Washington Corporations cost $180.00 to file with the State, and will take about 2 months for the State to process unless you pay the $20.00 expedite fee. When we form your Washington Corporation, we always include the $20.00 State expedite fee so that the WA corporation will be processed in 1-3 business days. If you really don't care about the time frame, we can process it without the expedite for you for the $180.00 State filing fee.
When we form Washington corporations, we include:
- Articles of incorporation for Washington corporations. We can customize these drafted articles with any additional specifics you might need.
- Washington corporation bylaws, written specifically by our Washington Licensed attorney to protect you to the fullest extent allowed under RCW 23B.
- Initial resolution appointing officers and directors by the incorporator.
- Initial report (We haven't seen another online incorporation website that does this, or frankly even knows that there is one).
- Washington State filing fees.
- 1 year of our $65.00 Washington Registered Agent service.
- Online account for all your documents.
- Track and remind you of your annual report notice. If you would like, we also have an option where we file this every year for you.
- We'll have your company formed sometimes the same day if the State isn't busy. There's no weird expedited or bronze or platinum or gold packages with us.
Washington corporations are governed by the Washington Business Corporation Act Title 23B RCW.
In Washington, Washington incorporation is just the first step. If you're going to actually run and operate a business in Washington, just forming a Washington corporation at the Washingtion SOS won't really get you going. We have a Master business license in Washington State, and if you plan on opening a bank account or doing any business in Washington, you'll have to have it. We get calls almost every day from people that signed up online on some big fancy incorporation website, and got a certificate of incorporation back from them, but they don't have a clue of what they are suppossed to do next. You can file the master business license application youself, but when you sign up for Washington incorporation with us, there's an option to have us do it for you for $125.00. If you're looking for a full and complete package, we would recommend Washington incorporation, Tax ID, S corp, and WA Master business license for a total of: $590.00.
You'll be completely up and running in Washington State with your Corporation.
Washington has a gross receipts tax, and that is why they make you get a Master business license so you can pay your taxes, collect sales tax (because almost everything has sales tax), set up your workers comp insurance, and unemployment insurance. They want to make you feel good, so they just call it a Master business License. It's actually not a license at all, it's just a business registration. You still might need an actual trade license to do what you want to do.
Here are the following tax rates:
| Service and anything that doesn't fall in anything else: | .015 |
| Manufacturing: | .00484 |
| Wholesaling: | .00471 |
| Retailing: | .00471 |
So basically most people fall under the 1.5% of your gross receipts. There are basically no deductions, except one of the coolest Washington Laws out there:
Small businesses are exempt from the B & O (Business and Occupation) tax (Gross reciepts tax) for their first 43,000 of revenue, and then it slides out to the regular rate until about $70,000.
After the first $70,000 of revenue, you'll be at the full 1.5%. I think it's really cool that new Washington corporations are basically tax free on the State level for their first $43,000 of revenue because there's no personal income tax in Washington. Progressive thinking like this is something we should all be proud of in Washington State.
Washington corporations will have to file an annual report each year on the last day of the anniversary month you file in. As a Washington Registered Agent client of ours, you get reminders from us to file this, and in your online account, we track this for you. You can file them online in about 5 minutes, and it will cost a $59.00 State filing fee.
We get the report for you and upload it to your online account immediately, so you can use the PIN to file your report. There's a $25.00 late fee from the State if you don't file it on time, and eventually they will cancel your Washington corporation.
Some of the basics that need to be drafted to form your Washington Corporation are:
- Legal name. Must include a legal ending like Inc, Corp., Corporation, Incorporated, etc.
- Number of shares you would like to authorize. There's no additional filing fee in Washington for a large amount of shares.
- Type of stock. Most people will just do common stock.
- If the Washington corporation will be perpetual or if you want it to end at a specific date.
- When you want the Washington Corporation to start.
- The name and address of the Washington registered agent and the incorporator.
Some important information on Washington Corporations:
- RCW 23B.08.300 Directors of a Washington Corporation must act in the best interests of the Washington Corporation.
- RCW 23B.08.320 Directors of a Washington Corporation have limited or eliminated liability for their actions unless they intentionally violate law(s) and conduct themselves in a manner that is not for the best interest of the Washington Corporation
- RCW 23B.08.400 Officers must carry out their duties as prescribed in the Washington Corporate bylaws and must not intentionally conduct themselves in a manner that would cause harm to the Washington Corporation
- RCW 23B.08.520 Officers are automatically indemnified unless the articles of incorporation specifically state that they are not, or if they have intentionally caused harm to the corporation.
- RCW 23B.07.010 The failure to hold an annual meeting of the shareholders, does not affect the validity of the Washington Corporation.
If you would like help forming a Washington corporation, we basically only charge you $100.00 to properly incorporate your business in Washington State. And we'll have it done right away for you. If you want to incorporate in Washington yourself, you can also just sign up for our Washington Registered Agent service, and we have the forms you'll need to file on the thank you page for you.
We look forward to helping you out either way.