One thing no one's mentioned yet - don't forget about your business licenses and permits! Moving states means you'll need new ones specific to Colorado requirements. For a photography business, check if Colorado or your specific city/county requires: 1. General business license 2. Home occupation permit (if working from home) 3. Sales tax license (if you sell physical products like prints) 4. Professional licenses (some places require them for photographers) Even if you keep your NM LLC as a foreign entity, you'll still need Colorado-specific licenses to operate legally there.

Great question! I recently went through a similar move with my small marketing consultancy from Texas to Florida. Here are a few additional considerations that helped me make the decision: **Tax implications beyond just annual fees:** Look into Colorado's income tax rates vs. New Mexico's. Colorado has a flat 4.4% state income tax, while New Mexico has graduated rates up to 5.9%. Depending on your LLC's income level, this could influence your decision. **Banking relationships:** If you have established business credit lines or relationships with your current bank, ask them about transferring accounts vs. opening new ones. Some banks make it easier to update an existing LLC's address rather than closing and reopening everything. **Client contracts:** Review your existing photography contracts - some may have specific language about jurisdiction or governing state law. If you dissolve and recreate, you might need to execute new agreements with existing clients. **Timeline considerations:** The foreign LLC registration is typically faster (2-3 weeks) compared to dissolving one LLC and creating another (4-8 weeks total). If you need to maintain business operations without interruption, this might be the deciding factor. I ended up going the foreign registration route and it's worked well for me. The dual compliance is manageable, and keeping my established business identity was worth the extra annual fees.

I'm dealing with essentially the same situation but I'm confused about how income tax works. If my LLC is disregarded and I'm a foreign person not living in the US, do I still pay US income tax on the profits? I've heard about something called "effectively connected income" but I'm not sure if that applies to me.

This is such a complex area and I appreciate everyone sharing their experiences here. I went through this exact same confusion last year with my foreign-owned single-member LLC. One thing I want to emphasize that hasn't been mentioned yet is the importance of keeping detailed records of ALL transactions between you and your LLC, even if they seem minor. The Form 5472 requires reporting of "reportable transactions" which includes things like loans to/from the LLC, guarantees, and even certain services provided. The threshold is surprisingly low - $25,000 per category per year. Also, regarding the income tax question that Isabella raised - this is where having access to proper guidance becomes crucial. The determination of whether your income is "effectively connected" with a US trade or business depends on many factors including the nature of your services, where they're performed, and whether you have any US tax treaty protections. I ended up working with a CPA who specializes in international tax, but even then we had to do a lot of research on the specific treaty provisions between the US and my home country. The good news is that once you understand your specific requirements, the annual compliance becomes much more manageable. The key is not to delay - those penalties for missing Form 5472 are real and they don't care about your confusion or good intentions.

If your combined income for the year is under $73,000, you can use IRS Free File to e-file both your federal and state returns for free! I used it for my two-state situation last year and it worked great. The wizard asks where you lived during the year and guides you through the process for filing multiple state returns.

I notice there's some confusion in the comments above - the original poster mentioned working in Colorado first then Arizona, but one commenter referred to California instead of Arizona. Just wanted to clarify for anyone following along! For your specific situation (Colorado → Arizona), you'll file your federal 1040 to the IRS processing center for Arizona residents since that's your current state of residence. For state returns, you'll need to file a Colorado part-year resident return (not non-resident, since you lived there for part of the year) and an Arizona part-year resident return as well. The key difference between part-year resident and non-resident filing can affect your tax liability significantly, so make sure you're using the right forms for each state. Both Colorado and Arizona have specific rules about how to allocate income and deductions for part-year residents.

Anyone know which tax software can actually handle 8858 and 5471 properly for dual status aliens? I tried TurboTax and it's completely confused by my situation.

I went through this exact situation two years ago when I moved from the UK in August and had to deal with my foreign LLC income. The key thing to understand is that Forms 8858 and 5471 are information returns that report the full calendar year activity of your foreign entity, regardless of when you became a US resident. However, for your actual tax liability on Form 1040, you'll only include income from the date you became a US resident forward. So if you became a resident in June, you'd report income from June through December on your US return, even though the 8858/5471 covers the full year. The tricky part is the dual-status return filing. You'll need to file both Form 1040 (for your resident period) and Form 1040NR (for your non-resident period), with a clear statement explaining how you allocated the income. I recommend calculating this on a daily basis - if you received $60,000 total income and were a resident for 214 days out of 365, you'd report approximately $35,000 on your US return. Don't forget about the potential penalties for late filing of these forms - they can be substantial even if no tax is owed. If you're unsure about any aspect, definitely consult with a tax professional who has experience with international forms.

i think ur overthinking this tbh. i did travel nursing during covid and got reimbursed for mileage and the company never included it in my taxes. if the company paid u using the irs mileage rate and u submitted all ur trips through their system ur probably fine. did they give u a w-2 that looks way bigger than what u actually made? if not dont worry abt it

I went through this exact situation when I worked as a traveling medical technician for COVID testing sites. The fact that you were reimbursed at the standard IRS mileage rate and had to submit documentation through their system is a very good sign that it was handled properly. Here's what I learned: Since you didn't have a regular, permanent workplace and were assigned to different temporary locations, your travel qualifies as business travel rather than commuting. The IRS considers any work assignment expected to last less than one year as "temporary," so even locations you visited regularly would still count. For the Accountable Plan question - if your reimbursements were processed separately from your regular pay (like separate deposits or checks) and you had to document business purpose, dates, and mileage, that strongly suggests they followed Accountable Plan rules. Most importantly, check your W-2 Box 1. If it only shows your actual wages and doesn't include the reimbursement amounts, then your employer correctly treated them as non-taxable. The biggest red flag would be if your W-2 Box 1 amount is significantly higher than what you remember earning in actual wages - that would mean they incorrectly included reimbursements as taxable income and you'd need to address it.