Start a Wyoming LLC in 2026: WyoBiz Filing to Annual Report

A Wyoming LLC costs $100 to file as of 2026, and you register it with the Wyoming Secretary of State through WyoBiz, the state’s business portal. File online and the company is active before you close the tab. Wyoming also keeps member names off the public Articles, which is part of why founders in California, New York, and overseas keep landing here.

How to form a Wyoming LLC on WyoBiz, from name check to EIN

You can form a Wyoming LLC yourself in a single sitting, and every step below runs through WyoBiz except the EIN, which comes from the IRS.

Wyoming keeps the Wyoming LLC requirements short. Four things get you to a filed company:

• a name that is available and carries an LLC designator;
• a registered agent with a physical Wyoming address;
• a registered office and mailing address for the Articles;
• $100 for the filing fee.

1. Clear the name on WyoBiz before anything else

Every Wyoming LLC name has to carry an approved designator. Limited liability company, LLC, L.L.C., limited company, and LC all work, and the name has to be distinguishable from everything already on the Secretary of State’s records.

Run a Wyoming business name search first, because that single check heads off most bounced filings.

Boost Suite’s legal editor rates that screen the most common reason a Wyoming filing bounces. If the name isn’t ready, hold it for 120 days for $60; reserving is pointless when the Articles go in the same day. Trading under a different public name means a separate trade name filing, Wyoming’s version of a DBA.

2. Appoint a registered agent with a physical Wyoming address

Wyoming requires every LLC to keep a registered agent and a registered office in the state, without a gap. The agent accepts legal papers, so the office needs a street address inside Wyoming. Not a mailbox. Under the Secretary of State’s registered agent rules, a P.O. box on its own, a UPS Store, a virtual office, or a mail-forwarding suite will not qualify.

You can act as your own agent only if you live in Wyoming and hold that street address yourself. Everyone else hires a commercial registered agent in Wyoming, who then signs the consent to appointment that WyoBiz folds into the filing.

3. File the Articles of Organization with the Business Division

The formation document is the Limited Liability Company Articles of Organization, filed with the Wyoming Secretary of State, Business Division. Online, you work through the New Business Entity Wizard; the $100 filing fee applies as of 2026, and card payments add 2.4%, minimum $1.

Online filings post immediately, so the company is active as soon as you finish. Paper filings run in the order received and take up to 15 business days. We track how long it takes to form an LLC in Wyoming by filing method if you want the full timing picture.

4. Write an operating agreement Wyoming will never ask to see

Wyoming doesn’t make the operating agreement part of the state filing, and the Articles form never asks for one. Skipping it is still a mistake, because the agreement sets ownership percentages, voting, profit splits, and what happens when a member leaves.

For a single-member LLC, it’s what keeps your liability shield credible. A Wyoming operating agreement template covers the ground, and your bank will want the signed copy.

5. Get the EIN from the IRS

With the LLC on file, the next stop is an Employer Identification Number, the federal tax ID you need to hire, open accounts, and file returns. The IRS issues an EIN for free in minutes online, and our Wyoming EIN walkthrough covers the form field by field. Order matters: the name on the EIN has to match the name on the Articles.

6. Open the bank account and check what else applies

Take the stamped Articles, your EIN letter, and the operating agreement to the bank and open a business bank account. Keeping company and personal money apart is what makes the liability shield hold up.

Worth flagging one federal item outside Wyoming’s control: beneficial ownership information reporting through FinCEN, so check the current requirement before you assume your LLC has to file.

The $100 Wyoming LLC filing fee, and the costs you can skip

A Wyoming LLC costs $100 to file as of 2026, whether the Articles go in online or by mail. Online, the state adds a 2.4% card processing fee, so a card payment comes to $102.40.

Two optional costs sit alongside it: a name reservation holds your name for 120 days and runs $60, and adding a series costs $10 per series. The only recurring charge after that is the annual report license tax, with a $60 floor for most LLCs.

One line item you can’t buy your way past: expedited formation. Wyoming does run same-day and next-business-day service, but current Secretary of State guidance excludes filings that can be completed online, and initial formations sit on that list. Online filing is instant anyway, so there’s nothing left to speed up.

That $100 goes to Wyoming either way, and a formation service just adds a markup on the same WyoBiz screens. The registered agent is the one piece Boost Suite thinks is worth paying for. Compare Wyoming LLC formation services on what they handle for the money, and the full cost of a Wyoming LLC has the rest.

Wyoming’s annual report and the Annual Report License Tax

Wyoming’s light-tax reputation stops at the Secretary of State’s door. Missing this one filing is how owners lose the company. Every Wyoming LLC files an annual report, due the first day of the anniversary month of formation. File on May 15, and the report comes due May 1 every year after.

It goes through the Annual Report Wizard on WyoBiz, or follow our Wyoming annual report guide if that path stalls.

The report carries the Annual Report License Tax, and Wyoming calculates it on assets located and employed in the state, not on revenue or profit. It’s $60 or two-tenths of one mill ($0.0002 per dollar of Wyoming assets), whichever comes out higher. The Secretary of State’s own worked examples show the shape of it:

Most single-member LLCs sit in that first row, and assets held outside Wyoming stay out of the calculation entirely. An out-of-state owner with a Wyoming holding company usually parks at the $60 minimum.

The catch is the calendar. Miss the deadline and Wyoming marks the LLC delinquent on the second day of the following month. Leave the report unfiled 60 days past the due date and the state administratively dissolves it.

Why founders pick Wyoming, and what the privacy claim really buys

Wyoming passed the country’s first LLC statute in 1977, and four decades of amendments to the Wyoming Limited Liability Company Act are the reason the state keeps showing up on shortlists. The tax headline gets the clicks. The statute is what holds up.

Wyoming levies no state income tax on individuals or corporations, and beyond the annual license tax an ordinary LLC owes no separate franchise, privilege, or gross-receipts tax.

That zero applies to Wyoming, though, not to you. Live and work in California or New York, and forming here changes nothing about what your home state taxes. Sales and use tax collected through the Wyoming Department of Revenue, property tax, and industry-specific taxes can all still apply.

Privacy is the second draw, and the most oversold benefit in the formation market. Wyoming’s public Articles don’t ask for member names; the form wants the registered agent, the organizer, the office addresses, and contact details. Against states that publish every owner, that’s a real difference.

The limit is sharp. Everything you type into WyoBiz becomes public record once it’s filed, signatures included, and banks, the IRS, and courts still reach the people behind the company.

The statutory toolkit is where Wyoming’s asset protection reputation comes from. The state allows series LLCs, so one company can hold separate series of assets and members for $10 per series, each with its own records and operating-agreement language. Notice goes in the Articles, or by amendment within 30 days.

Wyoming also lets you elect close LLC status right on the Articles form, which tightens who can buy into the company.

Neither tool is standard across the fifty states, and for holding structures they matter more than the tax line does. Upkeep stays light too: one report a year, a $60 floor, and no newspaper publication step of the kind New York and Arizona impose. We line Wyoming up against Delaware and Nevada in the case for a Wyoming LLC.

Forming a Wyoming LLC when you live in another state

You don’t have to live in Wyoming, or in the United States, to own a Wyoming LLC. WyoBiz confirms that anyone can register a new business not already on file, and the Articles never ask a member for a Wyoming address. For a non-resident, the registered agent is the sticking point, since self-agency requires actual Wyoming residence.

What forming here does not do is release you from your home state. Run the business from Texas or Florida, and that state will generally expect the Wyoming LLC registered there as a foreign LLC. A second filing, a second agent, a second annual obligation. Wyoming’s zero rate covers Wyoming, not income your home state considers earned inside its borders.

So where does Wyoming pay off? Holding companies, real estate, series structures, founders with no single operating state, and non-US owners who need a clean American entity.

The reverse trip has its own price. An LLC formed elsewhere but doing business in Wyoming files a Certificate of Authority with the Business Division, which runs $150 as of 2026.

The Wyoming filing mistakes that get LLCs rejected or dissolved

Most Wyoming filing problems come from a short list, and these are the ones that cost owners time, money, or good standing.

• A name the Secretary of State won’t accept: WyoBiz rejects anything not distinguishable from an existing entity, so search before you pay.
• A P.O. box on the registered office line: boxes, UPS Stores, and mail-forwarding addresses fail the physical-address test every time.
• The myth of no annual report: Wyoming isn’t New Mexico; the report and its license tax land every anniversary month.
• The one-time fee confused with the yearly tax: you pay $100 once at formation, while the license tax recurs on its own line.
• Treating the LLC as untraceable: member names stay off the Articles, but everything else you file is public, so pick addresses you’re happy to show.

Wyoming LLC questions we get asked most

Two groups send us most of the Wyoming questions: out-of-state owners weighing the move, and first-time filers stuck on the WyoBiz screens.