Formation fee
$35
One-time state fee for the formation certificate.
last verified 2026-07-17
record 26 of 51 · /llc/montana/
Montana LLC
Montana waives its report fee when filed on time
Montana's annual report falls due each April, and the state waives its fee when the filing arrives on time. No franchise tax appears on the record, a verified absence. Expedited handling is sold at priced tiers even though the office states no standard timeline, and the sheet keeps those two facts apart.
the rest of this note
The assumed business name is a state register with screening teeth: the statute bars the office from registering a name that is not distinguishable from names already on its records, entity names included. A name reservation here cannot be renewed once its window lapses. The agent seat admits an individual, and every filed address must be an actual street address or rural route box inside the state.
every claim above is a line below
Annual report
$0
Due Apr 15 (Fee waived timely), printed as the state writes it.
last verified 2026-07-17
Franchise tax
none
No recurring state-level tax on an LLC here. The absence is verified against the state, not missing data.
verified absent 2026-08-07
Anonymous LLC
no
Member or organizer names reach the public formation record here.
last verified 2026-08-06
no source in the snapshot
Processing time
none published
This state publishes no standard processing time, which is not the same as filing instantly. It sells expedited service, and whether that covers a formation filing has not been read.
verified absent 2026-08-09
no source in the snapshot
Name designators
Must contain the words "limited liability company" or "limited company," or the abbreviations "l.l.c.," "l.c.," "llc," or "lc." The word "limited" may be abbreviated "ltd." and "company" may be abbreviated "co."
Accepted endings for the legal name. Statute: Mont. Code Ann. § 35-8-103(1).
last verified 2026-08-04
Name reservation
$10
Optional filing that holds the name for 120 days (non-renewable) before you form.
last verified 2026-08-04
DBA
assumed business name
One statewide register; the filing costs $20.
last verified 2026-08-04
An individual as the agent
allowed
Whether a person may hold the seat, so nobody has to be hired. The terms Montana attaches, and the entity question, sit in the registered agent section.
last verified 2026-08-09
field 05 carries the date it was observed, not a promise: of the two halves beside it, only the expedited tiers are prices the state commits to
What are the Montana trade name rules?
Montana calls it the assumed business name, and keeps one statewide register for it. The state filing costs $20.
- Where an LLC files
- How long it lasts
-
5 years
A registration is effective for five years from the date of registration and may be renewed for another five-year term (§ 30-13-206(1)). The Secretary of State notifies the registrant at least 90 days before expiry, and if no renewal application is filed within that 90-day window the registration is cancelled.
- Newspaper publication
-
not required
- What the filing protects
-
no exclusive right
Section 30-13-202(1) bars the Secretary of State from registering an assumed business name that is the same as, or not distinguishable on the record from, an assumed business name already registered or any corporate, limited partnership, limited liability company, or limited liability partnership name, trademark, or service mark registered or reserved with the Secretary of State. Registering one therefore blocks a later indistinguishable filing, but the registration is disclosure rather than a trademark and grants no exclusive right beyond that screen. A person doing business in Montana may contest a registration through the procedure in § 35-14-401.
- Where to search existing names
-
Registered assumed business names appear in the Secretary of State's online business search.
one record, verified 2026-08-04 · Mont. Code Ann. § 30-13-202
What does it take to register an out-of-state LLC in Montana?
Registering an LLC formed elsewhere is its own filing in Montana. The registration costs $70. That price belongs to a separate filing event, so it enters no cost total on this site.
- Registration fee
-
$70
Flat $70.00 filing fee for a Certificate of Authority for a foreign LLC; a series LLC adds $50.00 per named series member.
- The official form
-
Application for Certificate of Authority
- Filed with
-
Montana Secretary of State
- After registration
-
File an annual report each year between January 1 and April 15 (fee waived before April 15, $35.00 after) with the Secretary of State.
one record, verified 2026-08-08
The same fee for every other jurisdiction sits on one page: foreign qualification fees for every jurisdiction.
Who may serve as the registered agent in Montana?
Who may serve as an LLC's registered agent is its own rule in Montana. Montana lets a natural person serve, so no commercial agent is required.
- An individual as the agent
-
Allowed
in the state's words an individual or a domestic or foreign entity that serves in this state as the agent for service of process of an entity
- The LLC as its own agent
-
not read at this pin
- A mailbox service as the address
-
not read at this pin
- Address rule
-
Whenever a provision of this chapter other than 35-7-111 (1)(d) requires that a filing state an address, the filing must state: (1) an actual street address or rural route box number in this state; and (2) a mailing address in this state, if different from the address under subsection (1).
one record, verified 2026-08-09
The same four answers for every other jurisdiction sit on one page: registered agent rules for every jurisdiction.
Where do these figures come from?
Every figure on this sheet renders from the pinned dataset snapshot, and each card links the page its own figure came from. This list collects those pages in one place, with the duplicates removed and the agency named.
- Formation and annual report figures https://sosmt.gov/business/fees/
- Recurring state tax https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0150/chapter_0310/part_0010/section_0010/0150-0310-0010-0010.html
- Naming statute https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0350/chapter_0080/part_0010/section_0030/0350-0080-0010-0030.html
- Who may be the registered agent https://archive.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0350/chapter_0070/part_0010/section_0020/0350-0070-0010-0020.html
- Registered agent rules https://archive.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0350/chapter_0070/part_0010/section_0040/0350-0070-0010-0040.html
- DBA filing https://biz.sosmt.gov/forms
- Montana Secretary of State Business Services https://sosmt.gov/business/
- Business entity search https://biz.sosmt.gov/search/business
The rule behind every figure here, and what a card does when one cannot be verified, sits on how a figure gets verified.