Wyoming

Wyoming has a unified registered agent chapter (17-28) applying to every 'business entity' (corporation, nonprofit, LLC, LP, cooperative, statutory trust or foundation, LLP, foreign or domestic, § 17-28-101(b)). The agent must be an individual at least 18 who resides in Wyoming with a business office identical to the registered office, or a domestic or authorized foreign business entity with a written agency agreement designating a natural person to accept service. The registered office must be a Wyoming street address where the agent (or that natural person) is physically present, and anyone acting as agent for more than 10 entities must register as a commercial registered agent (§ 17-28-105). Agent and entity must each maintain an e-mail address (§ 17-28-101(e)). The corporation and LLC acts incorporate ch. 28 wholesale (§ 17-16-501; § 17-29-113).

Consent required: yes.

Two fallbacks in the unified agent chapter: if an entity has no agent or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be served, service is by registered or certified mail to the entity's principal office (§ 17-28-104(b)), and every entity must execute at formation a consent to electronic service by the Secretary of State for that agentless scenario (§ 17-28-104(e)). Additionally, when an agent resigns and no successor is appointed, service is on the Secretary of State until a new appointment is made or the entity is dissolved or revokedRevocation / administrative dissolutionThe state involuntarily ending an entity's authority to do business - for missed annual reports, a lapsed registered agent, or unpaid fees.Read the full entry → (§ 17-28-103(e)); the SOS is likewise the agent for revoked foreign corporations (§ 17-16-1531(d)).

• Administrative Dissolution. A corporation may be administratively dissolved if it is without a registered agent or registered office (no waiting period stated), or fails to notify the Secretary of State within 30 days of an agent change, resignation, or office discontinuance; there is a 60-day cure window after notice (§ 17-16-1421(b)). Failure to pay registered agent chapter penalties is a separate ground (§ 17-16-1420(a)(x)).
• Administrative Dissolution. An LLC without a registered agent or office for any reason is deemed to be transacting business without authority and, unless it complies within 60 days of notice, is deemed defunct and forfeits its articles of organization.
• Revocation Foreign. A foreign corporationDomestic / foreignRelative to one state's records: an entity is domestic in the state that formed it and foreign everywhere else it registers to do business.Read the full entry →'s certificate of authorityCertificate of authorityPermission for an entity formed in one state to do business in another - the 'foreign' registration.Read the full entry → may be revoked if it is without a registered agent or office, or fails to inform the Secretary of State within 30 days of an agent change or resignation; foreign LLCs are revoked and reinstatedReinstatementRestoring an entity the state revoked or administratively dissolved for missed filings - typically back-filing reports, paying accrued fees and penalties, and filing an application.Read the full entry → the same way under § 17-29-114.
• Other. The moment an agent resigns with no successor appointed, the Secretary of State classifies the entity as delinquent awaiting administrative dissolution, revocation, or forfeiture.
• Reinstatement Fee. A corporation administratively dissolved specifically for failure to maintain a registered agent must pay a $250 reinstatement fee plus delinquent fees and taxes, within a two-year window; an LLC deemed defunct pays a reinstatement fee set by rule plus a $250 penalty (§ 17-29-705(a)).
• No Court Access. A foreign corporation transacting business without a certificate of authority (whose application must be accompanied by the agent's written consent, § 17-16-1503(c)) cannot maintain a proceeding in any Wyoming court; applies to foreign LLCs via § 17-29-114. An agentless LLC is expressly 'deemed to be transacting business within this state without authority' (§ 17-29-705(a)).
• Civil Penalty. A foreign corporation transacting business without authority is liable for all back fees and license taxes plus 18 percent interest, a $5,000 penalty, audit expenses, and attorney fees. Separately, the Secretary of State may impose up to $500 per violation per entity on registered agents under the agent chapter (§ 17-28-109(a)), and unpaid agent-chapter penalties are themselves a dissolution/revocation ground (§ 17-16-1420(a)(x); § 17-16-1530(a)(ix)).

Filing officeFiling officeThe agency that keeps the business register.Read the full entry →

Wyoming Secretary of State, Business Division (Cheyenne)

State fee

$100 (check/money order to Wyoming Secretary of State); optional trade nameDBA / fictitious nameA name a business operates under that is not its legal name - 'doing business as.' Also: assumed name, trade name, fictitious business name.Read the full entry → reservation $30

Term

10 years

Renewal

Renewable for successive 10-year terms; renewal may not be filed more than 6 months before expiration; SOS notifies registrant 6 months out. Renewal fee $50 per SOS fee schedule (sos.wyo.gov/Business/docs/BusinessFees.pdf)

Publication

Not required. No newspaper publicationPublication requirementA few states require newly formed or registered entities to publish a notice in designated newspapers (New York's LLC publication is the expensive example) - a real cost of formation that fee tables usually omit.Read the full entry → requirement in Wyoming

Online filing

Not available

The regime

Wyoming has no mandatory general DBA/assumed-name act. Its Trade Names Registration chapter is permissive: any person who adopts a trade name for use in Wyoming 'may file' an application for registration with the Secretary of State on payment of $100. 'Trade name' is defined as a word or name used to identify a business, vocation or occupation and distinguish it from others.

Where it is filed

Trade name registrations, reservations, renewals, assignments and cancellations are all filed in the office of the Wyoming Secretary of State, who furnishes the forms and promulgates the rules. No county-level filing appears in the chapter.

Publication

No newspaper-publication requirement appears anywhere in the chapter (§§ 40-2-101 through 40-2-111 read in full); the process is filing-based, and the Secretary of State returns a date-stamped duplicate of the application to the registrant.

Term and renewal

Registration is effective for ten years; the Secretary of State notifies registrants of upcoming expiration during the final year.

Name restrictions

A trade name cannot be registered if it is the same as or deceptively similar to a Wyoming-registered trademark or service mark, is not distinguishable from other business-entity names under W.S. 17-16-401, or contains words indicating the banking or insurance business (subject to narrow exceptions for approved banks).

Assumed names for registered entities

Under the Wyoming Business Corporation Act, a foreign corporation whose corporate name does not satisfy W.S. 17-16-401 may transact business under a fictitious name by delivering a certified board resolution adopting it to the Secretary of State; the fictitious name must not be deceptively similar to registered marks and must be distinguishable from other business names. Domestic corporate names must in turn be distinguishable from, among other things, any registered trade name - so a registered trade name blocks conflicting entity names on the Secretary of State's records.

Penalties

There is no penalty for not registering (registration is voluntary), but anyone who procures a trade-name registration by false or fraudulent representations is liable for all resulting damages plus costs and reasonable attorneys' fees.

Official source

sos.wyo.gov/Forms/Business/TN/TN-RegistrationApplication.pdf↗ (opens the official source)

What it is called

not captured

Administering agency

Wyoming Secretary of State, Business Division (wyobiz.wyo.gov annual report wizard); 307-777-7311

Corporation minimum

not recorded separately

How it is computed

Wyoming's franchise-tax equivalent is the ANNUAL REPORT LICENSE TAX, collected by the Secretary of State with the annual report (there is no state income tax and no separate revenue-department franchise taxFranchise taxA recurring tax on the privilege of existing as an entity in a state - not a tax on franchising a business.Read the full entry →). COMPUTATION: fee = max($60, $0.0002 x B), where B = the sum of the entity's capital, property and assets LOCATED AND EMPLOYED IN WYOMING (statutory text: 'sixty dollars ($60.00) or two-tenths of one mill on the dollar ($.0002), whichever is greater'). B is measured as of the fiscal year end preceding execution of the report. The $60 floor is exceeded once WY-located assets exceed $300,000. Modifications: interstate carriers taxed only on intrastate assets; mines/mining claims valued at prior-year assessed gross product; assessed value = actual value. Applies identically to LLCs (W.S. 17-29-209(a)-(c)), profit corporations (W.S. 17-16-1630(a)-(c),(e)), LPs/LLLPs (W.S. 17-14-209(b) incorporating 17-16-1630 'as if it were a corporation') and RLLPs (W.S. 17-21-1101(n), same cross-reference). EXCEPTION: nonprofits pay a $25 flat 'annual franchise fee' instead, not asset-based (W.S. 17-19-1630(d)). Due the first day of the anniversary month; e-filing not permitted when the tax exceeds $500 (paper only); online card processing adds 2.4% (min $1).