TL;DR

I want to stay anonymous while starting a residential cleaning business in Alaska. I’m considering a New Mexico LLC (via Northwest) owning an Alaska LLC, plus an Alaska business license.

Questions:

1. Should the NM LLC be the legal owner of the cleaning business?
2. Is it worth doing both LLCs just for privacy, if Alaska will still show the NM LLC as the member and NM records can be searched?
3. Do I need to register my NM LLC with New Mexico TRD and get a tax ID myself, or does Northwest handle that?
4. I know I’ll file federal income tax and self‑employment tax—anything else I’m missing?

I’m ready to start working and have everything I need to begin offering residential cleaning services. My goal is to stay completely anonymous.

I was advised that I could use Northwest Registered Agent to form a New Mexico LLC to help maintain privacy. From what I understand, I would also need to register in Alaska—since that’s where I live and operate—by filing for an Alaska business license.

However, someone from the Alaska Business Office mentioned that if I do this, the Alaska LLC would list the New Mexico LLC as its member, and New Mexico LLC records can still be searched. That makes me wonder if going through this entire process is actually worth it for privacy.

Here’s how the filing costs look so far:

New Mexico:

• Northwest LLC formation: $39 (includes registered agent service, renews at $125/year)
• NM state fee: $52
• EIN (Tax ID): $50 Total: $141

Alaska:

• Northwest LLC formation: $39 (includes registered agent service, renews at $125/year)
• AK state fee: $250
• EIN: $50 Total: $339

My main confusion is about taxes. I’ve seen that I may need to register my New Mexico LLC with the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department to get a business tax ID. Do I actually need to do this, or will Northwest handle it for me?

I’ve also been told I’ll need to file federal taxes and pay self-employment tax, which adds to my confusion. Since it’s the weekend, I can’t get clarification until Monday, and I want to make sure I understand what I actually need to do.

After I have gotten it completely legal I definitely plan on hiring a CPA!

Thanks for reading my long confusing post!