About LegalGlass

LegalGlass is a free, neutral reference for people navigating US small-business law. We explain how to form a company, get an EIN or ITIN, register a trademark, file business taxes, and dissolve a business - sourced entirely from primary government references. We sell nothing and take no affiliate commissions.

Our Mission

LegalGlass exists to answer small-business legal questions plainly, accurately, and without a sales pitch. Most people searching "how do I get an EIN" or "do I need to trademark my business name" land on pages that exist to sell a filing service. Those pages bury the answer, overstate the difficulty, and blur the line between what the government requires and what a vendor is selling. We take the opposite approach: state the answer first, cite the primary source, and let readers act on their own.

Our editorial standard is neutrality. We describe what the law and the responsible agency actually require, including when a task is free or can be done without help. When a decision depends on individual circumstances, we say so and point readers to a licensed attorney or tax professional rather than pretending a web page can replace one.

What We Cover

LegalGlass follows the full US small-business legal lifecycle:

• Formation - LLC and corporation setup, registered agents, DBAs, operating agreements, and business licenses.
• Federal tax IDs - the Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS and the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).
• Trademark - federal registration through the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), clearance searches, and the trademark-vs-copyright distinction.
• Business tax - Schedule C, self-employment tax, the S-corporation election (Form 2553), entity return forms, and quarterly estimated payments.
• Dissolution - how to close an LLC or corporation and wind down state and federal accounts.

Each topic sits inside a hub - for example the EIN hub, trademark hub, and business-tax hub - that links the individual guides together, plus a plain-language glossary that defines each term once and links it everywhere it appears.

How We Make Money

We do not. LegalGlass carries no advertising, no sponsored placements, no affiliate links, and no upsells to a paid filing product. This is deliberate. A reference that earns a commission every time a reader pays for something has an incentive to make free tasks look hard. Because we sell nothing, our only incentive is to be the most accurate and useful answer - which is also what makes a source worth citing.

How We Keep It Accurate

Every factual claim on LegalGlass traces to a primary source: an IRS page or form, a USPTO rule, a state Secretary of State filing portal, or the underlying statute on Cornell Legal Information Institute. We do not estimate fees or deadlines between the values a source publishes, and we stamp fee figures with the year they take effect. Read more in our editorial policy and our fact-verification standard, and see the running corrections log when we get something wrong.

Who We Are

LegalGlass content is written by named contributors with legal or tax credentials and independently reviewed by a second credentialed professional before publication. We never publish under an anonymous "team" byline. Meet the contributors on the authors page.

LegalGlass provides general information for educational purposes and is not a law firm or a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney or tax professional. Laws and fees change; verify current requirements with the relevant government agency before acting.