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Written by : Odilia Aper |
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hello i'm attorney thomas burton and today's question is how much is the llc filing fee in wisconsin so llc stands for limited liability company and i often get asked this question and it's a good one because the filing fee per llc varies state to state an llc is a creature an entity created under state law and in wisconsin the filing fee is 130 dollars if you file online or 170 dollars if you file by paper so you can save some paper and some money by filing online so let's look at the website here is the department of financial institutions that's where you would file your llc in wisconsin and you'll see here what i'm talking about we've got the articles of organization is what it's called what you file the form analysis 170 dollars if filed on paper or if you do it online using the online process a reasonable 130 dollars and the great thing about the online process is if you know how to do it and do it correctly you can often have your llc formed and filed the very same day now after you file the llc there's a very reasonable annual report fee of 25 per year that's what you're going to need to file and pay to keep the llc active with the state of wisconsin and paid the fee and file the report both of which can be done online so i think this is a good question to think about when setting your llc up and in my experience the fees here in wisconsin are quite reasonable and i want to show you another state which is known for being more expensive for contrast here in california for example here we go the annual filing fee for an llc is 70 it appears so that doesn't appear too bad to actually get it going but then i've heard from other individuals their significant annual fees with an llc in wisconsin and if you go over here to this page you'll see that california has an annual tax on every llc of 800 and that tax is due even if you're not conducting business until you cancel your llc so sometimes when people ask me about the costs uh again if you're watching this video and you're in another state check on the cost of filing in your state but if you're in a state where it's a reasonable cost like wisconsin this is often not a big factor in your decision whether to form an llc if you're in california there's are higher costs so just go into it eyes wide open if you're forming an llc there and then if you make more than this amount in california you pay a fee as well so small smaller businesses wouldn't pay this fee it appears but the larger ones would in addition to the annual tax so let's look at one more example wyoming which is known for being more business friendly to set up an llc in wyoming the articles of organization are 100 so that's very close to wisconsin with the 130 dollar filing online and then the annual uh report fee in wyoming is 25 which is exactly the same as that annual report fee in wisconsin so it's good to see wisconsin fees are pretty competitive with even one of the best known as one of the best llc jurisdictions in the country like i said llcs are creatures of state statute so when you hear people talk about where to do business where to set up an llc you often hear states like nevada or wyoming mentioned is very business friendly very pro-business llc statutes and the fees are quite reasonable as well so if you're in what's known as a more higher tax state take a look at your fees before filing again so you know what you're getting into with the annual fees in addition to the filing fee but in wisconsin in my experience both fees are quite reasonable that's why if you watch some of my other videos and i'll go back on camera here i often suggest an llc is a great structure for a small business because it gives you the limited liability protections of an entity a corporation the perpetual life of a corporation and all that protection for a modest filing fee and annual report fee without the corporate formalities board meetings board of directors required in a full corporation so just as a reminder sole proprietorship is not a separate business entity so you have no liability protection and then it doesn't have a perpetual life either because a sole proprietorship would die with the person operating it and that's what's so great about an llc is you can form an llc and gain those liability protections you can still be a single member and get the flow through taxation meaning you don't have to file a separate tax return you can just file on a schedule attached to your individual tax return and you can do all that for in wisconsin a relatively modest filing fee and annual report fee so great question i hope this understand helps you understand a little bit more about the startup costs and annual compliance cost with an llc thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next time
Thanks for your comment Gregory Szaflarski, have a nice day.
- Odilia Aper, Staff Member
welcome back i'm attorney thomas burton and today i'm going to show you how to file your annual report for wisconsin business and this will work for either a corporation or an llc so once again you want to go to the wisconsin department of financial institutions website you can google it it's wdfi.org right up here and when you get to the home page it should look like this you want to make sure you're on the official state of wisconsin website and you're going to click top left i want to file and this button here annual report no this is assuming you already have an llc or wisconsin business corporation set up in the state of wisconsin and what happens is after the first year you pay your filing fee online to form your business but after the first year you need to file an annual report every year whether you're a corporation or a limited liability company or other entity and the filing fee for an llc currently is 25 per year so when you filed your articles of organization you should have received and enter the id number and you'll see here it says if the printed id number on your postcard notification contains a zero just enter the zero do not let enter capital r o for the number zero so i see i don't know in my opinion why they use o's in there but they will mail you generally a postcard notification to the address you put down is your registered agent the person you designated to receive legal service of process receive mail for your business legally so if you get that postcard you can use that id number on there and type it in here if you misplace the postcard your entity id should be on your articles of organization for your llc that you filed so go back to that paperwork or if you can't remember that either we can just look up your entity id so let's do a search for green bay packers and you'll see here we have the green bay packers inc they were rich that registered january 26 of 1935 and restored to good standing on january 30 20 2007. so when you see this it often means someone forgot to pay a filing fee and then they did pay or filed their report a little bit late and then they get this restored to good standing now like for example the green bay packers stadium dedication committee was a non-stock corporation looks like probably a non-profit and it was involuntarily dissolved in 1993 and that can happen you'll see here incorporated in bad standing intent to involuntary if they don't pay their fees or file their reports so but the green bay packers inc is in good standing restored to good standing and there's the registered agent right there in green bay and you can see they've filed these annual reports the current name is green bay packers inc in 1997 they dropped the the green bay packers inc change registered agent you can see all the action here so it's interesting but let's say you want to file your annual report for the green bay packers okay so here's the entity id if you can see here so that's what if you can't find on your postcard you can look it up using your business name so let's say we're going to file annual report but it says this entity has already filed an annual report for the year so we can't file one for them now look up here this is for this new business venture you're supposed to do this other form but let's go back so that's one example the green bay packers now if you watch my other video on how to form a business in wisconsin you'll recall i think we searched for an entity called badger painting and with guns and there's a lot of badger so here's one restored to good standing and they have formed their llc but haven't filed the annual report you can see some years delinquent then restored to good standing things like that but let's try this one file an annual report and it looks like they need to file their annual report uh for this year yet so we can just do it partially like we were filing it although we won't be because we're not going to pay the fee for them but you'll see here you're being redirected to the one stop business portal to complete your annual report as of january 2017 all reports must be filed through the portal and if you do it that way either using your nit id or the name it'll fill this in for you so you just click next and it's going to tell you what you need this is for an llc you need the name the registered agent principal office the name title and address of each manager if it's manager managed email payment with credit card or e-check 25 per year and then they charge you one dollar portal fee so and make sure your browser have the latest and spam blocker for the email so then you click next and in this case it will fill in your registered agent so if that's correct we can click use current if you've changed where you want your registered agent either the name or the mail to go and it must be in wisconsin then you need to change this so if it's a individual you change it to let's say you moved your and you're using your home address you change it to your new one or if you're using an entity like you're paying someone to be the registered agent you would change it to this so let's for this example we're saying there's nothing changed we're going to use the one from last year click next and then this is the principal office address they have on file so again if that's current you use existing if you need to update it this is the time to do it easily and you just change it to one two three main street madison wisconsin etc they even will provide suggestions oh yes that's it okay but we're not going to for this example we're going to use the existing next and then this is key how is your llc managed is it manager managed or member managed and check out my other videos about making the choice on this but you made this choice when you organized llc so if you aren't sure go back to that document your articles of organization and check whether you chose member managed or manager managed if you're a single member llc it's likely you did manager manage excuse me member management because you're the only member you're also operating it but if it's an entity where you're hiring other people to manage it for you it's possible you did manager manage so check on that to be sure and again check out my other videos on llc's discussing some of this and how to make your choice but just go back to your articles of organization and i always suggest you keep these articles of organization handy i like to put them in a binder you have a corporate records binder but i also keep them in an electronic version so i can reference them so let's say your member managed click next brief description of the nature of the business now i'm just making this up but i'm going to say residential painting company something you know this isn't our painting business but they would put in what it actually does has the entity entered into any contract combination in the form of a trust or otherwise our conspiracy and restraint of trade or commerce so assuming the answer is no which i hope it is no because they're asking you this question because you aren't supposed to enter into conspiracy and restraint of trade or
Thanks Coletta your participation is very much appreciated
- Odilia Aper
About the author
I've studied philosophy of history at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate and I am an expert in educational sociology. I usually feel confused. My previous job was merchandise displayer I held this position for 12 years, I love talking about reading and stockcar racing. Huge fan of Jeff Bezos I practice fishing and collect beanie babies.
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