What this guide covers
What to obtain after registration: the federal tax identifier, registration with the Florida revenue administration, local licences, and beneficial ownership reporting. Each unlocks a different brick of the business, and the order is not indifferent.
What exists
The EIN, federal tax identifier
Issued by the IRS. Required to hire, to open an account and to file. An applicant without a social security number cannot use the online form and follows a separate procedure.
Registration with the Florida DOR
Required as soon as you sell a good or service subject to sales tax, or as soon as you employ staff. It opens the periodic filing obligations.
Local licences
They belong to the county and sometimes the city, not the state. An identical activity can face different rules from one county of the corridor to the next.
Beneficial ownership reporting
A federal filing separate from registration, with FinCEN, with its own deadlines and its own penalties.
What surprises people arriving from Europe or Quebec
Nothing is centralised. Each administration has its own counter, calendar and identifier, and none checks that the others were done. A company can be perfectly compliant with the state and in breach with its county with no signal warning it.
Where it gets complicated
Local licences are the blind spot of foreign founders, because the equivalent does not exist in Europe. They are often discovered through an inspection, a commercial lease or an insurance application.
Official sources
- IRS, apply for an EIN
- Florida Department of Revenue
- FinCEN, beneficial ownership
- Florida DBPR, regulated professions
What French Executive Network can do
Introduce you to the French-speaking business lawyers, accountants and tax advisers in the network who handle this subject, and to the members who have already been through it.