How to start an OnlyFans agency in 2026: six workstreams, in the right order.

Starting an OnlyFans or MYM agency needs no licence and no qualification in the United States or the United Kingdom. On paper, a company, a management contract, a bank account and the right tax registrations are enough. In practice, the OFM agencies still standing after two years are the ones that opened six workstreams in the right order, before signing their first creator. This guide takes them one by one, for both countries, with figures checked on official sources in September 2026, and ends with the mistakes we find in almost every agency we restructure.

Workstream 1: which entity for an OnlyFans / MYM agency?

An OnlyFans / MYM agency is not a business to run in your own name. It collects commissions, pays chatters and tools, signs with several creators, and one day may need a partner, an investor or a buyer. All of that calls for an entity.

In the United States, the usual choice is a limited liability company, formed with the secretary of state where you actually live and work. By default a single-member LLC is taxed like a sole proprietorship and a multi-member LLC like a partnership; the LLC changes liability and paperwork, not tax. Once profit is steady, an S corporation election can reduce self-employment tax, as explained in our guide to LLC, S corp or sole proprietor. A corporation makes more sense if you plan to raise money or give equity to staff. Federal beneficial ownership reporting has changed: FinCEN's interim final rule of 26 March 2025, since made permanent, exempts companies created in the United States from BOI reporting, so check the current position when you form rather than paying a service to file something no longer required.

In the United Kingdom, the standard vehicle is a private limited company. Corporation tax is 19% on profits up to £50,000 and 25% above £250,000, with marginal relief in between, and you then take money out as salary and dividends. Our comparison of sole trader or limited company covers the trade-offs, including the privacy cost of appearing on the public register.

Two points make the difference in practice. First, the business description: it should say what the agency really does (digital marketing services, management of creator accounts and communities on content platforms, administrative services), with no disguise and no wording that alarms a bank. Second, the place of management. A company registered in Dubai, Delaware or Cyprus but run from a flat in Manchester is, for HMRC, resident where its central management and control is exercised, which means the UK. A US founder who owns a foreign company does not escape US tax either, and picks up extra reporting such as Form 5471 and the controlled foreign corporation rules. Running an agency from abroad is possible, but only if management, residence and banking genuinely move with it.

Workstream 2: registration, and what it really costs

In the US, formation is a state filing: articles of organisation, a registered agent in the state, and a state fee that varies from one state to another. Then obtain an employer identification number, which the IRS issues online, for free, in minutes; ignore websites that charge for it. Write an operating agreement even if you are alone, and a proper one if you are several: who decides, who can bind the company, what happens when a partner leaves.

In the UK, incorporation happens at Companies House: £100 online (£124 on paper), according to the fee schedule updated on 2 July 2026. Every director must now verify their identity with Companies House, a legal requirement rolled out from 18 November 2025. Directors and people with significant control appear on the public register, so use a service address rather than your home.

The compulsory fees are modest in both countries. The real budget is elsewhere: governing documents adapted to a business that banks look at closely, a shareholders' or operating agreement, a creator contract that holds up, and an accountant who already knows OnlyFans and MYM.

Workstream 3: the management contract, the agency's founding document

Legally, an OFM agency sells a service to an independent creator, sometimes combined with authority to act for her. The management contract is therefore the document the whole business rests on. It sets out the services, the commission (commonly between 20% and 50% of the creator's net income after the platform's own cut), the term and exit terms, ownership of the account and content, the creator's freedom to refuse content, chatting rules and what happens to data. We set out these clauses, from the creator's side, in our guide to the OnlyFans agency contract.

The contract also protects on the criminal side. Producing and selling lawful adult content is not prostitution. What the law targets, in the US through state pandering statutes and 18 U.S.C. § 2421A, in the UK through sections 52 and 53 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, is organising, controlling or profiting from in-person sexual services, and coercion. A clear contract, written consent and income statements are the evidence that you run a services business and nothing else. Our guides on whether an OFM agency is legal in the United States and in the United Kingdom go through the line in detail.

Workstream 4: chatters and the team, under which status?

A growing agency quickly recruits chatters, often abroad, sometimes a head of acquisition or an editor. Three set-ups exist: employees, local self-employed contractors, and contractors based abroad who invoice the agency. The choice is not only about cost. The label in the contract decides nothing; the reality of the relationship does.

In the US, three tests can apply to the same person: the FLSA economic reality test for minimum wage and overtime, the IRS common-law test for payroll tax, and in some states, California first, the ABC test. In the UK, employment law distinguishes employees, workers (who are owed the minimum wage and holiday pay) and the genuinely self-employed. Imposed shifts, compulsory scripts, real-time monitoring and penalties push towards employment in both countries. We cover the US tests in chatters: employee or contractor. Settle this before the first payment, not after the first claim.

Workstream 5: banking, the real bottleneck

This is the workstream that stalls the most agencies. Many traditional banks refuse an account as soon as the business description mentions adult content platforms, or close it a few months later once they understand where the money comes from. The list of banks and electronic money institutions that accept these businesses changes constantly; we keep it up to date for clients rather than publishing it.

The file is prepared before the application: formation documents, signed management contracts, a forecast of flows, the source of funds, and an honest description of the business. Hiding the activity is the fastest route to a closure, and a closure makes the next application harder.

One rule of organisation prevents most blocks: the platform pays the creator, the agency invoices its commission, and every flow matches an invoice. An agency that collects its creators' payouts in its own account without a written mandate looks, to a compliance team, like a money-laundering file in the making, and in the US holding and forwarding third-party funds can also raise state money-transmission questions. What to do when the account is frozen is set out in our guide to a frozen bank account.

Workstream 6: VAT or sales tax, company tax and platform reporting

UK VAT. The agency's commission is a business-to-business service. Under the general rule in VAT Notice 741A, it is supplied where the customer, the creator, belongs. A VAT-registered UK agency therefore charges 20% VAT to a UK creator, and a supply to a creator based outside the UK is generally outside the scope of UK VAT. Registration is compulsory once taxable turnover exceeds £90,000 over any rolling twelve months, or is expected to exceed it in the next thirty days. Below that, registration is voluntary, and for an agency whose creators are not VAT-registered, charging VAT is a cost they cannot recover.

US sales tax. There is no federal VAT. Sales tax is a state matter, and most states do not tax management or marketing services, but a few tax services broadly, so check the rules of the states where you and your creators are.

Company tax and bookkeeping. A UK company files accounts and a corporation tax return; a US LLC files according to its tax classification. In both cases, full books from day one.

Platform reporting. Tax authorities already know what creators earn. In the UK, digital platforms have reported sellers' details and earnings to HMRC since 1 January 2024, with no minimum for personal services. In the US, OnlyFans issues Forms 1099-NEC to US creators and payment platforms issue Forms 1099-K above $20,000 and 200 transactions. The agency is not reported itself, but its invoices must match what the creators declare: a gap between a creator's reported income and the commissions invoiced by her agency shows.

And compliance: data, image, age

An agency processes personal data in volume: creators' identities and contact details, conversations with fans, payment details. Under UK GDPR, the ICO expects a documented record of processing, and in the US a growing number of state privacy laws apply depending on where fans and creators live. Add the evidence platforms and investigators ask for: identity and age of every creator and of everyone appearing on camera, written consent for each use of her image, a contract signed before the first post. In the US, 18 U.S.C. § 2257 sets record-keeping duties for producers of sexually explicit content.

The mistakes that cost money

In the agency files we restructure, the same causes come back.

• The verbal split. A commission agreed by message and never signed: at the first disagreement, nothing can be proved.
• The personal account. Payouts and chatter payments running through the founder's own account: a banking block, then a tax question.
• Chatters paid without invoices. Transfers to individuals abroad, crypto, cash: impossible to justify to a bank, a tax inspector or a judge.
• The offshore company run from home. Taxable at home anyway, without a serious bank account, often without valid creator contracts.
• The disguised business description. An agency registered as a photo studio or a PR firm loses its bank and its insurance the day the gap is discovered.
• Control written in black and white. Hours, penalties, total exclusivity and imposed scripts in the chatters' or creators' contracts: the contract becomes the evidence against you.

None of these mistakes is irreversible, but all of them cost more to fix than to avoid. A founder who opens these six workstreams in order builds an agency that can be shown to a bank, a tax inspector and, one day, a buyer. Our page for agencies and managers explains how we support each step; the first call is free.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice for your situation. OFM Legal advises on structuring, compliance and risk; legal proceedings are handled by partner lawyers.

Your contactOlivier MaciejewskiFounder of OFM Legal · Former international business lawyer (HEC Paris, Arendt, Clifford Chance) · Official MYM partnerHis background Updated September 13, 2026

This article is general information and does not replace advice tailored to your situation. OFM Legal is not a law firm: court proceedings are handled by our partner lawyers.

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