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Clients often tell us that they would like to form a company where the identities of the participants are not public record. The motivation for doing so varies.

To start with, anyone who seeks anonymity must realize that it is not possible to do much of anything which is truly 100 percent anonymous. Think, for example, of Nixon, or of Clinton. If a person as powerful as the president can't hide, what are the chances that lesser mortals can hide?

It is possible, however, to create an entity where the participants are not disclosed to the state and where the only persons known to the state (and thus to the public) are the third party registered agent and the law firm (subject to lawyer-client confidentiality) which created the entity in the first place. There are no annual reports required of this entity. Practically speaking, this means that anyone who searches the state records will find no identifying information as to the participants.

If such an entity is to be useful to its owners, however, it will probably need a bank account. In order to get a bank account, it will ordinarily need a tax identification number from the Internal Revenue Service, and in order to get a tax identification number it will need to disclose to the IRS the name and Social Security number of at least one of its participants. Moreover, it may become apparent from its operations that a given individual is associated with the company. If the company (or the individual) is sued and must testify, under oath, concerning the relationship between the individual and the company, anonymity can be destroyed by the individual's testimony.