Hi! You can absolutely register a biz in Florida and conceal your identity - you need to do it with a registered agent as you mentioned.
You'll pay a little each year to the agent who will be your official registered thing on your business. It's super simple and easy. And the banks will use your EIN then
My accountant was able to set this up for me (DiTa - if you google it you'll find her).
Don't use paxum bank.
Are you trying to open a business account specifically? Are the concerns with privacy what exactly - the bank sharing your real name with who?
While the major banks mentioned (chase and wellsfargo) are both not friendly to sex work you can still use them. Many sex workers do. They only close your accts if you get a report or flag somehow. If you go that route (and honestly best practice for us) is to have accts at multiple banks. I have my business acct with chase, a credit card there also, then i have a personal acct with wellsfargo, and then I have a credit union personal account, and another account in another country where I have citizenship. This makes me feel a lot more secure that if i lose access to one account I'll be able to access funds quickly.
Yes, the LLC is registered, the Articles of Organization is clean. The DBA name is in process. The tax benefits are really not much different than if I were doing a regular sole proprietorship without an LLC. This isn't my first business, just my first one in this industry.
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It also provides me with a layer of protection - when I write checks for example, from my business account to models they are all under my LLC so I don't have to share my name if I'm just hiring them for services." BINGO! That's why I'm registering the DBA name, which would be used in any written agreements - like if I want to outsource media production work or any other services. And that's why I'm being so insistent on the protection of my real name with the banks. Others need to know the business name, but if a signature is required, which is sometimes necessary, I need a legal alias. The State has all these provisions for registering the LLC and DBA (Fictitious Name). It's the bank required paperwork where the hang-up is coming from.
The banks will not open a business account if my real name is not in Sunbiz. They either force you to add it to Sunbiz, or they make you use your SSN for the account instead of the EIN. I need to follow up on that more, because I was under the impression that messes with the LLC protections. That may have been a bad assumption. It seems that as long as you manage finances separately, and don't mix personal and business monies, it may be ok. Most google search hits strongly recommend using a business account, but it just seems like it comes with heavier fees and scrutiny. And the benefits they list are not mostly relevant for a single-owner LLC - except for the mention of "may invalidate LLC protections." The number of transactions shouldn't be an issue, so...
The Chase business accounts manager was very clear that they don't support any business in the Adult industry - of any kind. Same for Citi and BofA, although the BofA woman I met said "just open it and don't be so honest about what it's for." I'm guessing that you didn't disclose that to Chase? I'm trying to do this without hiding that info - nothing here is illegal. And I honestly don't know how they can legally deny the account, but some fights I'd rather not fight. They seem to lump all sex work together and everything gets the stink of illegal prostitution. I've seen conflicting stories on PNC, with regard to adult-friendly. If I lived in Wisconsin, it wouldn't be an issue - they don't have a Sunbiz (frickin FL sunshine laws!)
I thought personal accounts run a risk related to "piercing the veil" of LLC liability protection, but I've been researching that and it may not be true - might be the way to go with a personal account at some little credit union that doesn't have time to figure out or care who it is that's sending the ACH deposits. Chase indicated that they have a list of businesses blocked, but it sounds like you're getting paid just fine, so maybe that was BS.
I don't know exactly how you're working with models (collabs, studio, etc). I've heard that RO studios try to control everything about the money. And one thing Cosmo said was that MFC and OF require those payments to go to accounts in the content creators' own names. So they have this elaborate sub-account mechanism where the sub-account is in the model's name, but the money is under the primary's control. I think I need to pay $5 and go to that "ask a legal question" website to get the clear answer on the LLC veil. I'm not taking this to my attorney. He's too expensive and I really don't want him knowing about it. (btw, if anyone knows a good adult entertainment lawyer in FL, I'm all ears.)
