How to invoice with your LLC: a practical guide

You have your LLC, your EIN and your Mercury account. Now comes the important part: getting paid. Invoicing with a US LLC is simpler than it looks, but there are basic rules to follow.

What your invoice must include

An invoice issued by your LLC must contain:

• Legal name of your LLC exactly as it appears in the Articles
• Registered address in the US
• EIN (optional on the invoice, but some clients ask for it; if you're unsure what the EIN is, review it before issuing)
• Sequential invoice number (INV-001, INV-002...)
• Issue date and due date
• Description of the service rendered
• Amount in USD
• Payment details: Mercury account (ACH/Wire) or Stripe/Wise link

Non-resident single-member LLCs do not charge VAT/sales tax on digital services rendered outside the US. Your invoice goes out without taxes.

Careful: that rule applies to digital services. If you sell physical goods or cross certain sales thresholds within a state, you can trigger a sales tax and economic nexus obligation — worth knowing when it applies before you issue the invoice.

Tools for invoicing

Mercury (built-in)

Mercury has a built-in invoice generator. You create the invoice, send it, and the client pays directly into your account. The simplest option.

Stripe Invoicing

If you use Stripe, you can generate professional invoices with a card payment link. Money lands in your connected Mercury account.

Wise Business

Wise also lets you create basic invoices and collect in multiple currencies with automatic conversion.

Not sure which one fits you? We compare fees, country coverage and non-resident requirements in payment processors for your LLC (Stripe, PayPal, Wise and alternatives).

Devil Club generator

Your member dashboard includes an invoice generator pre-configured with your LLC details.

Typical payment flow

1. You agree on the service and price with the client
2. You issue the invoice from Mercury/Stripe/your tool
3. The client pays by wire, card or Wise
4. Money lands in your Mercury account in USD
5. You move it to your personal account via Wise when you need to

Common mistakes

• Invoicing under your personal name instead of the LLC name
• Not keeping sequential numbering: the IRS can request the records
• Mixing personal and LLC income in the same account
• Not keeping a copy of every invoice issued

Billing European clients: what nobody explains

When you invoice from your US LLC to European clients (especially Spain, France, Germany), 3 friction points show up that are worth anticipating:

1. The client will ask for your W-8BEN

Especially if they're a company that has to justify to their tax authority that payments to the US are not subject to withholding. For a single-member LLC (a disregarded entity), the form is the W-8BEN: the IRS looks through the LLC to you, the individual, so you sign as a person — not the W-8BEN-E, which is the entity form. Devil Club members generate it automatically with their LLC's data.

2. VAT is the client's, not yours

When you invoice an EU company with a valid VAT number (B2B), a single-member LLC doesn't charge VAT: it's the client who applies the reverse charge mechanism on their own return. This is one of the key differences between invoicing with a US LLC vs. European self-employment. Add a line on the invoice like: "Services rendered from United States — reverse charge, customer to account for VAT per Art. 196 EU VAT Directive." The exception is selling digital services to private consumers (B2C) in the EU: there you may indeed have to charge the VAT of the customer's country and report it through the Non-Union One-Stop-Shop (OSS) scheme — we cover this in the FAQ.

3. SEPA vs Wire Transfer

European clients will prefer to pay you via SEPA (fast, 1-2 days, free). A wire transfer to Mercury is reliable but costs them $15-30 and takes 2-5 days. Fix: give them a Wise Business EUR account as the preferred method + your Mercury USD account for US clients. Wise converts at the real rate and deposits into your Mercury USD if you want to consolidate.

Keeping invoices for tax filing

The IRS requires you to keep all issued invoices for at least 3 years after the last filing. The window stretches to 6 years if there are discrepancies >25% between what was reported and reality, and to indefinite if fraud is suspected. Cloud backup is mandatory — invoices on your laptop don't count if it dies.

At Devil Club they're auto-archived in your dashboard with SHA-256 timestamps anchored to Bitcoin as proof of document integrity in an audit.

If you don't yet have a bank account for your LLC, the indispensable first step is to open your Mercury account: without it you cannot receive ACH payments or connect Stripe properly. Also, the IRS requires business income to be properly documented; the IRS publication on business taxes details which records you must keep and for how long. And if part of what you charge comes in crypto, those movements get reported just like cash — we break it down in digital assets in your LLC.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to charge VAT to my European clients with an LLC?

Not automatically. If your client is a business with a valid VAT number, you don't charge VAT: they apply the reverse charge on their own return and you just note it on the invoice ("reverse charge, customer to account for VAT per Art. 196 EU VAT Directive"). With a private individual (B2C) it depends on the service: selling digital services to EU consumers can require you to charge VAT at the customer's country rate and report it through the Non-Union One-Stop-Shop (OSS) scheme, even though your LLC sits outside the EU. Don't assume a B2C sale always goes out without VAT: check the type of service and the customer's country rules.

How long must I keep my LLC's invoices?

The IRS requires keeping them for a minimum of 3 years after the last return. That rises to 6 years if there are discrepancies above 25% between what you reported and reality, and to indefinitely if there's suspicion of fraud. Store them in the cloud: invoices that only live on your laptop don't count if you lose it.

Which form will a European client ask for, W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E?

For a single-member LLC (disregarded entity) owned by a non-resident individual, the W-8BEN: the IRS looks through the LLC to you, so you sign as a person. The W-8BEN-E is the version for foreign entities — for example, if your LLC is itself owned by a company based outside the US. A US LLC with several members or one that elected corporate taxation is, in the IRS's eyes, a US person and files Form W-9, not a W-8. Your client asks for the form to prove to their tax authority that the US payment carries no withholding.