protect and no product to place. We are paid for administration and filings, nothing else.
- Cross-border by default. Almost every entity we handle has an owner, a parent or a funder in another jurisdiction, and is designed accordingly.
- Compliance-led. Beneficial ownership, information returns and multi-state registration are treated as core work, not as an add-on service.
- Named contact. The person who scoped your structure stays with the file year to year.
- Bilingual. English and Mandarin across documents, correspondence and filings.
How we work
Four commitments we hold ourselves to
Tell you the structure you need, not the one that bills best
If a single Wyoming LLC does the job, we will say so. Over-structuring creates filings, cost and audit exposure that someone has to carry for years.
Quote the running cost before the set-up cost
Incorporation is a one-off. Registered agent, annual report, franchise tax, bookkeeping and returns repeat every year thereafter. You should see both figures before you decide.
Own the deadline, not just the task
Every entity we administer sits on a compliance calendar we monitor. You are told what is coming, and it is filed.
Write things down
Structure recommendations, filing positions and anything unusual go into a short written note. It protects you at audit and it protects us.
Context
Where the U.S. entity usually sits
We are engaged on the American entity. It is rarely the only one, so we design it against what surrounds it — and tell you plainly when a decision here creates a consequence somewhere else.
| The U.S. entity is typically… | Sitting under… | Which makes these the live questions |
|---|---|---|
| A sales or distribution company | An Asian manufacturer or brand owner | Where inventory and staff create nexus; transfer pricing on intercompany sales; sales tax registration in each state reached |
| An operating subsidiary | An offshore holding company | Entity type; withholding on dividends and whether any treaty is available to the parent; Form 5472 reporting |
| A blocker or management company | A fund vehicle and its investors | Effectively connected income; investor-level filing exposure; state-level treatment of the management fee |
| An e-commerce seller | An individual or offshore trading company | Economic nexus thresholds; marketplace facilitator rules; whether the LLC is disregarded and what that means for the owner |
| A startup holding company | Founders and prospective U.S. investors | Delaware C-Corporation mechanics; cap table and equity documentation; what investors will diligence |
If your structure is not on this list, describe it to us and we will tell you whether it is straightforward or not.
Talk to the person who will run your file
Engagements are led by a named contact who stays with the entity year to year — not routed to whoever is free.