Wyoming LLC Formation Cost 2026

The Wyoming LLC story (and why the marketing version is incomplete)

Wyoming wrote the first US LLC statute

The reason Wyoming dominates LLC marketing is partly historical: in 1977, Wyoming became the first US state to enact a Limited Liability Company Act, drafted to give a Hamilton Brothers Oil Company subsidiary the liability shield of a corporation with the pass-through tax treatment of a partnership. For thirteen years, Wyoming was the only US jurisdiction with an LLC statute. By 1996, all 50 states had followed. That 50-year head start is the source of a body of case law, drafting precedent, and judicial familiarity that most other states quietly copy. It also explains why Wyoming's Limited Liability Company Act (Wyo. Stat. §17-29) reads cleaner than most: it has been revised across five decades against actual disputes.

Charging order protection — including for single-member LLCs

The most commercially relevant feature of a Wyoming LLC is its charging order protection. Under Wyo. Stat. §17-29-503, a creditor of an LLC member cannot foreclose on the membership interest, force a distribution, or step into the member's voting rights — the creditor can only attach distributions if and when the LLC chooses to make them. Most states extend this protection only to multi-member LLCs, on the theory that a single-member LLC has no other members to protect. Wyoming explicitly extends charging-order-only remedy to single-member LLCs by statute. Combined with the 2014 Olmstead-style fix and the absence of an "alter ego" body of state case law against LLCs, this is the strongest creditor-protection regime in the US for solo founders holding investment assets — second only to Nevada and comparable to Delaware for multi-member structures.

The practical implication: if you are a solo consultant whose primary risk is a contract dispute from a single client, this matters less. If you hold real estate, an investment portfolio, or intellectual property inside the LLC and could be sued personally for an unrelated reason (auto accident, personal guaranty, divorce), Wyoming's statutory regime is the most defensive in the country.

The "anonymous LLC" reality after the Corporate Transparency Act

Wyoming is widely marketed as the home of the "anonymous LLC." The state-level claim is true: the Articles of Organization do not require listing members or managers, and the annual report only requires the registered agent's information. As of 2026, member and manager names do not appear on any public Wyoming database. That is the easy half.

The federal picture changed in 2025. The Corporate Transparency Act (31 U.S.C. §5336) briefly required almost every US LLC to file a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report with FinCEN, but FinCEN’s March 2025 interim final rule removed US-formed entities from the definition of a reporting company — so a 2026 Wyoming LLC (including one owned by a non-resident) is exempt and files nothing; only entities formed under foreign law and registered in a US state still file. So the accurate description of a 2026 Wyoming LLC is: publicly anonymous, and — for a domestic LLC — no longer on a federal BOI file either. That beats every state that publishes members on a Statement of Information (California, New York, Florida). This area has flipped before (court injunctions, then the rule), so confirm current status at fincen.gov/boi.

Banking — what actually opens an account remotely

Wyoming has a real banking-accessibility paradox: local brick-and-mortar banks rarely open accounts for non-resident-owned Wyoming LLCs, while the modern fintech layer treats Wyoming as one of its strongest jurisdictions. In practice, non-residents forming a Wyoming LLC for asset-holding or remote business should plan on: Mercury, Relay, or Wise Business — all three accept Wyoming LLCs with EIN, BOI confirmation, and government-issued ID, with no Wyoming visit required. Traditional banks like First Interstate or Wyoming Bank & Trust typically require an in-person branch visit and a Wyoming address. If you need a physical bank, Delaware or Nevada is structurally easier despite their higher annual fees.

The real total annual cost (it is not just $62)

Marketing pages quote Wyoming's $62 annual fee. The honest math for a non-resident-owned Wyoming LLC with no in-state operations is closer to $200–$350 a year: $100 state filing in year one, $62 annual report (the statutory minimum that applies when Wyoming-situs assets are below $310,000 — the fee is $0.0002 × assets above that), $50–$150 for a registered agent (a Wyoming requirement, since the founder is non-resident), $0–$100 for a BOI filing (free at boiefiling.fincen.gov if self-filed; $35–$100 if delegated to a service), and $0–$100 for an EIN application if filed through a third-party intermediary because the IRS fax channel for non-residents can take 6–12 weeks. Within the US, only New Mexico ($0 annual report, $0 franchise tax) and Missouri ($0 annual report) are meaningfully cheaper — and both rank lower on banking accessibility.

Who Wyoming actually fits — and who it does not

Wyoming fits four narrow profiles cleanly: non-US residents who need a US business entity without an existing US tie; asset-holding structures(real estate, securities, IP) where charging-order protection is the primary value; solo founders who genuinely value public anonymity and accept the FinCEN reality; and Series LLC structures for multi-property real estate (Wyoming was one of the earliest states to authorize Series, in 2010 via Wyo. Stat. §17-29-1101).

It fits poorly for: US residents with a physical business in another state — you will end up paying Wyoming filing plus your home state's foreign-qualification fee, annual report, and franchise tax, and your home state will still tax your operations; freelancers and consultants whose only real risk is client disputes (your home state is almost always cheaper net of foreign-qualification costs); and VC-backed startups (use a Delaware C-Corp).

For the side-by-side numbers see our Delaware vs Wyoming comparison, or the best-state ranking by user profile. The underlying data is updated quarterly against the Wyoming Secretary of State fee schedule (last verified 2026-05-15).