US Business Entity Types: LLC, Corporation, S-Corp, DBA

Choosing the right business entity affects everything that follows: how much you pay in taxes, whether your personal assets are at risk if the business is sued, how easy it is to bring in investors, and how much paperwork you file every year. The four most common US structures are the LLC (the default for solo founders and small partnerships, with flexible tax treatment, simple paperwork, and personal-asset protection), the C-Corporation (the structure that supports venture funding and stock options, but is double-taxed), the S-Corporation (a tax election layered on top of an LLC or corporation, available only to eligible US owners with 100 or fewer shareholders), and the DBA ("doing business as", a trade-name registration and not its own legal entity).

Each state administers entity formation differently. Pick an entity below to see how it works in every US state, or jump to a specific state. Not sure which fits? Start with how to choose a business entity.