A US LLC for App Developers Abroad: Apple and Google Play Organisation Accounts, D-U-N-S Numbers, Privacy, Payouts and Tax

Independent app developers outside the USA face a decision their US counterparts barely think about: publish as an individual or as an organisation, and if as an organisation, which one. A developer in Bangalore, Lahore or Lagos can publish under their own name, through a company at home, or through a US LLC.

The question usually comes up for one of four reasons. The developer does not want their home address shown on Google Play. They are tired of their personal name appearing as the seller on the App Store. They have hit Google Play's closed testing requirement for new personal accounts. Or they are building something in a category, such as finance or health, that the stores only accept from organisations.

A US LLC can solve all four. It is not always the right answer, and the stores' own verification is stricter than many tutorials suggest. This guide explains what a US company changes for an app business, what the stores require, where developers get stuck, and how payouts and tax work afterwards.

Short answer: both Apple and Google let individuals publish, but organisation accounts change what is shown publicly, remove Google's closed testing rule for new personal accounts, and are required for some app categories. An organisation account needs a real legal entity, a free D-U-N-S number matching the company's legal name and address exactly, and, for Apple, a working website on the company's own domain. A US LLC with a US bank account is often the most practical organisation for developers whose market is global and whose payouts are in dollars. Approval is the store's decision, so consistency across every document matters more than anything else.

What changes when you publish as an organisation

The name on your store listing

On the App Store, the seller of an app published by an individual is the developer's personal legal name. Published through a company, it is the company's legal name. For a developer building a brand, a company name looks more established to users, to business customers and to anyone considering acquiring the app later.

What is shown publicly about you

This is the reason many developers act, and it has become more important in the last few years.

Google Play displays developer information on the store according to the account type. For an individual account, Google shows your legal name, your country and your developer email. If you monetise, through paid apps or in-app purchases, Google shows a full address, taken from your payments profile, because consumer protection laws require sellers to be identifiable. For an individual, that is typically your home address. For an organisation account, Google displays the organisation's legal name, legal address, developer email and developer phone number.

Apple must verify and display contact details for "traders" distributing apps in the European Union under the EU Digital Services Act. A trader's phone number and email are shown on the product page in EU storefronts, and an individual trader must also provide an address. Apps without a declared trader status can be removed from the EU storefronts.

Through a company, the details shown are the company's, and the address can be a business address rather than your home. For companies formed in 24 states, including Wyoming, Delaware and New Mexico, we provide a US business address for $60 a year, and a virtual office with a lease agreement for $49 a month where a fuller presence is needed. See US business address and virtual office explained.

Google Play's testing rule for new personal accounts

Personal Google Play developer accounts created after 13 November 2023 must run a closed test with at least 12 testers, opted in continuously for at least 14 days, before they can apply for access to production. For a solo developer without a ready community, finding twelve real testers and keeping them for two weeks is a genuine obstacle, and an industry of paid "tester" services has grown around it, which carries its own risks for the account. Google's rule is written for personal accounts; organisation accounts are not covered by it.

Categories that require an organisation

Google Play requires an organisation account for apps offering financial products and services (banking, loans, trading, investment, crypto wallets and exchanges), health apps such as medical and human-subjects research apps, apps using the VPN service capability, and government apps. If your product sits in one of those, an organisation account is not a preference but a requirement.

Contracts, payments and the business around the app

Many app businesses do not earn only through the stores. They sell subscriptions on the web, license SDKs, build white-label apps for clients or sell B2B. A US company makes it easier to sign with US clients, accept card payments through Stripe and receive USD. See Stripe for non-residents and contracts with US clients.

When you do not need a US company

To be balanced: plenty of successful independent developers publish as individuals for years. You may not need a company if:

• you publish free apps only, so no address is shown for monetisation,
• your Google Play personal account predates November 2023, or you can comfortably meet the testing requirement,
• you are not in a regulated category,
• your payouts arrive in your home bank without problems, and
• you have no US clients or web sales that need a US entity.

A company also brings yearly costs and a federal filing obligation, discussed below. If none of the reasons above applies to you, publishing as an individual is a perfectly sound choice.

Why a US company rather than one at home?

A company in your own country also qualifies as an organisation, and for some developers it is the better answer, for example if you already have one, or if local rules make holding a foreign company complicated. Developers choose a US LLC when they want a dollar bank account for payouts, US payment processing for web sales, a company that does not change if they move country, and simple formation without local share capital or audit requirements. See the country guide for the home-country considerations, including foreign exchange rules for Indian residents in the India guide.

What the stores require from an organisation

The D-U-N-S number

A D-U-N-S number is a nine-digit identifier issued by Dun & Bradstreet, a business data company. Apple and Google use it to confirm that your company exists, is a legal entity and is at the address you state. It is free when requested for developer enrolment; both Apple and Google warn about third parties charging high fees for it. Apple says to allow up to five business days for a new number to be issued, and up to two more for Apple to receive it.

The D-U-N-S record is where most enrolments go wrong, because Dun & Bradstreet's data must match what you submit to the store, and the store's data must match your formation documents:

• The legal name, character for character. "Brightpath Apps LLC" and "BrightPath Apps, L.L.C." are different names to an automated check. Use the exact name on your articles of organisation.
• The address. Decide on one company address and use it everywhere: the D-U-N-S record, the developer account, the bank and the EIN records. A company that is registered at one address, has its D-U-N-S record at a second and its bank at a third invites a manual review.
• No trade names. If you want the app to show a brand name, that is the app's name, not the seller's. The seller name is the legal entity.

The website

Apple expects a real website on the organisation's own domain, with information about the company and its products, and generally a work email on that domain. A social media page or a placeholder "coming soon" page is not enough. Building a simple, genuine site before enrolling saves a round of rejections.

Where foreign-owned LLCs run into difficulty

It would be easy to promise that a US LLC guarantees an organisation account. It does not, and honest advice has to say so.

On Apple's developer forums, there are recent reports from owners of newly formed, single-member US LLCs, owned by non-residents, whose organisation enrolment was declined with no specific reason given, and who were told to enrol as an individual instead. Apple decides these applications itself and does not publish its criteria. Nobody, including us, can guarantee the outcome.

From what developers report, the enrolments that go smoothly tend to share the same features:

• Everything matches: legal name, address, D-U-N-S record, website and the enrolling person's identity.
• There is a real business visible: a working website with products, a privacy policy and contact details, ideally an app or product already in development.
• The enrolling person is clearly the owner and can show it, with an operating agreement naming them and the EIN confirmation.
• The company is not brand new on paper with nothing else: a D-U-N-S record with a real address and a website make the company look like what it is.

If an organisation enrolment is declined, enrolling as an individual first and moving to an organisation later remains possible, though moving apps between accounts has its own process.

Payouts

Both stores pay developers by bank transfer to the account in the developer profile. With a US LLC, that is normally a US business bank account in the company's name, receiving US dollars. From there, you can pay expenses in dollars, keep a USD balance or transfer to your home account. See US business bank accounts for non-residents and moving money home.

The bank account holder name should match the developer account's legal name. Paying a company account's earnings into a personal account, or the reverse, is a common cause of payout holds, and it also blurs the line between you and the company that limited liability depends on.

Tax: what the stores ask and what you owe

Two separate questions often get mixed up: what tax forms the stores need, and what tax the business actually owes.

Tax forms

Both stores collect US tax information from every developer to decide whether to withhold US tax and what to report. Which form applies depends on who the store considers the payee.

A single-member LLC owned by a non-resident is, for US federal tax, a disregarded entity: the IRS looks through the company to its owner. For withholding purposes, the owner, a foreign person, is generally the beneficial owner, which normally points to a W-8BEN from the owner rather than a W-9 from the company. This is the same logic platforms apply to creators, explained in W-8BEN vs W-8BEN-E and the creators section of the freelancer guide.

In practice, store tax interviews do not always handle this cleanly. Developers have reported, for example, App Store Connect offering only a W-9 to a foreign-owned single-member LLC because the company has a US address and EIN. Submitting a W-9 states that the payee is a US person, which is not true of a non-resident's disregarded LLC and can create reporting that does not match your actual position. Get this right at the start; it is much harder to correct after a year of payouts.

Treaty claims and the ITIN question

Where a store does withhold US tax on part of your earnings, a tax treaty between the USA and your country may reduce it, claimed on the W-8BEN. Many developers assume they need an ITIN for that. Often they do not: the W-8BEN accepts a foreign tax identification number from your country of residence for treaty claims, such as an Indian PAN. An ITIN becomes useful where your country does not issue a suitable number or a payer insists on a US number. See ITIN without a tax return and the ITIN guide.

What the business owes

For a single-member LLC owned by a non-resident, whose development and operations happen entirely outside the USA, with no US office, staff or dependent agents, the app income is often not effectively connected with a US trade or business and often not subject to US federal income tax. You will generally report it at home under your own country's rules. See effectively connected income explained.

Whatever the income position, the LLC files Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120 every year, including in a year with no revenue, and the penalty for missing it starts at $25,000. See Form 5472 explained.

Sales tax and VAT

For purchases made through the App Store and Google Play, the stores handle consumer sales taxes and VAT in most countries. If you also sell directly on the web, for example subscriptions through Stripe, you become responsible for sales tax on digital products in US states where you exceed their thresholds, and for VAT or GST in other countries under their rules. See state taxes for foreign-owned LLCs.

Web payments and the US storefront

Since 2025, court rulings in the United States have allowed apps on the US App Store to link users to purchase options outside the app, and the rules on what Apple may charge for those purchases are still being decided in the courts. Developers who move subscribers to web checkout need their own payment processor, and a US company with a US bank account is the simplest way to open a Stripe account in USD. Because this area is changing, check the current store rules before building around it.

Which state?

Apple and Google do not prefer any state. For a developer abroad, the choice is about yearly cost and privacy:

• Wyoming: owners off the public record, low yearly cost, widely familiar. Our usual recommendation. See Wyoming LLC for non-residents.
• New Mexico: owners off the public record, no annual report, the lowest yearly cost. See New Mexico LLC for non-residents.
• Delaware corporation: if you plan to raise venture capital for the app business. An LLC is not the right vehicle for that. See US C-Corporation for non-residents.

Use the state selector if you are unsure.

The order to do things in

Sequence matters, because each step depends on the details of the one before. We handle the company side; the store enrolment is yours, but it goes much more smoothly with the company side done in this order:

1. Decide the exact legal name you want on the stores, and check it is available.
2. Form the LLC and obtain the EIN, with your own name as the responsible party.
3. Fix one company address for every record, ideally a US business address rather than the registered agent's.
4. Open the US business bank account in the company's exact legal name.
5. Build the website on the company's domain, with a work email on that domain.
6. Request the D-U-N-S number with exactly matching name and address.
7. Enrol with Apple and Google as an organisation, with the operating agreement and EIN letter ready if asked.
8. Complete the store tax interviews correctly for a foreign-owned disregarded LLC.

Worked examples

These are illustrative examples, not client cases.

Example 1: the solo Android developer. A developer in Kochi has a new personal Google Play account and three utility apps with in-app purchases. Google would show his home address, and he cannot find twelve testers. A Wyoming LLC with a business address and a US bank account lets him apply for an organisation account, which would show the company and its business address and is not subject to the testing requirement.

Example 2: the fintech app. A team in Lagos is building a budgeting app with bank connections. Google treats it as a financial services app requiring an organisation account. They also plan to raise seed funding. Recommendation: a Delaware C-Corporation, used as the developer organisation from the start.

Example 3: the hobbyist. A student in Colombo publishes free games and earns nothing yet. No address is displayed, the testing rule is manageable with friends, and there are no payouts. Recommendation: publish as an individual for now and revisit when monetising.

Example 4: the agency. A studio in Dhaka builds apps for US clients and publishes some under clients' accounts and some under its own brand. A US LLC gives it a US contracting entity, USD invoicing, and a developer organisation for its own titles.

What it costs

Apple's $99 annual membership and Google's $25 registration are paid to the stores directly.

How UCB helps

We form the company, obtain the EIN with you as responsible party, open the US business bank account and, if you want one, provide the US business address, all remotely. We make sure the legal name and address are set up consistently from day one, so your D-U-N-S record and store enrolment start from clean documents, and we give you the operating agreement and EIN confirmation stores sometimes ask to see. Each year our US tax filing service files the federal return. We cannot influence Apple's or Google's decisions, and we will not pretend otherwise, but we can make sure nothing on the company side gives them a reason to hesitate. See the Company + EIN + Bank Account package.

Publishing apps and thinking about a US company? WhatsApp us at +91 8105 199 399 or email enquiries@ucbsolutions.com with what you build and where you sell, and we will tell you whether a US LLC makes sense and which set-up fits.