Does it cost anything to get an EIN?

No. The IRS issues Employer Identification Numbers directly, online, at no cost — in their words, "get an EIN directly from the IRS in minutes for free." Any fee you pay for an EIN is paying somebody to fill in that form for you.

Can I be my own registered agent?

In most states, yes — if you have a physical street address in the state of formation and you are there during normal business hours. That second condition is the one military service breaks. You cannot receive service of process from a deployment, and missing it can mean losing a suit you never heard about.

Does my LLC move with me when I PCS?

No. It stays registered in the state where you formed it. If you begin doing business in your new state, that state generally wants you registered there too, through a process called foreign qualification. Staying registered in your original state is often fine and sometimes preferable — check the specific state rather than assuming.

Do you make money from these pages?

Yes, on some of them. Where a vendor offers the service, there is a clearly labeled link and we earn a commission if you use it. It changes nothing about what these pages say — we tell you to get your EIN free from the IRS and to skip the corporate kit entirely, on pages where we would earn more if you did neither.

●InvestigationsCongress made VA disability claims free to file. An entire industry charges veterans anyway — and nobody can stop them.→

Honest MOSBusiness

Business Services

What to pay for, and what to just do yourself

Formation companies sell eleven add-on services. Some are genuinely worth the money when you are in uniform, because they solve a problem the military creates. Some you can do yourself in fifteen minutes on a government website that charges nothing. One of them is a binder.

Here is each one, what it actually does, and the honest call — including on the pages where telling you to skip it costs us money.

Published by the Honest MOS Editorial DeskVerified against DoD/.gov sourcesUpdated August 2026Editorial standards

Forming the company itself

Everything below this section is an add-on to a company that already exists. If you have not formed one yet, start here — and read the comparison of formation services before you pick a provider, because we do not think one of them is right for everybody.

Form an LLCThe default choice for most small businesses — limited liability without corporate formalities.
See form an llc pricing
Form an S CorporationA tax election with real payroll obligations attached. Worth modelling before you choose it.
See form an s corporation pricing
Form a C CorporationWhat you form if you intend to raise outside investment. Double taxation is the trade.
See form a c corporation pricing
Form a NonprofitSeparate from 501(c)(3) status, which is a federal application you make afterward.
See form a nonprofit pricing
Business Name SearchFree toolCheck whether your name is already taken in your state before you file anything.
Open business name search
Entity ComparisonFree toolLLC vs S corp vs C corp vs sole proprietor, side by side.
Open entity comparison

No prices on these cards on purpose — the product feed carried none for formation, and we do not publish a figure from memory. Check the current price on the vendor’s page. You always pay your state’s filing fee on top of any service fee.

The ones military service actually changes

Deploying, PCSing, and living on an installation each break an assumption these services are built on. Start here.

The rest

Same questions, no special military wrinkle — but the do-it-yourself math still matters.

Where the prices come from

Vendor prices are transcribed from Bizee’s published product feed dated 11 August 2026 and will drift — check the vendor before you buy. State filing fees are deliberately not listed anywhere in this section: they vary by state, they change without notice, and a made-up number is worse than no number. Every page points you at the office that sets the real one.

Read the methodology for how we rank anything, or the disclosure page for how the money works.