Answer

What documents do you need to open a business bank account?

Updated October 2026. Evergreen page — refreshed in place as facts change.

The core checklist

Almost every bank and business fintech asks for the same set, because the same federal rules apply to all of them:

• Tax ID: the EIN, with the IRS CP 575 notice or a 147C letter as evidence if the bank can't match the number to the name electronically. Sole proprietors can usually give their SSN instead.
• Formation and existence: articles of organization (LLC), articles or a certificate of incorporation (corporation), a certificate of formation, or an excerpt from the state business registry.
• Ownership: an operating agreement, register of members, partnership agreement, trust agreement or cap table showing who owns what.
• Control: who runs the business, usually shown in the operating agreement or a list of officers and managers.
• Proof of business address dated within the last three months: a utility bill, bank statement, lease or tax return. This date window is the item applicants miss most.
• For each owner of 25% or more and one control person: legal name, date of birth, home address, SSN or ITIN, and a photo ID. People who are not US persons give a passport.

Documents by business type

What changes between structures is the formation and ownership paperwork:

What you'll be asked that isn't a document

Applications also build a picture of how the account will be used, which banks are required to understand before activity starts: the industry, what the account is for, where the money comes from, and how many payments and how much money you expect each month. Have realistic answers ready.

Anytime Capital asks these as choices rather than essays: the account's purposes (such as supplier payments, contractor payouts or cross-border business payments), source-of-funds categories, an expected monthly transaction count, and a monthly volume band from under $10,000 to over $10 million.

Who counts as a beneficial owner?

Under FinCEN's customer due diligence rule, each individual who directly or indirectly owns 25% or more of the business is a beneficial owner, so there can be at most four, and the bank also identifies one control person: someone with significant responsibility for managing the business, such as a CEO, managing member or general partner. One person can be both.

Owners below 25% are listed only if they have a role the bank needs, such as a director or officer. If the stakes you've listed add up to well under 100%, expect to be asked whether someone else holds 25% or more. Anytime Capital's application asks that whenever listed owners hold less than 76% together.

Why business applications stall, and how to avoid it

Reviews that drag on almost always come down to one of these:

• The legal name and the trading name are swapped. The account takes the legal name from the formation document; the trading name goes in as the DBA.
• Proof of address is older than three months, or the address is a P.O. box, which most banks don't accept as the business's principal address.
• 'S corporation' is entered as the entity type when the articles say corporation or LLC. An S corporation is a tax election, not a different formation document, so match what the articles say.
• Ownership percentages don't reconcile, or an owner's ID has expired.

Do you need a certificate of good standing?

Some banks ask every business for one; others only when they can't confirm the business's status in the state registry themselves. Anytime Capital asks for one only when the review needs it, and when it does, the application names exactly which document is missing.