US Company Formation
When Your Registered Agent Only Forwards Documents
If your registered agent only forwards documents, that is the normal product. The agent’s duty is to accept official papers at an in-state street and get them to you. They are not your tax calendar, your bookkeeper, or a substitute for US tax filing. Compliance is what you do after the scan arrives.
This page is for the search that already shows Scriplit in Google: how to handle US tax compliance when the registered agent only forwards mail. Address definitions live on registered agent address for an LLC. Do not use this article as a filing checklist for your facts.
Scriplit is not a CPA firm or a law firm. This is general information, not tax advice. Deadlines, forms, and penalties change. Confirm current IRS and state instructions. Forwarding mail does not create or erase a filing duty.
Forwarding is not a filing
A commercial registered agent watches a street in the formation state. When a secretary of state, a court, or (sometimes) a tax agency serves the company there, the agent records it and sends you a copy — email, portal, or paper, depending on the contract. That is the job described in the registered agent address basics.
What the agent is not doing:
- Deciding whether Form 5472, a partnership return, or a state annual report is due.
- Preparing numbers from your bank feed.
- Calling you until you file.
- Telling the IRS that “no mail means no tax.”
If the portal is quiet, you can still owe federal information returns. Foreign-owned single-member LLCs are the usual example: related-party transactions can create a Form 5472 duty even when the shop made no sales. That is why “the agent didn’t send anything” is a weak compliance system.
Build a process the week the LLC exists
- Name two people who can log into the agent portal. Founders travel. Mail does not wait.
- Open statutory PDFs the day they arrive. Deadlines inside those letters are real. A forwarded annual-report notice is not junk.
- Keep an address map so IRS mail, bank mail, and agent mail are not three forgotten inboxes. Principal-office vs agent is explained in the address comparison.
- List the filings you actually hired someone to watch — state report, agent renewal, federal information return. Annual filings and foreign-owned maintenance describe the pile. They do not replace a preparer.
- Keep a ledger you can file from. If the only record is a forwarded PDF and a memory of PayPal, the return will be a guess. Bookkeeping is quoted after we see the activity.
What usually arrives at the agent — and what never will
| Item | Often served or sent to the agent? | Still your job? |
|---|---|---|
| State annual report or franchise-tax notice | Often, if the state uses the agent of record. | Yes. File or hire someone to file. |
| Service of process | Yes. That is the statutory reason the agent exists. | Yes. Deadlines in a complaint do not care that you were traveling. |
| Federal Form 5472 / Form 1065 package | No. You (or a preparer) create and send this. The IRS does not mail you a completed 5472 because an agent exists. | Yes, when the classification and facts require it. |
| Bank and processor letters | Only if you listed the agent as your mailing address. | Yes. KYC mail is easy to miss if it sits in a statutory inbox. |
The important line: federal information returns are outbound work. Waiting for the agent to forward a 5472 is waiting for a letter that was never going to be written for you.
A simple compliance split
Keep three calendars. Do not merge them because they all say “US company.”
- State. Annual report or franchise tax in the formation state, plus agent renewal. Wyoming and Delaware specifics — with the warning that dollar amounts move — are in that overview.
- Federal information and income returns. Classification first (disregarded, partnership, corporation), then the forms that follow. Scriplit’s published starting point for a straightforward foreign-owned single-member federal 5472 packet is on Pricing and Form 5472. Messy years get a written quote.
- Sales tax and home-country tax. Not the agent’s file. Not the Wyoming annual report.
US tax compliance and tax strategy explain what Scriplit will and will not file. We do not invent a CPA license.
When forwarded mail is late or missing
If you changed agents and skipped the state change form, mail can still go to the old vendor. File the change first; cancel second. If you never opened the portal, ask the agent for a history. If a prior year was skipped, say so in the brief — cleanup is a real job. There is no honest promise that a penalty disappears because the PDF sat unread.
If Scriplit formed the LLC, first-year agent service is described on US LLC formation. Filings after the stamp are a different engagement. Send the Articles, the EIN letter, and a short list of what the company did — or did not do — through the tax-filing contact form.
Frequently asked questions
Does a registered agent handle my US taxes?
No. The agent receives and forwards official papers. Preparing and sending federal or state tax and information returns is separate work.
If the agent forwards nothing, do I still file?
Often yes. Many federal duties are not triggered by a letter from the agent. A quiet portal is not a clearance certificate.
Should I use the registered agent as my IRS mailing address?
Only if you will watch that inbox as carefully as email. Many owners use a mailbox or an address they actually open. Follow the form you are filing and keep the file consistent.
Can Scriplit file if another company is my agent?
Yes. You do not have to have formed the LLC with us. Send the documents and say which years you think are open.