Form a New Mexico LLC from Kazakhstan: Complete 2026 Guide

Forming in New Mexico costs $50 in state fees ($50 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: $0 ever — New Mexico is one of the only states with no ongoing annual report or annual fee for LLCs. 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.

New Mexico is a common choice for Kazakhstani founders who want a US LLC without moving to the US. Filing costs $50 by mail ($50 online where available), and the yearly state obligation is $0 ever — New Mexico is one of the only states with no ongoing annual report or annual fee for LLCs. New Mexico has no tax on LLC income earned outside the state for non-resident owners, which keeps state-level compliance simple, although what Kazakhstan does with the LLC's profits is a separate question. On privacy: New Mexico does not publicly disclose member or manager names in its formation records. In short, New Mexico is the only one of the five with no annual filing at all.

New Mexico tends to be the right fit if minimizing ongoing paperwork is the top priority — no annual report, ever, is unique among these five states — and strict privacy matters more to you than name recognition. 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.

Founders in Kazakhstan, including freelancers, developers, consultants and online sellers, form US LLCs to invoice international clients in dollars, hold a US business bank account and present a domestic US vendor to American customers. A founder in Kazakhstan funds the LLC from tenge converted to dollars. Kazakhstan has controlled-foreign-company rules that reach resident individuals and were updated for 2026, so the Kazakh tax analysis is the main task.

After your New Mexico 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 there is no New Mexico annual filing to calendar 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 New Mexico Secretary of State (yourself or through your registered agent), appoint a registered agent with a physical New Mexico 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.

New Mexico suits a Kazakhstani founder who wants the lightest US paperwork: a $50 filing fee, no annual state report and no annual fee, leaving only the federal Form 5472 and pro forma 1120.

Over five years, the state-level cost of a New Mexico LLC is a $50 filing fee and nothing recurring, so $50 in total, before the registered agent. That makes New Mexico the cheapest 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.

As a Kazakhstani owner, your recurring dates look like this. State: New Mexico adds no state annual filing at all. 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.

Kazakhstan appears among the partners with a US income tax treaty. It covers dividends, interest, royalties and tie-breaker rules for residency, and you can confirm the details in the IRS treaty tables. For a typical founder whose LLC earns only non-US-source income, the treaty changes little in practice because there is usually no US federal income tax for it to reduce, and it does not by itself remove the Kazakh controlled-foreign-company question.

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.