Top 10 Compliance Requirements for New Businesses

1. Choose and Register a Legal Structure

Decide whether your business will be a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, or corporation, since this choice affects your liability exposure, taxes, and nearly every other item on this list. If you choose an LLC or corporation, file your formation document, commonly Articles of Organization or Incorporation, with your state's filing office and pay the state's filing fee.

2. Get an EIN

Apply for an EIN directly with the IRS, free of charge, once your state approves your entity. See our guide on how to obtain an EIN for a business for who actually needs one and how the application works.

3. Open a Business Bank Account

Use your EIN and formation documents to open a dedicated business bank account, keeping business funds completely separate from personal ones from the start. This isn't just good practice; commingled funds are one of the clearest factors courts look at when deciding whether a business was ever really operated as a separate entity.

4. Appoint a Registered Agent

Every state requires an LLC or corporation to continuously maintain a registered agent with a physical in-state address, starting from formation, not from whenever the business opens its doors. You can serve as your own agent in most states if you have a reliable in-state address, or use a registered agent service.

5. Register for State and Sales Tax

Register with your state's revenue agency for any applicable state tax accounts, and apply for a sales tax permit in any state where you'll sell taxable goods or services and have nexus there. See our guide on how to register for sales tax for the registration process.

6. Secure Required Licenses and Permits

Check federal, state and local licensing requirements for your specific industry and location. Federal licensing applies only to a short list of regulated industries; state licensing covers many professions and additional permits; local licensing, commonly a general business license, zoning permit, or health permit, is the layer most new businesses deal with directly from their city or county.

7. Draft Your Governing Documents

An LLC should have an operating agreement, and a corporation should adopt bylaws and hold an organizational meeting to issue stock, even though many states don't legally require every one of these documents. These set out how the business is actually run and can matter significantly if ownership, management, or liability questions ever come up.

8. Get Applicable Business Insurance

No general law requires business insurance, but specific situations do: most states require workers' compensation once you have employees, and certain licenses, such as for contracting, childcare, or liquor sales, commonly require specific coverage as a condition of the license itself. See our guide on business insurance requirements by industry for what applies to your specific business.

9. Set Up Employer Compliance if You're Hiring

If your new business will have employees from the start, add payroll tax registration, Form I-9 verification, new hire reporting, workers' compensation, and required workplace posters to your first-year checklist. None of this applies if you're not hiring yet, but it all applies the moment you bring on your first employee.

10. Build a Compliance Calendar for What Comes Next

The items above get your business legally open; a separate, ongoing set of deadlines follows every year after, including your state's annual report, tax filing deadlines, and license renewals. Put every deadline you've uncovered while working through this list onto one calendar before you consider your first-year setup finished, so nothing falls through once the excitement of launching wears off.

LLC Register's $99-a-year registered agent service includes LLC formation in year one and annual report filing, covering items 1, 4 and part of 10 on this list as a single, predictable cost.

Order Matters More Than It Looks

Applying for an EIN before your state approves your entity name, or trying to open a bank account before you have an EIN, creates mismatches that cost time to fix. Working through this list roughly in order avoids most of these avoidable delays.

Your Specific Industry Can Add Items This General List Doesn't Cover

A restaurant, a childcare business, or a licensed professional practice each has additional industry-specific requirements beyond this general list, such as health permits or professional licensing exams. Treat this as the common baseline, not the complete list for every type of business.

The First Year Is the Easy Part

Everything above is a one-time or first-year task; the harder part of compliance, in practice, is the recurring requirements that continue every year after, like annual reports and license renewals, which is why item 10 matters as much as the first nine.

This Is General Information, Not Entity-Specific Advice

The exact requirements, fees and forms behind each item depend on your state, industry and business structure. Talk to a business attorney or tax professional about your specific situation before you finalize your structure or governing documents.