Editorial Policy

Last updated:

This page describes how LLCbyState produces and maintains its content. We aim to be the easiest place on the internet to read accurate, current, primary-sourced information about US business entity formation.

1. Sourcing

  • Primary sources only for state-specific filing fees, annual-report rules, registered-agent requirements, and statutory citations: each state’s Secretary of State page, the relevant state statute, and the state Department of Revenue / Taxation.
  • IRS.gov for federal tax classification, EIN procedures, and federal filing forms.
  • SBA.gov for general small-business reference information.
  • Federal Register / Treasury / FinCEN for federal regulatory updates such as the Corporate Transparency Act and BOI reporting.
  • We avoid citing other formation-service blogs as primary sources, even when they are accurate.

2. Review cycle

  • State-specific pages: full re-verification at least once every 12 months, with immediate updates on known fee changes.
  • Federal-tax pages: re-verification every January and after any IRS guidance update.
  • BOI / CTA-related content: re-verified after every status change in the litigation or rule-making.
  • The "Last updated" date on each page reflects the most recent verification, not the date the page was first written.

3. Authorship and review

  • Every page carries a named byline. Where the byline is "LLCbyState Editorial Team," that means a member of our in-house team is the author of record.
  • Reviewer credentials (paralegal/attorney) are gated until we hire a state-licensed reviewer. Until then, every state-specific page carries a clear "legal information, not legal advice" disclaimer.
  • Once a credentialed reviewer is in place, their name, jurisdiction, and bar/cert number will appear on the relevant pages.

4. Conflicts of interest

  • We are not a formation service.
  • We do not currently run any affiliate program. If we add one (planned for Year 2), affiliate links will be tagged on every page that contains them and the program will be described in our Affiliate Disclosure.
  • Editors and writers are not compensated based on which formation service or registered agent is recommended.
  • Our advertising is delivered by Google AdSense; we have no relationship with the specific advertisers shown.

5. AI policy

  • We use AI tools to help with first-draft research and copy editing.
  • Every published page is fact-checked by a human researcher against primary sources before publication.
  • We do not publish AI-only content. Citations are added by humans, not by AI.
  • We do not knowingly cite or republish AI-generated material from other sources.

6. Corrections

If you find an error, please email contact@llcbystate.com with the page URL and the correction. We log every correction in the change log on the page concerned and update the "Last updated" date.

7. What we will not publish

  • Tax-evasion or sanctions-evasion strategies.
  • Sponsored content presented as editorial.
  • Anonymous tips that we cannot verify against a primary source.
  • State-specific advice that we cannot tie to that state’s SoS page or statute.

8. Independence

Editorial decisions about what to cover, what to recommend, and how to assess a service are made independently of advertising and affiliate considerations. The advertising team (currently: a config flag) has no input into editorial decisions.