New Mexico LLC for Non-Residents
Published 3 September 2026 · Reviewed by Ashfaq Khattak, US Tax Consultant
New Mexico is the only US state that requires no annual report and no biennial report from an LLC at all. You file once, and there is no recurring state filing to remember, no annual state fee, and no deadline to miss. The Articles of Organization also do not ask for member names, so ownership does not appear in the public record.
For a holding company, a dormant entity, or a founder who wants the smallest possible number of things that can go wrong, nothing else in the country is this low-maintenance. The trade-off is a thinner ecosystem: fewer banks and payment processors recognise a New Mexico LLC on sight than a Wyoming or Delaware one, which occasionally means an extra question at onboarding.
What "no annual report" actually removes
- No annual state filing. Every other state wants something each year or every two years. New Mexico does not.
- No annual state fee for the report, because there is no report.
- No deadline that can dissolve your company. The most common way a non-resident loses an LLC is missing an annual report until the state administratively dissolves it. That failure mode does not exist here.
- No public refresh of your details each year, which is how ownership information leaks in states like Florida.
You still need a registered agent with a New Mexico address, continuously, and that is an annual cost. "No annual report" is not "no annual cost" — it is one obligation removed, and it is the one that bites hardest.
Privacy, stated accurately
New Mexico does not require member or manager names in the Articles of Organization, so the state’s public record shows the company and its registered agent and nothing about who owns it. That is real and it is unusual.
What it is not:
- Not anonymity from the IRS. Every EIN application names a responsible party, with their taxpayer identification number.
- Not anonymity from FinCEN. The BOI report exists specifically to record beneficial owners of companies whose states do not.
- Not anonymity from your bank. Know-your-customer rules mean the bank identifies every beneficial owner before it opens an account.
- Not anonymity from your registered agent, who by definition knows who engaged them.
Anyone advertising a New Mexico LLC as invisible to the US government is describing a crime, not a service. What it genuinely offers is privacy from the public: competitors, scrapers and anyone running a name search.
When New Mexico is the right choice — and when it is not
| Use it for | Do not use it for |
|---|---|
| A holding company that owns IP or another entity | Anything raising US venture capital — investors want Delaware |
| An entity you need to keep alive cheaply for years | A business with staff, property or operations in another state |
| Minimising the number of deadlines you can miss | Cases where a recognisable formation state smooths banking |
| Keeping ownership out of the public record | Avoiding federal reporting — it does not |
In practice we form more Wyoming LLCs than New Mexico ones, because the Wyoming annual report is cheap and the wider recognition is worth something at a bank. New Mexico wins when the company will be quiet for a long time and you want the fewest possible moving parts.
What we do
- Name check with the Secretary of State.
- Articles of Organization filed, without member names in the public record.
- New Mexico registered agent for the first year, and a renewal reminder — because with no annual report, the agent lapsing is now the main way this company gets into trouble.
- EIN application to the IRS.
- Operating agreement and BOI report with FinCEN.
What your state choice does not change
These are federal and they follow the company wherever it is formed:
- Your EIN. Every LLC needs one to open a bank account, and with no SSN it is a fax or mail application to the IRS rather than the instant online one.
- Form 5472. A foreign-owned single-member LLC files it with a pro-forma Form 1120 every year, at a penalty of $25,000 for missing it, whether or not the company earned anything.
- Your BOI report. Filed with FinCEN, not with the state. Choosing an anonymous state does not make you anonymous to the federal government.
Anyone selling you a state on the basis that it removes one of these is selling you a $25,000 problem.
Frequently asked questions
Does a New Mexico LLC file an annual report?
No. New Mexico is the only US state that requires no annual and no biennial report from an LLC. There is no recurring state filing, no annual state report fee and no deadline that can administratively dissolve the company for non-filing.
Is a New Mexico LLC anonymous?
From the public, largely yes — the Articles of Organization do not require member names. From the government, no: the IRS records a responsible party on every EIN, FinCEN records beneficial owners on the BOI report, and your bank identifies every owner before opening an account.
Does no annual report mean no annual cost?
No. You still need a registered agent with a New Mexico address, continuously, and that is an annual fee. What is removed is the obligation that most often causes a non-resident to lose their company.
Wyoming or New Mexico?
Wyoming for most businesses, because the annual report is inexpensive and the state is more widely recognised at banks and payment processors. New Mexico when the company will be quiet for years and you want the fewest possible moving parts.
Official sources
Rules, forms and fees on this page come from the following official sources, each checked on 2026-09-03. Government fees and deadlines change; confirm the current figure on the agency's own page before you file.