Can I anonymously use my public LLC?

Question

I know it's possible to register an LLC anonymously in a few states. This isn't a question about that. For context, I have not created an LLC yet.

I work as a freelancer and I have a side project (that also makes income). I have no problems associating my freelance work with my LLC, but I don't want would-be employers and family members to know I'm working on the hobby project.

Here's what a perfect world would look like:

1. My name and freelance company are tied to the LLC.
2. My hobby project wouldn't be publicly associated with my name, company, or my LLC.
3. I'd still receive LLC legal and tax benefits on my hobby project.

Can this be achieved simply by sending my hobby project income to my LLC bank account without mentioning my name, company, or LLC anywhere on the hobby project?

If not, is there any other way to achieve the above requirements? Is there any way to get close to anonymity, a situation where an employer/family member would have to do some serious digging to discover I'm working on this hobby project? e.g., If I have to create 2 LLCs, so be it.

To avoid this question being closed as off-topic, I want to say the fact that this is a hobby project is incidental; it makes the question easier to write and articulate, but feel free to imagine, instead of a hobby project, I'm talking about some freelance work for company that might tarnish my reputation -- so I wouldn't want to associate it back to me.

Answer 1

If you want to create an air-gap between yourself and the company that you're consulting for (so that people who have access to the company records for your freelancing LLC and your own personal financial records can't see the ultimate source of the income) what you'll need to do is incorporate a second anonymous LLC.

You create a secondary company, which we'll refer to as Hobby LLC. Its sole purpose is to book revenue from the client and formally hire a contractor e.g. you, as the sole employee of Freelance LLC, to perform the work on the project that you're developing. Freelance LLC then invoices Hobby LLC for 'services rendered' and banks the revenue as it would any other project, so the money passes through the Hobby LLC first.

Obviously your name will be on Hobby LLC's paperwork, which is why you need to incorporate it in somewhere like Wyoming or Delaware, where company records can be very scanty indeed. You may also need a tax lawyer to explain why you're paying money to yourself from a company that you own, in order to demonstrate that this isn't a money-laundering scheme or tax avoidance scam.