Wisconsin LLC filing: $130 to form, $25 a year, and an annual report deadline tied to the quarter you formed in

Wisconsin’s entity filings are among the cheaper ones covered here: $130 to form the LLC online and a $25 annual report, with no franchise tax. The cost is not the thing to watch. The deadline is. Wisconsin does not use a single statewide date or the formation anniversary; the annual report is due the last day of the calendar quarter in which the LLC was formed. That is an unusual rule, it means an LLC organized in February and one organized in November have different quarterly deadlines, and it is the reason Wisconsin reports get missed. A missed report is not just a lapsed filing; carried long enough, it leads to administrative dissolution, which drops the liability shield the entity exists to provide.

Forming the company

Formation is a single filing with the state’s financial-institutions agency.

Wisconsin forms an LLC on Articles of Organization filed with the Department of Financial Institutions for $130 online or $170 by mail.

You create a Wisconsin LLC by filing the Articles of Organization with the Department of Financial Institutions, known as the DFI, for $130 through the online QuickStart system or $170 by mail. The articles name the company, its registered agent, and the organizer, and Wisconsin requires the registered agent to have a physical Wisconsin street address. Online filings are typically processed within a couple of business days. People from other states look for a Secretary of State and do not find one; in Wisconsin, business entities file with the DFI. There is no franchise tax, so the formation fee and the annual report are the state’s recurring costs.

The $25 report and the deadline that trips people up

Here is the feature that makes Wisconsin cheap and the reason the deadline is deceptive.

Wisconsin’s annual report is $25, but it is due the last day of the calendar quarter in which the LLC was formed, not on a fixed statewide date.

Every Wisconsin LLC files an annual report with the DFI for a $25 fee, and there is no franchise tax, so the recurring state cost is small. The catch is the deadline. Wisconsin ties it to the calendar quarter in which the LLC’s original articles were filed, so an LLC formed in the first quarter reports by March 31, one formed in the third quarter reports by September 30, and so on. That is different from the fixed April 15 of a state like Maryland and different from the formation-anniversary date some other states use, and for an owner with several LLCs it means tracking a quarter-end deadline that varies by entity. The low fee does little to make the date memorable, which is exactly why Wisconsin reports slip.

What a missed report costs

The consequence of a lapse reaches past the fee to the shield.

A Wisconsin LLC that goes more than a year without filing its annual report is administratively dissolved, which drops its good standing and its liability protection.

If the annual report goes unfiled for more than a year, the DFI administratively dissolves the LLC. A dissolved entity is no longer in good standing, and during that gap the liability shield the owner formed the company to get is compromised, so a claim arising while the company is dissolved can be harder to keep away from the owner. Wisconsin allows reinstatement on filing the overdue reports and paying a $100 reinstatement fee, and the company can be restored, but the exposure that arose during the lapse is not always cleanly erased. The protection page covers why an entity out of good standing is a weak place to be when a creditor appears, and keeping the quarterly report current is the cheapest protection a Wisconsin LLC buys.

Multiple entities and the no-series rule

Wisconsin’s lack of a series LLC shows up in the filing calendar.

Because Wisconsin has no series LLC, a multi-property plan needs a separate LLC for each property, and each one has its own quarterly report deadline.

As the structure and cost page covers, Wisconsin has no series LLC, so an investor who wants each property insulated forms a separate LLC for each, and each is a separate filer with its own $25 annual report and its own quarter-end deadline based on when it was formed. Forming several LLCs in the same quarter at least lines up their deadlines, which is a small planning point worth using, because otherwise a multi-property owner is tracking several different quarterly dates across the year. The per-entity cost is low, but the calendar management is real, and it is the main ongoing burden of a Wisconsin multi-property structure.

The bottom line

A Wisconsin LLC forms on Articles of Organization filed with the Department of Financial Institutions for $130 online or $170 by mail, with a Wisconsin-address registered agent required.

The annual report is $25 with no franchise tax, but it is due the last day of the calendar quarter in which the LLC was formed, a per-entity deadline that varies by company.

More than a year unfiled leads to administrative dissolution, which drops good standing and the liability shield until reinstatement, so the quarterly deadline has to be tracked.

Because Wisconsin has no series LLC, a multi-property plan is separate LLCs, each with its own quarterly report, though forming them in the same quarter aligns the deadlines.

The real filing risk in Wisconsin is the unusual deadline, not the fee, so the calendar is where a Wisconsin owner should focus.

What this page does not cover

This page is about fees, forms, and deadlines. How creditors reach a member’s interest, the single-member foreclosure remedy, and the marital-property overlay are on the protection page. What the rewritten act lets your operating agreement do, and how the 2023 change reached older LLCs, is on the governance page. Wisconsin’s income tax, the 60% capital gains exclusion, the transfer fee on moving property, and the lack of a series LLC are on the structure and cost page.

Last verified August 2026.