A consultancy will tell you a Delaware LLC costs a few hundred dollars and takes a week — and that is true. It is also the cheapest line in the whole story. Once the company exists, the annual tax filings, state fees, registered agent, bank-account maintenance, and your new status as a US tax-reporting enterprise are the real bill. Whether to incorporate should not be judged by how easy setup is, but by whether your business actually needs it now.
Two roads solving the same problem
What blocks a Taiwanese company selling into the US is really three “US identities”: the importer Customs requires (IOR), the U.S. Agent and FSVP Importer FDA requires, and the US collection and after-sales window customers want. Two solutions:
Road A: set up a US company and hold all three identities yourself.
Road B: appoint an agent — a US-registered logistics or trading company acts as IOR and consignee, carries the FDA agency alongside, and you keep doing business as a Taiwanese company.
The costs, side by side
| Item | Road A: own entity | Road B: IOR agent |
|---|---|---|
| One-time | formation, EIN, bank account (often requires a US trip), initial legal and accounting | nearly zero (an agency agreement) |
| Fixed annual | state fees and registered agent, federal and state filings (the CPA fee is usually the biggest line), corporate bank maintenance | no fixed annual fee (service fees follow shipments) |
| Per shipment | your own bond, your own broker, your own inspections | agent’s bond and entry, FDA / USDA inspection handling included |
| Hidden obligations | US tax filings (including Taiwan–US transfer-pricing files), state sales-tax registration and filing, litigation exposure | the agent carries import and logistics responsibility only; sales contracts stay with the Taiwanese company |
| Flexibility | winding up requires formal dissolution | stop any time, no exit cost |
For scale: a non-operating US company costs several thousand dollars a year just to keep compliant (filings + state fees + agent); an operating one scales with revenue through CPA and state-tax work. Road B’s costs all follow shipment volume — no shipments, no spend.
When to switch to your own entity
Road B is not the permanent answer. These signals mean incorporation starts to pay:
- A US channel requires a contract with a US legal entity, or a W-9 that only a US tax person can sign
- Revenue is established and you need to hire, lease, or market locally in the US
- Collections are large and you want a US account for cash and credit management
- You need qualifications only a US entity can hold (government procurement, certain platforms)
Until then, using an agent to get the goods in and prove the market is the lowest-cost road. The two roads also hand over cleanly: run one or two years on an agent, let the numbers prove the market, then incorporate — with your import history and channel relationships already in hand.
The hybrid: agent for identity, inventory in the US
The most common middle answer: no company yet, but inventory goes over. SKYCARGO INC acts as your Importer of Record and consignee (with FDA / USDA agent status); goods clear into the Los Angeles or Oregon warehouse, US customers get next-day dispatch, and the Hong Kong lane can even collect through E.SUN Bank’s Hong Kong branch. To your customer you have US stock, US shipping and fast after-sales — an experience indistinguishable from a competitor who incorporated, while your books carry only variable cost.
Tell us your annual volume, target channels and whether anyone is demanding a US entity and we will reply within one working day with the agency structure and fees — and when you genuinely reach the incorporation stage, we will say so.
Formation, tax and legal obligations differ by state and case. This article compares magnitudes and is not a quote; consult your accountant and lawyer. For reference only.
