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What Does an LLC Cost in Montana?

Montana: $35 in state fees to form, and $0 a year after that if the annual report is filed between January 1 and April 15, because the Secretary of State waives the report fee in that window. File the report after April 15 and that year costs $35. There is no flat entity tax on a default LLC, no publication requirement, and no fee at all to close the company.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Year one: what you pay to exist

Year-one cost in Montana	Amount
Articles of Organization, Secretary of State	$35
Series member add on, only if a series is named	$50 for each series member named, noted here and not in the standard total
EIN from the IRS	$0
Operating agreement (you adopt it, not filed at formation)	$0
Total state cost, year one	$35 for a standard LLC

That $35 is the complete required state charge to form a standard Montana LLC online through biz.sosmt.gov. Nothing else is owed in year one: no publication is required for formation, and the first annual report is not due until the January 1 to April 15 window of the year following the calendar year of organization, under Section 35-8-208(3). The one formation add on is priced plainly: the $35 articles fee is plus $50 for each series member named in a series LLC, so a series filing costs more by design and is not folded into the standard total. The optionals are priced plainly too. A name reservation is $10 for a nonrenewable 120 days. An assumed business name is $20 for a five year term. Expedited handling is $20 for 24 hour processing or $100 for 1 hour processing, and a Certificate of Existence is $5. Serving as your own registered agent, or naming another eligible agent, costs nothing in state fees, and changing the agent later is free; hiring a commercial registered agent service is a market purchase, not a state fee.

Every year after: the cost of staying alive

Recurring cost in Montana	Amount
Annual report, filed January 1 to April 15	$0. The fee is WAIVED on the live Secretary of State fee page
Annual report, filed after April 15	$35 for that year
Flat entity tax on a default pass-through or disregarded LLC	$0. None appears on the Department of Revenue pages consulted
Pass-through entity tax (PTET) and composite tax	Elective and income based; excluded from the flat total
Typical recurring total	$0/yr when the report is filed on time

A recurring total of $0 comes with a hard calendar and a harder back end. The annual report is due between January 1 and April 15 every year under Section 35-8-208(3), and the Secretary of State help center gives the final filing deadlines after the April 15 due date as November 1 for foreign entities and December 1 for domestic entities. Under Section 35-8-209(1), the Secretary of State may dissolve a domestic LLC involuntarily if it has failed for 140 days to file its annual report within the time required by law, has failed for 60 days to appoint and maintain a registered agent or to file a statement of change after an agent change, has failed to remit fees required by law, procured its existence through fraud, or exceeded or abused its authority after written notice, with the fraud and abuse grounds requiring a district court order under Section 35-8-209(2). Reinstatement under Section 35-8-912 is available within 5 years after dissolution, at $35 plus an additional $35 per year for each year of delinquent annual reports, with all missing annual reports filed with the application, and with a certificate from the Department of Revenue stating that all taxes imposed under Title 15 have been paid, unless the company has only one member and has not elected to be taxed as a corporation. Reinstatement relates back: the company is considered to have been an existing legal entity from its original organization date. Foreign entities are not eligible to reinstate and must requalify.

What drives the Montana total, year one vs. later

Year one is a single $35 filing fee for a standard LLC, with the only built in add on being $50 for each series member named in a series LLC. Later years are driven entirely by one deadline. File the annual report between January 1 and April 15 and the recurring state charge is $0, because the Secretary of State waives the fee in that window. File it after April 15 and the charge for that report is $35. Underneath the waiver sits a $20 standard on time fee on the printed schedule effective July 1, 2022, so the honest presentation is deadline conditional: $0 while the waiver is in effect and the report is timely, $35 after April 15, and $20 on time if the waiver ever ends. The $15 figure in secondary guides is only the difference between the $20 standard fee and the $35 after April 15 total; no official source states it as a separate charge, and it appears nowhere in these totals. The figures that scale with the business, the elective 5.9 percent pass-through entity tax, elective composite tax, and pass-through withholding, are income based and explained below. Neglect, not the fee level, is what makes Montana expensive: an involuntary dissolution leads to a $35 reinstatement fee plus $35 for each year of delinquent annual reports, within a five year window.

The Montana fees around the formation

Montana's LLC charges after formation are mostly small, and several of the filings owners most often need are free. These are the lines a Montana LLC is most likely to meet, all from the Secretary of State fee page:

Montana filing	Fee
Name reservation (120 days, nonrenewable)	$10
Statement of change, registered office or agent	No fee
Articles of Correction	$15
Articles of Amendment	$15
Restated Articles of Organization	$15
Articles of Merger	$20
Application for Reviver	$15
Certificate of Existence	$5
Certificate of Authority (foreign LLC registering, plus $50 for each series member named)	$70
Amended Certificate of Authority (plus $50 for each series member named)	$15
Certificate of Withdrawal (foreign LLC, Department of Revenue tax certificate attached)	No fee
Assumed business name registration (5 years)	$20
Assumed business name renewal (5 years)	$20
Reinstatement after involuntary dissolution, plus $35 per delinquent report year	$35
Articles of Termination	No fee
Expedited handling, 24 hour or 1 hour	$20 or $100

The Montana pass-through taxes, in plain terms

Pass-through treatment is the default. The Department of Revenue states that a pass-through entity is a business whose owners claim the income on their own income tax returns based on their share of profits or losses, that the category includes LLCs taxed as partnerships or S corporations, and that pass-through entities generally do not pay federal income tax, though a pass-through entity may incur a Montana tax liability and may elect to pay pass-through entity tax or composite tax. Partnerships in Montana file an annual Montana Pass-Through Entity Tax Return, Form PTE, due at the same time as federal Form 1065, March 15 for a calendar year filer, with an automatic six month extension to September 15. Two elections sit on top of that default, both elective and income based, so both are excluded from the flat totals. The pass-through entity tax election, created by Senate Bill 554, taxes an affected owner's distributive share of Montana source income at 5.9 percent; the election is made annually by the entity on its timely filed Form PTE, is irrevocable, and cannot be made after the extended due date. A composite return lets a partnership or S corporation file and pay tax for its eligible owners on Form PTE, Schedule IV, and an owner included in a composite return does not need to file a Montana income tax return. Behind both sits pass-through withholding for owners whose share of income is at least $1,000 and who fall in the Department's listed nonresident and second tier categories, at 5.9 percent for nonresident individuals, estates, trusts, and all second tier pass-through entities, with an exception for an owner with a valid Form PT-AGR agreement. An LLC reaches the PTET and composite systems through its partnership or S corporation tax classification.

One more Montana tax fact belongs on this page because it is so often misstated: Montana does not have a general sales tax. The Department of Revenue's Sales Tax Guidance page states that the Wayfair decision does not affect Montanans purchasing goods or services online because Montana does not have a general sales tax.

Run your own version, with an optional registered agent added, in the LLC cost calculator. Every state's year-one and recurring totals sit in one table on the national cost hub, and if a service would act as your agent, the registered agent price tracker follows what that costs at each tracked provider. If you would rather a service handled the filing, the services comparison prices that honestly, renewals included.