Wyoming LLC from Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires has one of Latin America's deepest pools of remote developers, designers, and content people, and almost all of them bill abroad. A Wyoming LLC lets a porteño founder invoice US clients in dollars, hold that money outside the peso, and run a clean US-facing business for $397 all-in. Here is exactly how it works from CABA.

Why Buenos Aires founders form a Wyoming LLC

The core reason is the peso. Argentina has lived with chronic inflation and a tangle of exchange controls for years, and the gap between the official rate and parallel rates has repeatedly punished anyone forced to receive earnings in local currency at a rate they did not choose. For a Buenos Aires freelancer or studio billing a US client, the difference between getting paid into a US dollar account versus liquidating dollars through the local banking system at an official rate can be a large slice of total income. A Wyoming LLC with a US bank account moves that decision back to the founder: dollars land in a US account and stay in dollars until you decide what to do with them.

The second reason is the client base. Buenos Aires exports talent. The city sits in the same business day as New York and Miami — local time is UTC-3, which puts you only one or two hours ahead of US Eastern time for most of the year. That overlap is why so many US companies hire porteño developers, motion designers, video editors, and growth marketers. When a US client wants to pay you, they would much rather send an ACH transfer or a Stripe payout to a US LLC with an EIN than wrestle with an international wire to an Argentine personal account. A US entity removes friction on their side and signals you are set up to work with American companies.

The third reason is platform and payment access. Argentine founders routinely hit walls on Stripe, certain marketplace payout rails, and SaaS billing that simply expect a US business. Local rails like transferencias 3.0, CVU/CBU accounts, and Mercado Pago are excellent for domestic Argentine commerce, but they do not give you a US dollar business identity. A Wyoming LLC complements them rather than replacing them — you collect USD revenue cleanly in the US, then bring across only what you need, when you need it, through Wise or a similar channel into your local peso accounts.

There is also a quieter, structural reason. Buenos Aires has a genuine startup and freelance culture — the Palermo and Microcentro coworking scenes, a long line of regional tech companies that trained thousands of engineers, and a community that has normalized working for foreign clients. In that environment, having a US LLC is not exotic; it is increasingly the default setup for anyone who wants to be paid like a professional remote contractor rather than an informal one. The founders who set this up early tend to charge in dollars, get treated as a vendor rather than a side gig, and avoid the worst of each devaluation cycle.

For most Buenos Aires founders, the LLC is not a tax-avoidance scheme. It is the difference between a peso-trapped freelance income and a normal, dollar-denominated remote business.

Cost from Buenos Aires

The package is $397 and the Wyoming state filing fee is already included — there is no separate $100+ state charge added later. ITIN is the only true add-on, at $297, and most Buenos Aires service founders never need one because the LLC files under its EIN, not a personal ITIN.

Ongoing cost is roughly $160/year — about $100 for the registered agent and ~$60 for the Wyoming annual report (the Wyoming Secretary of State sets the annual report license tax at a $60 minimum for most small LLCs). That predictable figure, in dollars, is one of the few costs in an Argentine founder's stack that inflation does not erode.

Banking from Buenos Aires

Banking is where Argentine founders ask the most questions, so here is the honest version. Mercury is the most common choice and approval for Argentine founder profiles varies by country and profile and is not guaranteed — solid, but not automatic. Mercury accepts non-resident founders on a case-by-case basis and has tightened compliance in 2025: per Mercury's own eligibility guidance, every owner with 25%+ of the LLC must provide a government passport, the business must be a properly registered US entity, and Mercury increasingly wants a real US address rather than only a registered-agent address. Argentina is not on Mercury's prohibited-countries list, so a clean porteño profile with a clear business description and tidy documentation is a realistic candidate. Where founders get declined, it is usually a vague business description or a mismatch between the stated activity and the documents.

Relay is the usual second option and works similarly for non-residents. Wise Business is the most reliable fallback and is, for many Argentine founders, actually the most useful account because of how it complements local rails. Wise gives your LLC USD account details plus the ability to convert to and send pesos at the mid-market rate. The practical flow looks like this: US clients pay your LLC by ACH or Stripe into Mercury or Wise; the money sits in USD; when you need pesos for living costs in Buenos Aires, you move a slice through Wise to a local account. Bringing money into Argentina still runs through the local system, so the BCRA (central bank) inflow rules apply on the Argentine side — that part is governed by your residency, not your LLC, and is worth reviewing with an Argentine contador.

Two practical notes. First, none of these are FDIC-insured "banks" in the way a US citizen's checking account is — Mercury and Relay are fintechs that hold funds through partner banks, which is normal for this market. Second, apply for banking only after the EIN is issued; applying earlier wastes an attempt. Keep your formation documents, EIN letter, passport, and a one-paragraph description of who pays you and why in one folder before you start.

It is worth being explicit about how this complements, rather than replaces, the local rails you already use. Argentina's domestic payment infrastructure — transferencias 3.0, instant CVU/CBU transfers, Mercado Pago, and QR payments — is genuinely good and fast for anything inside the country. None of it, however, gives you a dollar identity that a US client or a US platform recognizes. The clean division most porteño founders settle on is: USD revenue from abroad lives in the LLC's US accounts (Mercury/Relay/Wise), and pesos for local life flow through your existing Argentine accounts. You bridge the two with Wise on your own schedule, converting only what you need and leaving the rest in dollars. That separation is the whole point — it keeps your earned dollars from being forced into pesos at a rate and a moment you did not choose.

Tax: US and your home country

Start with the fact that matters most: there is no income tax treaty in force between the United States and Argentina. A comprehensive treaty was signed in 2016 but was never ratified, and the IRS's official treaty list does not include Argentina (IRS, United States income tax treaties — A to Z). The practical consequence is that US-source FDAP income — passive income such as US dividends, interest, and royalties — faces the default 30% US withholding with no treaty relief to reduce it. There is no Article 7 business-profits clause to lean on the way Mexico- or Spain-based founders can.

For the typical Buenos Aires founder this matters less than it sounds, because most porteño LLCs are operating service businesses — development, design, content, agency work. Fees you earn for services performed by you, sitting in Argentina, are generally foreign-source income, not US-source FDAP, so the 30% FDAP regime usually does not apply to your service fees at all. What you must not do is assume "no treaty" means "no filing."

Every foreign-owned single-member US LLC is treated as a disregarded entity and must file IRS Form 5472 together with a pro forma Form 1120 every year, even with zero US tax due and even with no income. Per the IRS Instructions for Form 5472 and About Form 5472, the pro forma 1120 carries only the entity's name, address, and items B and E, with "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" written across the top, filed by mail or fax to the Ogden, UT service center. The penalty for missing it is severe: $25,000 per form per year under IRC §6038A(d)(1), with further $25,000 increments if you ignore an IRS notice. This single filing is the most important compliance task in your year — do not skip it because the LLC "didn't do much."

On the Argentine side, your worldwide income is taxed based on your residency, and AFIP (now ARCA) rules reach the income you draw from the LLC. A single-member LLC is a pass-through, so its profit is effectively your profit for the year — Argentina does not wait for you to "distribute" it. Because there is no treaty, the main tool against double taxation is the foreign tax credit, not treaty relief: you generally credit foreign tax paid against the other country's liability rather than relying on a treaty article to switch off withholding. In practice, for a service founder whose income is foreign-source and not subject to US tax beyond the filing obligation, the heavy lifting is on the Argentine return. Sit down with an Argentine contador to handle the local declaration of your foreign income, the treatment of any inflows you bring across under BCRA rules, and how the FTC mechanics apply to your situation; the US filing handles only the US side. Do not try to map another country's treaty math onto Argentina — the absence of a ratified treaty genuinely changes the analysis, and guessing here is how founders end up double-taxed or non-compliant.

Popular use cases for Buenos Aires founders

The single biggest use case is remote services billed to US clients: software developers and full-stack engineers, UX/UI and product designers, video editors and motion-graphics artists (Buenos Aires has an enormous post-production talent pool), and growth and performance marketers. These founders use the LLC to invoice US firms directly and receive USD by ACH or Stripe instead of liquidating dollars at the official rate.

The second cluster is agencies and small studios. A Buenos Aires dev shop or design studio with three to ten people will often run all foreign revenue through a single Wyoming LLC, pay its local team in pesos via Wise or local rails, and keep the dollar margin in the US account. This also makes the studio look like a US-facing business to prospective American clients, which helps win work.

The third is SaaS, app, and digital-product founders who need Stripe and the App Store / Google Play payout infrastructure that effectively expects a US business. Selling a subscription product or a course to a global audience is far smoother under a US LLC with a US Stripe account than under an Argentine personal profile.

A fourth, smaller group is creators and consultants — people selling info products, coaching, or media sponsorships paid in USD, plus YouTubers and streamers whose AdSense and sponsorship income is dollar-denominated and far cleaner to receive through a US entity. For all of these, the LLC plus Stripe plus a US bank is the standard stack, and Mercado Pago and local CBU/CVU accounts remain in place for any genuinely domestic Argentine income. The pattern across every group is the same: the LLC is the dollar front door for foreign revenue, and the local rails handle Argentina. You do not give up Mercado Pago or your CBU; you add a US layer on top of them.

Step-by-step from Buenos Aires

Because Buenos Aires runs on UTC-3 — only one to two hours ahead of US Eastern — your day overlaps almost completely with US business and support hours, so nothing here forces you to work overnight.

1. Confirm the structure (day 1, morning in CABA). Single-member Wyoming LLC for one owner; multi-member if you have a partner. Decide who the owner(s) are before filing.
2. Submit formation ($397). Provide the LLC name, your details, and the business description. Formation in Wyoming typically completes in about 24 hours. The Wyoming registered agent (year 1 included) is assigned automatically.
3. Receive Articles of Organization. This is filed with the Wyoming Secretary of State; keep the stamped copy.
4. Get the EIN (IRS Form SS-4). No SSN or ITIN required for a non-resident owner. Expect roughly 8–10 business days for the EIN letter. This is the gate for everything downstream.
5. Apply for banking — after the EIN. Start with Mercury (approval varies, not guaranteed); if declined, go to Relay, then Wise Business. Submit during US daytime, which is your afternoon/evening in Buenos Aires, so any follow-up questions get answered same-day.
6. Set up Stripe US under the LLC and EIN for card payments and platform payouts.
7. Wire up the USD-to-peso flow. Open Wise Business for mid-market conversion, and plan how you will bring funds into Argentina under BCRA rules with your contador.
8. Calendar your compliance. Mark the Form 5472 + pro forma 1120 deadline and the Wyoming annual report. Set both as recurring reminders now.

A realistic timeline: formation in 24 hours, EIN in about two weeks, banking live shortly after. Most Buenos Aires founders are invoicing US clients in dollars within three weeks of starting.

Common mistakes

Skipping Form 5472. The most expensive error by far. Founders assume a quiet first year means no filing — it does not. The form is mandatory regardless of income, and the IRS penalty starts at $25,000.

Assuming "no treaty" means something terrible. It does not mean your service income is taxed at 30% in the US. FDAP withholding hits passive US-source income; your foreign-source service fees generally fall outside it. Do not over-engineer around a problem most service founders do not have.

Applying for banking before the EIN. A wasted Mercury attempt is hard to undo. Wait for the EIN letter.

Using only a registered-agent address with Mercury. With 2025 compliance tightening, plan to show a real US address if asked, and keep documentation clean and consistent.

Treating the LLC as an Argentine tax shelter. Your AFIP/ARCA residency obligations do not disappear. The LLC is a US business wrapper; pair it with a local contador for the Argentine declaration and FTC handling.

Vague business descriptions. "Consulting" alone triggers questions at banks. Describe exactly who pays you and for what — that single change lifts approval odds.

Sources: IRS — United States income tax treaties A to Z, IRS — Instructions for Form 5472, IRS — About Form 5472, Wyoming Secretary of State — Business Division, Mercury — Eligibility and requirements.