Wyoming LLC for Game Developers

Your first game hits a sales milestone on Steam, and suddenly the entity question is no longer theoretical. Steam pays only in USD by SWIFT wire, US platforms withhold tax on US-source revenue, and your home bank skims a fee off every payout. A Wyoming LLC with an EIN and a US bank account solves all three for $397.

Why game developers form a Wyoming LLC

Indie game development is one of the cleanest fits for a non-resident US LLC, because almost every distribution channel an indie studio touches is a US company that pays in US dollars. Steam (Valve), the Epic Games Store, Apple's App Store, Google Play, itch.io, Patreon, GitHub Sponsors, Kickstarter, and the asset marketplaces (Unity Asset Store, Unreal's Fab) all sit inside the US payment system. When your payee of record is a foreign individual with a foreign bank account, you operate that system on its least favorable terms: SWIFT wires that take days and cost $30 to $50 each, currency conversion spreads on top, and US tax withheld at default rates because you cannot cleanly claim a treaty rate as an individual selling through these stores.

Three specific frictions push game developers to incorporate. First, payout mechanics. Valve confirms in its Steamworks documentation that "Steam pays in US Dollars only, and your account needs to be able to accept payment via SWIFT wire transfer in USD," with a $100 minimum payout threshold and net-30 monthly settlement — February sales are paid by March 30 (Steamworks Reporting and Payments FAQ). A US business bank account receives those wires domestically, at the lowest fee tier, with no intermediary-bank deductions. The same logic applies to App Store Connect and Google Play, which pay by ACH or wire and prefer a verified business entity with a matching tax ID over a personal account in a country where the local banking rails for USD are slow or expensive. Second, tax withholding. Every US store runs a tax interview before it will release a game or a payout. Valve's onboarding doc states the interview "will ask you a series of questions to guide you through the completion of either tax forms (W-9 or W-8BEN)" (Steamworks Onboarding). Filing a W-8BEN-E as a treaty-resident entity is what drops withholding from the default 30% on US-source royalty income down to your treaty rate.

Third, consolidation. A working indie studio rarely earns from one place. You might have a paid game on Steam, a free-to-play mobile build on the App Store and Google Play, a Patreon funding ongoing development, an itch.io page for demos and a soundtrack, and contractor invoices going out to artists and composers. One Wyoming LLC lets all of that land in a single Mercury account and net against a single set of expenses (engine fees, asset packs, contractor pay), which is what makes the year-end tax filing tractable instead of a reconciliation nightmare across five personal payout accounts.

Cost

The package is $397, all-inclusive, with the Wyoming state filing fee already included. There is no franchise tax in Wyoming, so the only recurring cost is the annual report plus registered agent renewal.

The Wyoming Secretary of State sets the annual report license tax at a $60 minimum for LLCs with under $300,000 in Wyoming-based assets, which covers essentially every non-resident studio (Wyoming Secretary of State, Annual Report). Compared with a Delaware C-corp via Stripe Atlas ($500 upfront plus ~$400/year franchise tax and agent fees), the Wyoming route costs roughly $397 plus $160/year and removes the franchise-tax exposure entirely. Over three years that is roughly $717 in Wyoming versus $1,700 in Delaware for the same legal protection — meaningful money when a first game's net is still measured in a few thousand dollars.

A note on the platform splits you are budgeting against, because they directly shape what lands in your bank. Steam takes 30% (dropping to 25% above $10M and 20% above $50M lifetime per title). The Epic Games Store takes 12%. Apple and Google both default to 30% but charge 15% under $1M in annual proceeds through their small-business programs, and 15% on subscriptions (Apple Small Business Program / RevenueCat). itch.io lets you set the platform cut yourself (commonly 10%). The table below summarizes the channels a typical studio juggles.

The exact setup stack for game developers

Here is the order of operations that gets an indie studio from formation to receiving consolidated payouts.

1. Form the Wyoming LLC. Filed under Wyoming Statutes Title 17, Chapter 29 (the LLC Act), typically within 24 hours. You get the Articles of Organization and a custom operating agreement sized for a solo dev or a two-to-three-person studio.

2. Get the EIN. Filed on IRS Form SS-4 without an SSN or ITIN, since the responsible party is a foreign person. This takes roughly 8 to 10 business days and produces the CP-575 confirmation letter. Hold onto that letter — Steam and other stores frequently ask for the SS-4/CP-575 to verify your legal entity name and EIN during the bank-info change.

3. Open the US business bank account. Mercury is the usual first choice for game studios because it receives domestic ACH and wires, holds USD with no per-wire fees, and issues virtual cards for engine subscriptions. Relay is a solid alternative, and Wise Business is useful when you also pay contractors in other currencies.

4. Update the Steamworks (or platform) profile. Inside Steamworks, go to Settings then Bank Information and change the legal entity name to the LLC, enter the EIN, and point payouts at the Mercury account. Re-run the tax interview as a non-US entity. Steam Direct charges $100 per app to submit a game, recoupable against sales (Steamworks Onboarding).

5. Choose your billing/processor layer. For direct sales (a web store, a DRM-free build, a soundtrack, or a tip jar), you have two models. Stripe US, linked to Mercury, gives you the lowest fees (2.9% + 30¢) but leaves sales tax and VAT to you. A Merchant of Record like Paddle or Lemon Squeezy (now owned by Stripe) charges more (around 5% + 50¢) but becomes the seller of record and collects and remits sales tax and VAT across 200+ jurisdictions on your behalf (Lemon Squeezy, Merchant of Record). Gumroad and itch.io similarly handle the tax mechanics for direct downloads. Many studios run Steam/App Store for the store traffic and a MoR for direct DRM-free sales.

6. Add the funding/community channels. Point Patreon, GitHub Sponsors, Buy Me a Coffee, and Kickstarter at the LLC and the Mercury account so recurring development funding and campaign proceeds land in the same place as store revenue.

7. Pick an accounting tool. Most solo and small studios run on Mercury's built-in transaction labels plus a lightweight ledger like Wave or QuickBooks Solopreneur. The categories that matter for a game dev: engine and tooling subscriptions, asset/audio/plugin purchases, contractor pay, marketing/wishlists, and platform fees. Tag every Steam, Epic, and store deposit as gross revenue and every platform cut as a fee so the net is obvious at year-end.

Banking for game developers

Mercury, Relay, and Wise Business are all designed for non-resident-owned US LLCs, which is why they dominate this niche. For a game studio specifically, the deciding factors are: does the bank receive both domestic ACH (App Store, Stripe, Patreon) and SWIFT wires (Steam pays international sellers by wire), does it hold USD without forced conversion, and does it issue cards for the dozen recurring SaaS bills a studio carries (Unity, JetBrains, Adobe, cloud build runners, Discord Nitro for the community server).

Mercury is usually the lead recommendation: no monthly fee, free domestic and international USD wires on standard tiers, virtual cards per subscription, and an interface built around startups receiving platform payouts. Relay is the backup when you want multiple sub-accounts (for example, separating Steam revenue from contractor float). Wise Business earns its place the moment you pay artists, composers, translators, or QA testers abroad, because it sends in local currency at the mid-market rate and saves the spread a US bank charges on outbound international payments.

When the bank's onboarding team reviews a game-studio application, they check the same handful of items every time: the Articles of Organization showing the Wyoming filing, the EIN confirmation (CP-575), the operating agreement naming you as member, a description of the business that matches reality ("indie game development and digital distribution"), and proof of identity and address for the beneficial owner. Be specific about your platforms — naming Steam, the App Store, and Patreon as your revenue sources reads as legitimate and speeds approval. Vague descriptions like "software" or "consulting" trigger follow-up questions. Separately, remember the federal Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report to FinCEN; the requirement and its scope have shifted, so confirm current applicability at filing time (FinCEN Beneficial Ownership Information).

Tax handling for game developers

A foreign-owned single-member Wyoming LLC is a disregarded entity by default and a pass-through for tax. The core question is whether your game income is Effectively Connected Income (ECI) with a US trade or business. For a developer building games outside the US, with no US office and no US employees or dependent agents, store sales to US buyers generally do not rise to a US trade or business, so US federal income tax owed is typically zero. (This is the general pattern, not advice for your specific facts — a US CPA should confirm against your treaty and activities.)

Deductible expenses for a game studio are substantial and worth tracking carefully, because they reduce net business income: Unity and Unreal Engine subscriptions, the Unreal 5% royalty on lifetime gross above $1M per product, asset-store packs, sound and music libraries, plugins, dev hardware allocable to the business, marketing and store-page assets, festival/showcase fees, server and build-pipeline costs, and contractor payments to artists, composers, writers, and QA. Engine economics changed in recent years — Unity moved away from its per-install runtime fee back to a seat-based subscription model, so budget for tier-based subscription cost rather than install fees.

Two filing obligations are non-negotiable regardless of revenue. A foreign-owned US disregarded entity must file Form 5472 attached to a pro forma Form 1120 every year it has reportable transactions (including capital contributions and payouts to the owner). The IRS sets the penalty for failing to file at $25,000, with an additional $25,000 per 30-day period if the failure continues past 90 days after notice (IRS, Instructions for Form 5472). These returns cannot be e-filed by a disregarded entity; they go by mail or fax to the IRS Ogden service center, due April 15 (extendable to October 15 with Form 7004).

On information reporting: the much-publicized $600 1099-K threshold did not take effect. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act reverted the federal 1099-K reporting threshold back to over $20,000 and more than 200 transactions, and the IRS has confirmed this in its updated FAQs (IRS, Form 1099-K threshold reverts to $20,000). Whether or not you receive a 1099-K, your obligation to file Form 5472 and report income to your home country is unchanged. Finally, withholding: file the W-8BEN-E in every store's tax interview to claim your treaty rate on US-source royalty income — without it, Steam, Epic, and Apple withhold at the default 30%.

Step-by-step

1. Order the $397 package. Provide the proposed LLC name, the member's details, and a one-line business description ("indie game development and digital distribution"). Wyoming filing is included.

2. LLC is formed within 24 hours under Wyoming Title 17, Chapter 29. You receive the Articles of Organization and a custom operating agreement.

3. EIN is filed on Form SS-4 without an SSN. Expect the CP-575 confirmation in roughly 8 to 10 business days. Save the PDF — stores will ask for it.

4. Open Mercury (or Relay/Wise) using the Articles, EIN letter, operating agreement, and your ID. Describe the business by naming your actual platforms.

5. Switch your store profiles. In Steamworks, update Bank Information to the LLC name, EIN, and Mercury account, then re-run the tax interview. Repeat for Epic Games Store, itch.io, App Store Connect, and Google Play. Pay the $100 Steam Direct fee per game when you submit.

6. File W-8BEN-E in each store's tax interview to claim your treaty withholding rate on US-source royalties.

7. Connect funding and direct-sales channels. Point Patreon, GitHub Sponsors, Kickstarter, and your Stripe or Merchant-of-Record (Paddle/Lemon Squeezy/Gumroad) at the LLC and Mercury.

8. Set up bookkeeping. Label every store deposit as gross revenue and every platform cut as a fee in Mercury or your ledger, and keep receipts for engine fees, asset packs, and contractor pay.

9. File annually. Submit the Wyoming annual report (~$60) and prepare Form 5472 + pro forma 1120 by April 15 (or October 15 with an extension).

Common mistakes game developers make

• Publishing under your personal name, then trying to move the game to the LLC later. Transferring an existing Steam app between accounts is slow and messy. Set up the LLC before you submit, or at least before launch.
• Skipping the W-8BEN-E. Leave the tax interview at the default and Steam, Epic, and Apple withhold 30% of US-source royalty revenue. The form is the entire reason to bother with the entity for many devs.
• Ignoring Form 5472 because the game barely earned. The filing is mandatory regardless of revenue, and the penalty is $25,000. A pre-revenue or low-revenue year still has reportable transactions (your capital contribution counts).
• Leaving payouts scattered across personal accounts. Steam to one bank, App Store to another, Patreon to PayPal — this makes the year-end net impossible to compute cleanly. Consolidate into one Mercury account.
• Not deducting the obvious expenses. Unity/Unreal subscriptions, the Unreal royalty, asset packs, sound libraries, plugins, and contractor invoices are all deductible and many solo devs forget to track them.
• Mixing personal and business hardware. A GPU or laptop used partly for gaming and partly for development needs a defensible business-use allocation, not a blanket deduction.
• Forgetting that funding income is income. Patreon, Kickstarter, and GitHub Sponsors proceeds flow through the LLC and into the same reporting as store sales — they are not tax-free because they came from "supporters."