Form a Florida LLC from Kazakhstan: Complete 2026 Guide

Florida is a common choice for Kazakhstani founders who want a US LLC without moving to the US. Filing costs $125 by mail ($125 online where available), and the yearly state obligation is $138.75 mandatory annual report fee, due every year. Florida has no personal state income tax, which keeps state-level compliance simple, although what Kazakhstan does with the LLC's profits is a separate question. On privacy: Florida is the only one of these five states that discloses member names on its public annual report. In short, Florida is the only one of the five that publishes member names.

Forming in Florida costs $125 in state fees ($125 online where available). Add a registered agent, which every state requires and which typically runs $100-150 a year, a free IRS EIN application, and a US business bank account that is usually free with Mercury or Relay. Ongoing state cost: $138.75 mandatory annual report fee, due every year. EasyBrise's Global Launch plan is $295 for year one including a registered agent, then $149 a year to renew, so most founders in Kazakhstan budget well under $500 for the first year, state fee included.

Florida tends to be the right fit if you want a well-known state with strong US business infrastructure and don't mind that Florida is the one state on this list requiring member names on the public annual report. Compare it with the other four states on cost, privacy and reporting before filing; switching states later means dissolving and re-forming rather than a simple amendment.

After your Florida LLC and EIN are in place: sign an Operating Agreement (banks and payment processors ask for it even where the state doesn't), skip BOI reporting because FinCEN's rule in force since August 14, 2026 permanently exempts all US-formed LLCs, open the bank account, apply to Stripe or PayPal (each runs its own eligibility review), and put your Florida annual obligation ($138.75 mandatory annual report, due every year) plus the federal Form 5472 and pro forma 1120 deadline in your calendar.

The IRS international EIN line (267-941-1099) answers from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern. Kazakhstan uses UTC+5 all year, so the window runs from 4 p.m. to 9 a.m. Kazakh time in US standard time and from 3 p.m. to 8 a.m. in US daylight time. Call in your afternoon or evening and plan on 45-60 minutes.

The steps are the same for any Kazakhstan-based founder: pick a name, file Articles of Organization with the Florida Secretary of State (yourself or through your registered agent), appoint a registered agent with a physical Florida address, then apply for an EIN. You have no US Social Security Number, so on Form SS-4 you enter "Foreign" or "N/A" in that field. The phone route (267-941-1099, international callers) usually takes 45-60 minutes on the line; fax or mail takes 4-6 weeks. With the EIN in hand you apply for a US business bank account remotely.

KPMG reports that Kazakhstan's Ministry of Finance Order No. 579 approved a whitelist of 40 jurisdictions not treated as having preferential tax regimes, applying from 1 January 2026 through 31 December 2027, and that Order No. 536 introduced new CFC forms from 1 January 2026, including a form for declaring CFC shareholdings. A PwC alert says the list fell from 43 to 40 jurisdictions in 2025, with Ireland among those removed. Ask an adviser to check the current list and whether the forms apply to you.

Florida appeals to Kazakhstani founders with customers or relatives in the state. Its public annual report names members, and the $138.75 annual fee recurs every year.

Over five years, the state-level cost of a Florida LLC is a $125 filing fee plus $138.75 a year for five years, so $818.75 in total, before the registered agent. That makes Florida the second most expensive of the five states on this measure. The same arithmetic across the five states runs from $50 to $2,110. For a Kazakhstani owner, the controlled-foreign-company rules and the 2026 whitelist decide the home-country result, so budget for a Kazakh adviser's written view alongside the US costs.

Kazakhstan is not on Mercury's prohibited-countries list, which is based on country of residence, and it is not on Relay's list, which looks at the citizenship and residency of the owners. Both banks run their own reviews, so approval is never guaranteed. Neither bank's published rules restrict international wires involving Kazakhstan. Tenge are converted to dollars when you fund the account, so compare the rate and any fee at your Kazakh bank.

As a Kazakhstani owner, your recurring dates look like this. State: Florida's $138.75 annual report is due every year between January 1 and May 1. Federal: Form 5472 with the pro forma Form 1120 is due on the return due date, April 15 for a calendar-year LLC, extendable with Form 7004. For the one-off EIN call, the IRS line (6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern) is open 4 p.m. to 9 a.m. Kazakh time in US standard time (3 p.m. to 8 a.m. in US daylight time). Put the state date and the federal date in your calendar when the EIN arrives, because a missed Form 5472 carries a $25,000 minimum penalty.

Morgan Lewis describes Kazakhstan's controlled-foreign-company rules as covering resident individuals and legal entities that hold a substantial participation, meaning 25 percent or more of the voting shares or control as defined under international financial reporting standards, directly, indirectly or constructively. Under the version it describes, the foreign entity must be subject to income tax of at least 10 percent or be registered in a tax haven. Since then Kazakhstan has issued new CFC forms and, by KPMG's report, a Ministry of Finance whitelist of 40 jurisdictions for 2026 and 2027, with listed jurisdictions needing a treaty in force and a corporate rate above 75 percent of Kazakhstan's. We could not confirm whether the United States is on the whitelist or how it applies to a zero-tax LLC, so ask a Kazakh adviser before you rely on any exemption.

In the version Morgan Lewis describes, the CFC rules applied irrespective of tax preferences, so a company in a treaty country could still be a CFC if it paid income tax below 10 percent. A draft would have excluded treaty-country entities and moved to a nominal rate test above 15 percent. A non-resident-owned LLC earning only non-US-source income usually owes no US federal income tax, which is exactly the situation these tests were written to catch, so do not assume that being in the United States protects you.