Wyoming LLC for Non-Residents

Why non-residents pick Wyoming

• No state income tax and no franchise tax on income. Wyoming taxes neither the LLC nor its members on income, so a non-resident with no US-source activity has no Wyoming return to file.
• Members are not listed. The Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State do not require member or manager names, so the public record shows the company and its registered agent.
• The lowest recurring cost of the privacy states. The annual report is a low flat minimum for a company with few or no assets located in Wyoming, which describes almost every non-resident service business.
• No requirement to visit, and no US residency test. A Wyoming LLC can be formed and owned entirely from outside the country.

The annual report, and the detail that catches people

Two things about the Wyoming annual report are unlike other states:

1. The due date is your own anniversary month, not a statewide date. Form in March and the report is due the first of March every year after. There is no single deadline you can look up and remember, which is precisely why it gets missed.
2. The fee is a minimum, not a flat fee. It is calculated on the value of assets the company has located and employed in Wyoming, with a floor. A non-resident consultancy with a laptop in another country pays the floor. A company that actually holds Wyoming property does not.

Confirm the current minimum and your own due date with the Secretary of State before you file — the figure is theirs to change, not ours. We checked the position on 3 September 2026.

When Wyoming is the wrong choice

We will tell you to form somewhere else if:

• You are raising venture capital. Investors want a Delaware C-corporation. A Wyoming LLC will have to be converted, which costs more than forming in Delaware would have.
• You have staff, an office, inventory or a physical presence in another state. Then that state considers you to be doing business there, and you register as a foreign LLC and pay its fees too — on top of Wyoming. You have bought two states, not one.
• Your customers are in California. California defines "doing business" broadly enough that a Wyoming LLC can still owe the $800 minimum. See our California page before you assume otherwise.

Wyoming is the right answer for a business whose only US connection is its paperwork. It is not a way to avoid a state you are genuinely operating in.

Wyoming versus the alternatives

Read the long version in Wyoming vs Delaware for non-residents.

What we do, and in what order

1. Name check against the Wyoming register, before anything is filed.
2. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State, with our registered agent address in Wyoming.
3. Registered agent for the first year included. Wyoming requires an agent with a physical in-state address; a PO box will not do.
4. EIN application submitted to the IRS. No SSN needed.
5. Operating agreement in the form banks actually ask for.
6. BOI report filed with FinCEN where your company is required to report.
7. Your anniversary date recorded, and you get the reminder before it, because the anniversary deadline is the one non-residents miss.

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.