Guide to Starting an Indiana LLC

Step 1: Name Your Indiana LLC

Choose a name for your Indiana LLC. Brainstorming a name for your new business can be fun, but just remember you have to conform to Indiana naming requirements. If the Indiana Secretary of State rejects your business name, your whole filing will be rejected. You’ll have to start the whole process over, which is both a pain and a delay.

Indiana LLC Naming Guidelines

Whatever name you choose will need to comply with Indiana’s statutes for naming businesses (IC 23-0.5-3). Among them are:

• The name of your Indiana limited liability company must contain a “designator,” which is a word or phrase indicating what kind of business entity it is. An Indiana LLC must have the designator “limited liability company” or the abbreviation “L.L.C.” or “LLC” in its name.
• Your business name must be unique within the state. It must be distinguishable from all other businesses in Indiana, so very minor alterations aren’t enough. For example, changing the designator isn’t a significant change. (And don’t try to deceive the public by using a designator that doesn’t reflect your entity type, such as adding “Inc.” to your LLC name.)
• You can’t use the word “bank” or any derivative of it unless you get approval from the Department of Financial Institutions.

Finding a Unique Name

When choosing a name for your limited liability company, you need to ensure that it is unique from any other business in the state of Indiana. You can do a quick business search by following the instructions on our Business Entity Search for Indiana page. There, you can verify that the name you want is available.

When using the name availability search, the Indiana Secretary of State website cautions, “It is only a preliminary search, meaning the name cannot be guaranteed as available until the final processing is completed at the time of filing. You should not rely, in any way, upon this preliminary information.”

If you’re having trouble thinking of a unique and effective name, check out our “How to Name Your LLC” page for inspiration.

Reserving a Business Name for Your Indiana LLC

When you do find an available name, the state gives you the option to reserve it for 120 days for a fee. You may want to do this if you’ve found the perfect name but aren’t quite ready to file your Articles of Organization yet.

Before committing to a name, though, there are still a couple of other considerations.  

Check for a matching domain name

After looking up names on the Secretary of State’s website, you can check whether your desired domain name is available. While many top-level domains exist — “.co,” “.net,” etc. — there’s nothing like getting the “.com” stamp of legitimacy to give some credibility to your business.

We have a tool to help you do a preliminary domain name search, and our domain name registration service can help you secure the online name that will best serve your business. 

Is your Indiana LLC name available as a web domain?

Even if you don’t sell your products or services directly online, you’re going to want a presence on the web. At the very least, you want your company’s name, address, and contact info to pop up when potential clients search for it.

That’s why getting a good domain name that pairs well with your business name is so important. You’re likely going to be putting that URL on your business cards and other marketing materials, and you want people to be able to remember it and associate it with your business.

The ideal domain name for your company may already be taken, but you can still find others. In fact, if you find a truly great available domain name, it might be worth naming your business after that URL rather than the other way around.

You can use our domain name search tool to see if your desired business name or something else that’s suitable is available as a URL. If you find such a domain name, you might want to lock it down before someone else does.

You can also check to see what social media handles are available. Many businesses market on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, so getting the appropriate social media names can be important for effective online marketing.

We have a domain name service to help you find and purchase a domain name for your business. We can also help you create a business website and provide domain name privacy.

Federal and State Trademarks

Even if the Secretary of State approves your limited liability company name, that’s no guarantee that someone else hasn’t already claimed it with a federal or state trademark. To truly check to see if your business name isn’t trademarked isn’t easy because there’s not one single place to check. Some businesses even employ an attorney specializing in trademarks to see if they’re in the clear.

You can take some measures yourself, like searching the trademark database on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website. This can help you determine if someone’s already claimed a federal trademark on the name you want.

State trademarks are applicable within the borders of a state. The Indiana Secretary of State has a trademark search engine on its website where you can see if anyone has a state trademark on your desired LLC name. If you want, you can also apply for your own state trademark on the site.

In addition to checking these databases, it’s wise to do an internet search for your business name, including checking domain names, social media sites, and even phone directories.

Assumed Business Names in Indiana

Sometimes an LLC will want to do business under a name other than its legal name. If “Hank’s Hoosier Bakery, LLC” wants to start offering catering services under the name “Hank’s Hoosier Catering,” Hank would need to get a DBA or “Doing Business As” name in Indiana to legally operate with that name.

The term for a DBA in Indiana is “assumed business name.” An LLC wanting to do business under an assumed name will need to complete and file a Certificate of Assumed Business Name with the Secretary of State. We can help you with this through our DBA service. 

Step 2: Appoint a registered agent in Indiana

Appoint a registered agent for your LLC. The state and anyone who needs to contact you for legal reasons, such as notification of a lawsuit, need to be able to contact your business. That individual or business entity is called a registered agent in Indiana, and you’re required by law to have one.

Requirements for Indiana Registered Agents 

According to Indiana Code Section 23-0.5-4-3, a registered agent in Indiana must be an individual, a general partnership, a domestic filing entity, or a registered foreign entity with a physical street address in the state. Note that the LLC entity itself can’t serve as its own registered agent in Indiana.

The address where the registered agent is located is called the registered office. It can’t be a P.O. box because some legal notices must be delivered in person. Your registered agent also needs to be available at the registered office during normal business hours to receive service of process in person.

Whomever you choose to be your registered agent, you’ll need to get their consent to serve as your agent. You’ll be asked to confirm this when you complete your Articles of Organization later.

What if the state can’t find my Indiana registered agent?

Serving as your own registered agent or appointing a friend or family member to be your agent might seem the simplest way to meet Indiana’s registered agent requirement. But consider what could happen if a process server is unable to find you or your appointed agent.

This can occur if you or your appointee isn’t in the office (for example, they’re out of town, on vacation, sick, etc.) when someone needs to reach the agent. It can also happen if the agent moves or quits and you forget to update your paperwork with the state.

In addition to legal penalties for being out of compliance, failing to maintain a registered agent could mean that a process server can’t find you to notify you of a lawsuit. In that scenario, a court case against you could actually go forward without your knowledge, meaning you wouldn’t even have a chance to defend yourself.

Registered Agent Services

Some new business owners assume they should appoint themselves as their company’s registered agent. However, this approach may have hidden dangers.  For example, you could be in the middle of a meeting or client presentation when a process server walks in to deliver a notification that you’re being sued, embarrassing you and derailing the meeting.

Working with an outside registered agent service can help you focus on your business with reduced stress. Additional benefits of hiring an outside registered agent service like ours include: 

• Working when it’s convenient for you (your Indiana registered agent must be available during regular business hours)
• Not having to change your registered office address with the state if your  business moves
• Ensuring you stay compliant with the legal requirements for having an Indiana registered agent

ZenBusiness can provide your registered agent

When you sign up for our registered agent service, we’ll provide you with a registered agent in Indiana, meaning there will always be someone available to receive important legal, tax, and other notices from the state. 

This keeps you in compliance with the registered agent statutes, and it avoids embarrassing scenarios where you could be served papers for a lawsuit in front of clients.

Our registered agent service also keeps you organized. When you get important documents, we will quickly inform you and keep them together in your online “dashboard.” From the dashboard, you can view, download, and/or print them whenever you want. You can stop digging through piles of papers to try to find misplaced critical documents.

Step 3: File Indiana LLC Articles of Organization

File your Articles of Organization with the Indiana Secretary of State. Once approved, this step makes your Indiana LLC official. You’ll also need to pay a filing fee at the time you submit the Articles.

Filing official government documents like this can be intimidating and/or complicated for many people, which is why we’re here. With our business formation plans, our team of professionals handles the filing for you. We make sure it’s done quickly and correctly the first time. But, although we can handle this for you, we’ll show you how the process works below.

You can file your Articles of Organization online, by postal mail, or in person. To do so online, you’ll first need to create an account with Access Indiana, which you’ll use to access Indiana’s website for registering businesses, “INBiz.”

Required Information

To complete the Articles of Organization, you’ll need to know the following information:

• The name and address of your LLC, including the designator 
• The name and address of your company’s registered agent
• Whether the LLC’s duration will be perpetual or for a specified period
• Whether the LLC will be member-managed (managed by the LLC’s owners) or manager-managed (managed by a manager appointed by the LLC owners)
• The signature of the LLC organizer

Be aware that, once submitted, this information in your Articles of Organization becomes public record.

Processing times vary, but your Articles are usually approved or rejected within 24 hours when you file online or in person. Filing by mail can take considerably longer, approximately 5 to 7 business days.

Member-Managed or Manager-Managed?

As with many states, Indiana asks you to list how you plan to govern your LLC, by the members/owners (member-managed) or by a manager (manager-managed).

Most LLCs choose to be managed by the members because they only have a few owners or just one. In those cases, it usually makes sense for the LLC owner(s) to do member-management because they’re running the business themselves. All of the owners are sharing in running the business and making decisions for it.

But some LLCs prefer to appoint or hire a manager instead. In the manager-managed option, one or more LLC members can be appointed to make management decisions, or someone from outside the LLC can be hired to manage the company.

Manager-management can be helpful when some of the members only wish to be investors in the company as opposed to running the business and making decisions about it. LLCs that have a lot of members also sometimes find it easier to have a manager because it’s difficult to get all the members together to make decisions on a regular basis.

How to Amend Your Articles of Organization

You need only file your Articles of Organization once. But if any of the original Articles of Organization information needs to be updated, altered, or expanded, your business is required to inform the state about the changes.

You would report these changes by filing Indiana Articles of Amendment and paying a filing fee. If your Articles of Organization isn’t current, it could impact your ability to get a Certificate of Existence (called a “Certificate of Good Standing” in most states). This document isn’t required to conduct business, but it’s important for business accounts, members, and potential investors. Basically, failing to keep your business up to date with state requirements can limit your LLC’s potential future growth.

Do you need help amending your Articles of Organization? We have an amendment filing service that can handle it for you, as well as our Worry-Free Compliance service, which includes two amendment filings every year.

Keep your Indiana LLC paperwork digitally organized

If we help you file Articles of Organization, once the state approves your LLC, your paperwork will be available from your ZenBusiness dashboard. In the dashboard, you can keep this and other important paperwork digitally organized. 

Once you get your physical paperwork back from the state approving your new LLC, you’ll want to keep it in a safe location along with your other important documents, such as your operating agreement, member certificates, contracts, compliance checklists, transfer ledger, etc. We offer a customized business kit to help you keep these important documents organized and looking professional.

Step 4: Create an operating agreement

Create an LLC operating agreement. Operating agreements outline the rules and procedures for the management of the LLC as well as establishing ownership percentages, how profits are divided among members, and much more. 

Your Indiana operating agreement also makes your business appear more legitimate to banks, investors, potential business partners, and the courts. While Indiana doesn’t legally require you to file an operating agreement, if you don’t have one, your LLC will be governed by default by Indiana’s LLC laws, which might not reflect your wishes.

Once an operating agreement is signed by all the members, it becomes legally binding. You don’t need to file it with any government agency, but keep it with your other important legal business documents so you can refer to it easily. 

Do I need an operating agreement if I’m the only owner?

It seems like most of the things in your operating agreement are intended to avoid disputes among the LLC members, so we understand why you might think you don’t need one if your LLC doesn’t have more than one member. But potential investors, future business partners, and others may want to see your operating agreement regardless.

Your operating agreement can also spell out what you want to happen to the business and its assets if you die or become incapacitated.

One more thing to consider: Occasionally, someone will take an LLC owner to court to try to prove that the owner and the LLC are the same entity so that they can go after the owner’s personal assets. If that happens, having an operating agreement in place is one more thing to further demonstrate to the court that the business owner and the LLC truly are separate.

What should be included?

Typical concepts in an LLC operating agreement may include:

• Procedures for admitting or removing LLC members
• Allocation of profits and ownership
• Management structure and voting requirements
• Procedures for dissolving the LLC and dividing its assets

If you’re not sure how to go about creating an operating agreement for your LLC, we have a customizable template to help get you started.

Step 5: Apply for an EIN

Apply for a federal employer identification number. Unless you’re a single-member LLC without employees (and sometimes even then), you’ll likely need to get an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Even if you don’t legally need an EIN, getting one can help you open a business bank account or obtain credit to grow your business. 

You can get your LLC’s EIN through the IRS website, by mail, or by fax. If you don’t want to deal with that particular government agency, we can get it for you. Our EIN service eliminates the hassle.

Can filing as an S corp lower my taxes?

The LLC business structure gives you more flexibility than a corporation. One of those flexibilities is how you can choose to have your LLC taxed.

By default, an LLC has pass-through taxation. This appeals to most owners of LLCs because it avoids “double taxation,” in which a corporation pays taxes at both the business level and again when the income is paid to the individual owners. But some LLCs opt to be taxed as a C corporation or an S corporation because, in their case, it works to their advantage.

Being taxed as a C corporation does mean you get double taxation, but, for certain LLCs, the pros can sometimes outweigh the cons. One benefit is that C corporations have the widest range of tax deductions, which could be an advantage in some scenarios, especially for more profitable LLCs. For example, insurance premiums can be written off as a business expense.

S corp is short for “Subchapter S Corporation” and is a tax status geared toward small businesses. Having your LLC taxed as an S corp has pass-through taxation like a standard LLC, but there’s another potential advantage for some LLCs: It could reduce your self-employment taxes. 

Self-employment taxes are the portion of your taxes that pay for Social Security and Medicare. In a typical LLC, you would pay these on all of your profits.

But filing as an S corp allows you to be an “employee-owner” and split your income into your salary and your share of the company’s profits. In this way, you pay employment taxes on your salary, but not self-employment taxes on your profits. (You’ll still pay the other applicable taxes on your LLC profits, of course.)

The drawback is that the Internal Revenue Service scrutinizes S corps more closely, meaning you’re more likely to get audited. S corps also have more restrictions for qualifying.

While it’s possible that one of the above options could work better for your LLC, remember that business taxes are very, very complicated. They’re also very specific to your situation. That’s why you truly need to consult a tax professional to see which taxing method works best for your Indiana business.

If you decide to form your LLC with an S corp status, our S corp service can help you do that.

Register to pay Indiana state taxes

If your company will have employees or collect sales tax, you may need to register your LLC with the Indiana Department of Revenue and receive an Indiana tax identification number. For instructions on how to register your business, visit the Secretary of State business services division (INBiz) website. 

You’ll need to register for all tax types applicable to your business. Some of the most common ones are listed below:

• Sales and use tax: If you sell products or tangible items
• Withholding tax: If you have employees
• Food and beverage tax: If you sell food and beverages in certain counties/municipalities
• County innkeeper’s tax: If you rent accommodations for less than 30 days in certain counties/municipalities
• Motor vehicle rental tax: If you rent motor vehicles
• Gasoline use tax: If you distribute gasoline or special fuel
• Tire fee: If you sell tires
• Safety fee: If you sell fireworks

Fortunately, you can register for most of the taxes above with a single application, Form BT-1, which incurs a small fee. You’ll need to do a separate application for each business location you have, though.

Unemployment Insurance

In addition to withholding tax, if your LLC has employees, you must register to pay unemployment insurance with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD). This must be done during the first quarter you are liable to pay premiums.

You can register online using the DWD’s online Uplink Employer Self Service program. The DWD will give you an individual account number when you register. 

Workers’ Compensation

Another responsibility for Hoosier employers is to get worker’s compensation insurance from a private insurance carrier.  If an employee injury occurs and results in more than one day away from work, the employer must electronically file an Indiana Worker’s Compensation First Report of Employee Injury, Illness.

New Hire Reporting

In Indiana, all public, private, nonprofit, and government employers are required to report all new and rehired employees within 20 days of the hiring to the Indiana New Hire Reporting Center. Failing to report a new employee could result in a $500 fine.

Post-Formation Steps

Biennal Reporting Requirement

Every Indiana LLC (and foreign LLCs doing business in Indiana) must file a biennial Business Entity Report with the Indiana Secretary of State Business Services Division. The Business Entity Report contains basic information like your LLC’s name, filing date, and registered agent information. 

You’ll need to submit your report every other year in the anniversary month of your LLC’s formation. For example, if you created your LLC on Aug. 13, 2020, you would need to file your biennial report in August of every even year (2022, 2024, etc.). Similarly, if you registered a foreign LLC with the Secretary of State Business Services Division in 2020, your biennial report will be due in 2022, 2024, etc. There are separate fees for filing online or by mail.

We can help you with your Business Entity Report in a couple of ways. First, our annual report service will help you file your Business Entity Report. Second, our Worry-Free Compliance service not only helps with filing your report, but also sends you other important compliance reminders and helps you with two amendment filings each year.

Open a bank account after getting an EIN

Once you’ve secured an EIN, you’ll be able to open a business bank account. Having separate accounts for your business and your personal banking is critical for sorting out your finances at tax time. It also helps you avoid commingling funds. Commingling funds makes your taxes more difficult to sort out, and it could also be used against you if someone takes you to court to challenge whether you and your LLC are truly separate entities (i.e., they want to sue you for not just your business assets, but also your own assets). You may also want to get a business credit card to make small purchases and start establishing your company’s credit score.

We offer a discounted bank account for your new business. This allows for unlimited transactions, online banking, a debit card, and more. When you want to authorize others in your business to use the account, we offer a banking resolution template to simplify the process.

For further help managing your new business’s finances, try ZenBusiness Money. It can help you create invoices, receive payments, keep track of deductible expenses, transfer money, and manage clients all in one place.