How to Form an LLC in Wyoming
Wyoming charges $100 to form an LLC, the same on paper as online, and then a license tax every year that starts at $60. The sales pitch needs editing. Wyoming truly has no income tax, but the license tax is a real tax. Member names truly stay out of the Articles, but that is not anonymity. And a registered agent with a physical Wyoming address is mandatory from day one.
Wyoming at a glance
Filing fee: $100 for the Articles of Organization, filed with the Wyoming Secretary of State. Recurring: An Annual Report with a license tax every year, due on or before the first day of the anniversary month: the greater of $60 or $0.0002 of the assets located and employed in Wyoming, which is $200 per $1,000,000, so $60 covers Wyoming assets up to $300,000. Registered agent: required, with a physical address in Wyoming. Every figure on this page was checked against the Wyoming Secretary of State's and Department of Revenue's official sites and the Wyoming Statutes on November 8, 2026.
The Wyoming filing steps
Check your name on the state's own search
Search business records in WyoBiz, the Secretary of State's portal, before you file, and note that for online filing the filer, not the Secretary of State, is responsible for searching, including for the singular or plural form of the name being registered. Under section 17-29-108(a), a Wyoming LLC name must include "limited liability company," "limited company," or "Ltd. liability company," or an abbreviation such as "LLC," "L.L.C.," "LC," "L.C.," "Ltd. liability co.," or "limited liability co." It may not be the same as, or deceptively similar to, a trademark or service mark registered in Wyoming, it shall be distinguishable upon the records of the Secretary of State from other business names under section 17-16-401, and it may not imply that the company is organized for a purpose outside its articles or under the corporation or nonprofit acts. A name is distinguishable if it contains one or more different letters or numerals, or a different sequence of them. To hold a name before filing, section 17-29-109 allows a reservation for the applicant's exclusive use for a 120 day period, transferable by signed notice to the Secretary of State.
Choose your registered agent
Wyoming requires both a registered office and a registered agent, continuously, for every LLC. Section 17-29-113(a) states that each limited liability company shall have and continuously maintain in this state a registered office and a registered agent, as provided in sections 17-28-101 through 17-28-111, and the Secretary of State warns that failure to maintain a registered agent results in dissolution or revocation of the entity. The agent must have a physical Wyoming street address where an individual can accept service of process. Post office boxes, drop boxes, virtual addresses, mail forwarding locations, and UPS or FedEx stores do not qualify as a registered office; the Articles form adds that a post office box is acceptable only if listed in addition to a physical address. An agent may be an individual who is at least 18 years old, resides in Wyoming, and has a physical Wyoming address, or a business entity registered or authorized to transact business in Wyoming and in good standing. Formation has a consent step many guides miss: under section 17-29-201(c), the articles shall be accompanied by a written consent to appointment signed by the registered agent, and an online filer certifies that they have received a similar written consent and must keep it for future reference. It is the agent consenting to serve the LLC. One more limit on the privacy pitch: the agent must keep, at the registered office, the names and addresses of the LLC's managers or persons in a similar capacity and the name, physical address, and business phone number of a communications contact, information the Secretary of State explains is used if law enforcement or a state agency needs to contact the business. Changing the agent or office costs $5, on the Appointment of New Registered Agent and Office form.
File the Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State
File the Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State, online through WyoBiz at wyobiz.wyo.gov, or on paper to Wyoming Secretary of State, Business Division, Herschler Building East, Suite 101, 122 W 25th Street, Cheyenne, WY 82002-0020. The base fee is $100 on both channels, under section 17-29-210(a)(i) and the fee schedule effective July 1, 2026. Online filers pay by Visa or MasterCard and a convenience fee is added on top of the $100; the Secretary of State's guides state that a fee will be added and do not state its amount, so this page prints no online total. Paper filers pay by check or money order, and paper filings are processed in the order received, taking no longer than 15 business days; an online company is active as soon as the online filing process is completed. Under section 17-29-201(b), the articles themselves state only the name of the LLC and the street address of the initial registered office and the name of the initial registered agent. Member names, manager names, purpose, duration, and capital are not statutory contents. The paper form asks for more than the statute does, including the LLC's mailing address and principal office address and an organizer's certification with an email address for electronic service of process, and the Secretary of State warns that everything filed, including all signatures, is public record under the Wyoming Public Records Act.
Get an EIN from the IRS
Free, online, and takes minutes once your Wyoming filing is approved. Never pay a service for this. See EIN for an LLC for the walkthrough and the one IRS rule (a real person as responsible party) that surprises people.
Write your operating agreement
Under section 17-29-110(a), the operating agreement governs relations among the members as members and between the members and the LLC, the rights and duties of a person in the capacity of manager, the activities of the company and the conduct of those activities, the means and conditions for amending the agreement, management and voting rights, transferability of membership interests, distributions before dissolution, and all other aspects of the management of the LLC. Section 17-29-110(b) supplies the default: to the extent the operating agreement does not otherwise provide for a matter, Chapter 29 governs it. The agreement is an internal document. No filing, form, or fee for it appears in section 17-29-201, in section 17-29-210, or on the Secretary of State's fee schedule, so it is not filed with the Secretary of State. Write it at formation, because every matter it leaves silent is decided by the statute instead.
Open the business bank account and handle licenses
Bring your approved formation document and EIN letter. Then check your city and county for a general business license and your industry for state permits. Wyoming issues no general statewide business license through the Secretary of State, and forming an LLC does not by itself create a license duty. The Department of Revenue's Excise Tax Division answers the common question directly: whether a new Wyoming LLC needs a sales tax license depends on what it sells and on its connection to Wyoming, and simply creating a business entity in Wyoming does not automatically mean the company needs one. A license is required if the company sells something with an imposition statute and has a physical presence or connection to Wyoming beyond a registered agent or virtual office, or meets the Department's economic thresholds. Sales and use tax rates vary by county, generally between 4 and 8 percent, built from a mandatory statewide 4 percent rate plus voter approved pennies, and registration runs online through the Wyoming Internet Filing System, a process the Department says generally takes about two weeks. Industry and local requirements sit on top of that, activity by activity.
Filing details that trip people up
- The filing fee is $100 on both channels. Nobody honest can quote you an exact online total. The Secretary of State's fee schedule, the Articles form instructions, and section 17-29-210(a)(i) all put the Articles at $100, online and by mail alike. Online filings add a payment processor convenience fee, and the Secretary of State's guides say only that a fee will be added, without stating an amount. Any page printing a precise online total is publishing a number the state has not stated. Budget $100 plus a small unquantified card fee online, or exactly $100 by check or money order on paper.
- Foreign LLCs pay $150, file on paper, and need a fresh home state certificate. A Certificate of Authority costs $150, foreign qualifications are paper filings, and the application must be accompanied by an original certificate of existence or good standing, dated not more than 60 days prior to filing in Wyoming, authenticated by the official having custody of records in the home jurisdiction. A registered foreign LLC then files the same Annual Report and license tax. Transacting business without a certificate is the expensive route: the company may not maintain a proceeding in a Wyoming court until it gets one, and under section 17-16-1502(d), applied to LLCs through sections 17-29-114 and 17-29-210(c), it owes all fees and license taxes that would have been imposed, plus 18 percent interest, plus a $5,000 penalty, reasonable audit expenses, and reasonable attorney fees.
- Wyoming has two reinstatement prices, and quoting only the smaller one is an error. Reinstatement after forfeiture for an unpaid license tax is $100, plus the delinquent license taxes, within two years. Reinstatement after forfeiture for having no registered agent is $350, also within two years. After two years, Wyoming statutes do not allow reinstatement at all; the only route is a new LLC. The report page keeps the two grounds separate, because the ground decides the price.
- A trade name is a voluntary $100 state filing that lasts 10 years. Under Title 40, Chapter 2, any person who adopts a trade name for use in Wyoming may file an application for registration with the Secretary of State for $100; the statute's verb is "may," so registration is not required to use a trade name. Registration lasts 10 years and renews for $50 for a further 10 years, filed within the six months before expiration with a statement that the name is still in use. Do not confuse the $30 trade name reservation on the fee schedule with an LLC name reservation; they are different filings in different titles. Our DBA guide covers the details.
- Closing costs $60, and the Articles of Dissolution are how the public record closes. Articles of Dissolution cost $60, on the fee schedule's Amendment, Dissolution, or Any Other Filing line. Winding up itself is mandatory under section 17-29-702: a dissolved company shall discharge its debts and obligations, settle and close its activities, and marshal and distribute its assets. Filing the Articles is the step that closes the Secretary of State record; a dissolved company that never files remains on that record. No tax clearance certificate appears as a condition of the Secretary of State dissolution filing.
After your Wyoming LLC is approved
Get the EIN, open the business bank account, and set the recurring reminder Wyoming runs on: the Annual Report and license tax, due on or before the first day of your anniversary month every year, $60 at the minimum, filed up to 120 days early if you prefer, with courtesy email reminders from the Secretary of State at 60, 30, and 10 days out. Keep the registered agent in place without a gap, because the agent ground has its own forfeiture track and the more expensive reinstatement. If the business will sell taxable goods or services with a Wyoming presence, handle the Department of Revenue sales tax license through the Wyoming Internet Filing System. And if the business actually operates in another state, register there as a foreign LLC; a Wyoming formation does not remove that state's rules.
The full recurring picture for Wyoming, with fees and due dates, is on the Wyoming annual report and compliance page, and the money view is on the Wyoming LLC cost page.
Wyoming LLC questions
Does a Wyoming LLC really pay no tax?
It pays no Wyoming income tax, because Wyoming has no personal or corporate income tax and no Wyoming return taxes LLC pass-through income. It does pay the Annual Report License Tax every year, the greater of $60 or $0.0002 of its Wyoming assets, and sales or use tax can apply to its Wyoming sales activity. No income tax is true. No tax is not. See the Wyoming cost page.
Is a Wyoming LLC anonymous?
No. Members and managers are not listed in the Articles of Organization or in the annual report, and that is the whole true part. The organizer signs the filing, the principal and mailing addresses are on the form, everything filed is public record including signatures, and the registered agent must keep manager names and addresses at the registered office for law enforcement and state agencies. Not listed is not the same as nowhere recorded.
What happens if I miss the Wyoming annual report?
The LLC is delinquent after the due date, and if the report is not filed within 60 days the company is administratively dissolved; the LLC Act calls the same event forfeiture and deems the company defunct. Reinstatement within two years costs $100 plus delinquent license taxes on the tax ground, or $350 on the no registered agent ground. After two years there is no reinstatement. See the Wyoming report page.
Does a Wyoming LLC file a BOI report?
No. US-formed companies are exempt under the federal final rule of August 14, 2026. See the BOI tracker.
General Information Only
LLCForming publishes general information about forming and running an LLC. It is not legal, tax, or accounting advice, and it does not create an attorney or advisor relationship. Rules vary by state and by your situation. For a decision that matters, talk to a licensed attorney or tax professional in your state.