How to get Apple Developer Program membership in 18 days in 2026

What Apple checks, where applications stall, how much the commission takes and how the profit is taxed.

A developer based outside the United States gets Apple Developer Program membership for a company by forming a US limited liability company (LLC) and obtaining a D-U-N-S number for it before enrolling, with no US visa needed at any step. The App Store then names the company, not the developer, as the seller.

The route, step by step

Every step waits for the one before it, since each check relies on the record created at the previous step.

1. Day 1. We check that the company name is free and file the articles of organisation.
2. Days 2–7. The state reviews the filing and registers the LLC by day 7. The owner signs the operating agreement the same day.
3. Days 7–12. We request the D-U-N-S number through Apple's lookup tool and answer Dun & Bradstreet's document check, and D&B assigns the number on day 12.
4. Days 12–14. Apple receives the record from D&B within two working days.
5. Days 14–18. The owner enrols the company and uploads the certificate of formation for Apple's compliance screening, and Apple approves the company.
6. Day 18. The owner accepts the Apple Developer Program License Agreement and pays the annual fee, and the membership becomes active the same day.

The EIN without a US social security number

The federal tax number, the EIN, is obtained alongside the route and arrives in 11 days. Without an SSN or ITIN the IRS online application is closed to a foreign owner, so we file the application with the IRS on the owner's behalf.

Enrolment does not depend on the EIN, but payouts do. The Paid Apps Agreement, which unlocks paid apps, subscriptions and payouts, asks for tax forms and a bank account in the company's name, and a US bank opens that account only once the EIN is issued.

The company's legal address

The company gets a US legal address that Dun & Bradstreet, Apple and Google accept, and its mail is scanned and sent to the owner. The D-U-N-S request must carry the legal address from the certificate of formation, not a mailbox address.

What Apple checks before it approves a company

Apple accepts only legal entities that can sign contracts and names the LLC among them, while trade names, DBAs and branch offices are refused. The company's legal name must match the D-U-N-S record letter by letter.

The person who enrols needs authority to sign for the company. An owner enrolling their own company has it on paper, an employee needs a reference from management, and Apple may ask for notarised copies of the documents. Enrolment also requires:

• a personal Apple Account with two-factor authentication and the legal name as it appears in the passport, since abbreviations and nicknames hold applications back;
• an email address on the company's domain;
• a public, working website that shows the company's name, because social media pages and "coming soon" placeholders are rejected;
• for enrolment in the Apple Developer app, a real Mac or iPhone rather than a virtual machine, while the web form works from any browser.

Where applications stall

Apple's compliance screening can put an application on hold within hours and ask for the company's full legal name and address, the certificate of formation and the website, and a reply within a day keeps the approval on schedule. Other delays have familiar causes:

• too many requests for an email code lock the account, and only Apple's support can lift the block, which takes weeks;
• a second application is filed while the first is still under review;
• a check of signing authority stretches over several weeks.

The address and phone the App Store shows in the EU

Apple requires every developer distributing in EU storefronts to declare whether they act as a trader under the Digital Services Act, and a company selling apps is one. Apple then shows the trader's address, phone number and email on product pages in the EU. For a company the address comes automatically from the D-U-N-S record, so the company's legal address appears instead of a home address, while the phone and email are entered in App Store Connect and confirmed by code. The US phone line must stay active for as long as the account exists, because Apple and Google send verification codes to it, and its greeting must not name another company.

Trader status is only one of the EU's requirements. A company outside the EU that offers an app to people in the EU and processes their personal data also needs a representative under the GDPR, a separate written appointment explained in our guide to the GDPR EU representative for iOS apps.

Apple's commission in 2026

Outside the EU and Japan, Apple keeps 30% of paid downloads and in-app purchases, and subscriptions bring the developer 85% instead of 70% after a subscriber's first paid year. The App Store Small Business Program cuts the commission to 15% for developers whose proceeds, meaning revenue after Apple's commission and certain taxes, did not exceed $1 million in the previous calendar year and stay below that figure in the current one. New developers qualify: the application opens once the Paid Apps Agreement is signed, and the lower rate starts 15 days after the close of the Apple fiscal month in which the application is approved.

On the US storefront, a court order in Epic v. Apple has let apps link to purchases outside the App Store since 30 April 2025. The Ninth Circuit ruled in December 2025 that Apple may charge a commission on those purchases only at a rate the district court approves, and no rate had been approved by November 2026; the Supreme Court hears Apple's appeal on 11 January 2027. In the EU a single model applies from 1 October 2026: 26% on purchases through Apple's in-app payments, 20% with another payment provider inside the app and 15% on purchases made through an external link within 7 days of the tap, falling to 15%, 10% and 10% for members of the Small Business Program. In Japan the App Store commission is 21%, or 10% for members of the programme and on subscriptions after their first year, plus a 5% fee when Apple processes the payment.

When the money arrives

Apple pays once a month, within 45 days of the end of the fiscal month in which the sale took place, provided the Paid Apps Agreement, tax forms and bank details are in place. A US bank account in dollars receives any balance above $0.02. A US online bank opens the company's account within five days of the EIN being issued.

What the United States taxes

A single-member LLC that has not chosen to be taxed as a corporation is a disregarded entity: the IRS treats its income as the owner's, and the company files no income tax return of its own. When the owner is neither a US citizen nor a US resident, lives abroad and runs the business from there, with no office, staff or dependent agents in the United States, the app income is not connected with a US business, and the United States charges no federal income tax on the profit. A US corporation, by contrast, pays 21% federal tax on its own profit. Companies formed in the United States also file no beneficial ownership reports with FinCEN.

Two things still need attention. The first is Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120, which the LLC files every year by 15 April, by fax or by mail and even without revenue; missing it costs $25,000, plus $25,000 for every further 30 days once the failure continues more than 90 days after an IRS notice. The second is the tax form. IRS rules require a disregarded LLC with a foreign owner to provide the owner's Form W-8BEN rather than a W-9, while App Store Connect offers a US company only the W-9, so the owner's form reaches Apple through its support team. Apple counts the developer as the seller of copyrighted works and its proceeds as payment for goods rather than royalties, so the profit stays outside US tax because the business is run from abroad, whether or not the owner's country has a tax treaty with the United States. What is due on the profit is then decided where the owner lives. In a country with no personal income tax, or with a territorial system that leaves foreign income untaxed, the total can be zero, while countries that tax worldwide income, including most of the EU, tax it at home. We check this before the company is formed.

What the company keeps: an example

Take an app that sells $100,000 of subscriptions in a year, counted after the sales taxes and VAT that Apple collects and pays itself. As a member of the Small Business Program the company gives Apple $15,000 and receives $85,000 in its US account. With the owner and the business meeting the conditions above, the US federal income tax on that profit is zero, and what remains is the membership fee and the yearly upkeep of the company, which a manager calculates for your case. Outside the Small Business Program, Apple would keep $30,000 of the same first-year subscriptions.

What Murblz handles

From the first filing to the yearly reporting, the company and its developer account stay with one team.

1. We choose the company's structure and form it, operating agreement included.
2. We obtain the EIN and provide the US phone line the process needs.
3. We provide the legal address and mail handling and obtain the D-U-N-S number.
4. We prepare the website Apple and Google review: terms, a privacy policy that covers children's apps, refund and account deletion pages, and email on the company's domain.
5. We guide the enrolment, answer Apple's compliance checks and set up App Store Connect: agreements, tax forms, bank details, EU trader status, the Small Business Program and team access.
6. We help open the company's bank account and connect Stripe for sales on the web.
7. We keep the reporting calendar, from Form 5472 to the renewals the company needs, and appoint the company's GDPR representative in the EU.

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