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What Does an LLC Cost in Wisconsin?

Wisconsin: $130 to form online, $170 on paper, then $25 a year online for the annual report. There is no flat annual franchise tax, no publication cost, and no entity level tax on a default pass-through LLC. The figures that inflate Wisconsin totals elsewhere are optional speed, optional name holds, and taxes that apply only if the LLC elects corporate treatment.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Year one: what you pay to exist

Year-one cost in Wisconsin	Amount
Articles of Organization (Form 502), Department of Financial Institutions, filed online	$130
Articles of Organization (Form 502), on paper instead	$170
EIN from the IRS	$0
Operating agreement (you write it, not filed)	$0
Registered agent (you or another eligible person serves)	$0
Total state cost, year one	$130 online

That $130 is the complete required state charge to form online. Paper costs $40 more, at $170, because the statute allows the Department to set a larger fee for paper records. Everything else at formation is optional. Expedited service adds $100 for next business day action, $250 for four hour in-person counter service, or $500 for one hour in-person counter service. A name reservation, if you choose one, is $15 for 120 days. There is no publication charge, no initial report, and no separate agent designation fee. One exception cuts the total to zero: a formation in which every member and any non-member organizer qualifies as a student entrepreneur files Form 502SE on paper for no fee. Hiring a commercial registered agent service is a market purchase, separate from state charges, and naming an eligible individual costs nothing.

Every year after: the cost of staying alive

Recurring cost in Wisconsin	Amount
Annual report (Form 5), filed online	$25
Annual report (Form 5), on paper instead	$40
Entity level income or franchise tax on a default pass-through LLC	$0. Members report the income
Economic development surcharge on a partnership treated LLC	$0. The surcharge does not apply to partnership treated LLCs
Flat annual LLC franchise or privilege tax	$0. Wisconsin does not impose one
Typical recurring total	$25/yr online

A $25 recurring total comes with a real enforcement path, and it runs on delay rather than on late fees. The Department charges no late fees or penalties for a missed report. The LLC goes delinquent, and delinquency is cured by filing a current annual report and paying the back annual report fees. If a ground for administrative dissolution, such as a report not on file, fees unpaid, or no registered agent, has existed for a full year, the Department gives written notice and the company has 60 days to correct each ground or show it does not exist before the Department administratively dissolves it. Reinstatement means filing what is owed and paying all back fees and penalties, at $25 per missed report year. The Department publishes no flat reinstatement price, and this page prints none, because section 183.0122 lists no reinstatement fee. A dissolved company that needs its forms is directed by the Department to email for them, and reinstatement, when granted, relates back so the company resumes as if the dissolution had never occurred.

What drives the Wisconsin total, year one vs. later

Wisconsin's year one is a single filing fee, and the only choice that changes it is the channel: $130 online or $170 on paper for Form 502. Later years drop to one small recurring charge, the $25 online annual report, and they stay there for a typical small LLC, because Wisconsin imposes no flat annual franchise or privilege tax on LLCs and a default pass-through LLC pays no entity level income tax. The two ways the Wisconsin bill grows are both situational. The first is corporate election: an LLC treated as a corporation for federal purposes files a Wisconsin corporation franchise or income tax return, Form 4, 5S, or 6, and the franchise tax rate is 7.9 percent. The second is neglect: missed annual reports stack at $25 per missed year, and those back amounts are what you pay to cure delinquency, to dissolve cleanly, or to reinstate. Optional speed in year one, at $100, $250, or $500 by tier, is a choice about urgency, not a cost of existing, and it is kept out of the standard total for that reason.

The Wisconsin charges outside the standard total, and when each applies

These figures are real and verified on the Department's own fee schedule and in chapter 183. Each one applies only in the situation stated, which is why none of them is folded into the standard year one or recurring total above:

Charge	Figure	When it applies
Foreign registration: Registration Statement, Form 521	$100	An LLC formed in another state registering to do business in Wisconsin. Certificate of existence from the home state: No, the statute's list of contents does not include one. Section 183.0903 lists the contents of the statement, and a home-state certificate is not in that list or in the Department's Form 521 requirements. The foreign LLC then files its own annual report at $65 online or $80 on paper, due by March 31.
Dissolution: Statement of Dissolution or Termination, Form 510	$20 online, $35 on paper, plus $25 per delinquent report year	Closing a domestic LLC on purpose. Watch for this: filing a final tax return with the Department of Revenue or the IRS does not dissolve the entity at the Department of Financial Institutions. The only way to dissolve it there is Form 510. No Department of Revenue tax clearance certificate is a stated precondition to the Department accepting Form 510.
DBA and tradename: optional registration under chapter 132, filed with the Department's trademark program, online or in person	$15	There is no DBA filing at the state entity level, and no registration is required to use a tradename. This optional registration lasts 10 years and renews for $15. Each name requires a separate registration and fee.
Name reservation, section 183.0113	$15	Optional. Holds an available name for your exclusive use for 120 days. Renewal is another $15.
Statement of Change of Registered Agent, Form 13	$10 online, $25 on paper	Only when the registered agent or office changes and you file the change separately instead of noting it on the annual report.
Expedited service for entity filings	$100, $250, or $500	Optional, on top of the filing fee: $100 for action by close of business the next business day, $250 for in-person counter service within four hours, and $500 for in-person counter service within one hour.
Corporate franchise tax and economic development surcharge	7.9 percent franchise tax; surcharge capped at $9,800	Only if the LLC elects to be treated as a corporation. The surcharge reaches a corporation treated LLC only at $4,000,000 or more of gross receipts, at the greater of $25 or 3 percent of Wisconsin gross tax liability, capped at $9,800. A default pass-through LLC owes neither as an entity charge.

One tax note completes the picture. Wisconsin follows the federal classification: an LLC classified as a partnership federally is treated as a partnership in Wisconsin, a disregarded LLC is disregarded, and an LLC classified as a corporation is treated as a corporation. An optional election to pay tax at the entity level exists under section 71.21(6)(a) for partnership treated LLCs, but it is an election, not a default charge, so it is not in the flat totals.

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.