Forming a business with no name attached to it

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

I currently have an LLC with myself listed as the contact. The company is very well-known in its industry and it bothers me that someone can Google the company name and find my personal name (not to mention my home address).

How can I form a company that doesn't have my real personal info tied to it? Someone suggested simply using a P.O. Box or office address as my contact address - but unfortunately if someone has my full name they can easily find my address and phone number just by searching around for awhile, so the address that I choose to put on the business registration is irrelevant.

I read about something called an "association" which is supposed to be a sort of partnership between 2 people that allows you to create a business name for it and not have a public contact for the company. A CPA friend of mine said he had never even heard of this business model and I'd be wasting my time asking a lawyer about it.

I also thought about just forming a new LLC and putting a name like Ronald McDonald and my PO Box as the owner but I'm assuming the IRS would call that fraud.

Are there any good options for doing this (creating an entity without my full name and info tied to it)?

A corporation (or LLC) needs a registered agent. Now for simple filings like you've done, you as a resident of Texas listed yourself. You don't have to do that, there are unrelated people who will (for a fee) act as the registered agent.

You can not use a fictitious person as your agent. It's not IRS fraud (the IRS cares not who the agent is), but would be invalid under the Texas corporate laws.

It will make it harder for people to match you up with the corporation, but it will never be impossible.

FlyingRon said:

A corporation (or LLC) needs a registered agent. Now for simple filings like you've done, you as a resident of Texas listed yourself. You don't have to do that, there are unrelated people who will (for a fee) act as the registered agent.

Click to expand...

Thanks, that would work. How would I find someone willing to be the registered agent?

LLC Privacy

I just read about this the other day. Apparently it depends on which state you register your LLC in.

"If you prefer not to have your management be so visible to the public, Delaware offers much greater privacy for management."

"Nevada offers a tremendous degree of privacy to owners of business chartered there. Note that this degree of privacy is not extended to directors and officers of Nevada entities. Nevada has no IRS Information Sharing Agreement-and Nevada isn't afraid to boast about it."

"Nevada does offer a great degree of privacy to owners-as long as those owners do not participate as managers; such owners can easily remain anonymous. By comparison, Delaware (as well as many other states) require no disclosure of the identities of officers and directors."

Here is the article:
Forming an LLC in Nevada | Entrepreneur.com