Coverage · CA
Form your American company in California.
Same desk, same prices, California’s own machinery. Filings here run through the Secretary of State, and the state calls its agent an agent for service of process. What follows is California’s actual formation landscape.
The California facts
California calls the role the agent for service of process. An individual agent must be a California resident; a corporate agent must be a corporation the Secretary of State has authorized for the purpose.
Your charter is filed with the Secretary of State. The agent for service of process you appoint must be reachable at a physical California address during business hours — for founders abroad, that appointment is the whole reason a desk like this one exists. Under Sethhost, the agent for service of process of record is CorpNet, Incorporated, our disclosed wholesale partner, appointed at filing and named in your service agreement.
Who can serve as agent for service of process in California
Two kinds of agent are recognized in California: an individual — an adult resident of the state — and a corporation the Secretary of State has authorized to act as agent for the purpose. An ordinary corporation merely authorized to do business in California is not enough; the agent corporation must hold the specific authorization. You, a co-owner, or an employee can serve as the individual.
Keeping the company alive in California
The cost that defines California: the $800 minimum franchise tax. Every California LLC owes the Franchise Tax Board an $800 minimum franchise tax every year, whether or not it earns anything, from formation until the LLC is formally cancelled. On top of it, an LLC whose California gross receipts reach $250,000 owes an additional LLC fee, scaled to those receipts (starting at $900 and rising with them). Neither figure is a Sethhost charge — both are the state’s — and both belong in any honest California budget before the Launch price does.
California's Statement of Information is the periodic filing — annual for corporations, biennial for LLCs, with the first one due within 90 days of formation — and it is where the agent for service of process is restated. Keep the two enforcement tracks separate, because the state does: a late Statement of Information draws a $250 penalty through the Secretary of State, while suspension for unpaid franchise tax is the Franchise Tax Board’s separate track. Missing either one puts the entity out of good standing; they are different failures with different offices.
Inside Hosted, those dates sit on your compliance calendar from the day you form — set from your filing record, not a national average — and annual report filing service is part of the subscription where your state uses one. Reminders are best efforts and you remain responsible for your deadlines; that sentence is in the agreement, and it is on this page too.
How Sethhost serves California
Formation is prepared at your direction and confirmed by you before filing (Docket 01). The EIN runs through the IRS workflow for founders with or without a Social Security number (Docket 03). Official mail received by the agent is retrieved by our desk each business day and mirrored into your portal under the mail protocol — best efforts, in writing, with no timeframe promised upstream. A five-page website and a US number complete the visible half of the company (Docket 06).
Questions on California
How much does Sethhost charge in California?
The same as everywhere: Launch $499 one-time and Hosted $79 per month. California’s own LLC filing fee is $70 — separate, charged at cost, and itemized for your state at checkout before your filing is placed.
What does California call its registered agent?
The agent for service of process — and the filing office is the Secretary of State. State terminology is not pedantry: the wrong term on a form is how filings get rejected.
Can I form in California from outside the US?
Yes — that is the standard case here. You choose the state; we never recommend one, because that is legal advice. Compare states on the coverage board and in the guides, then direct us.