Montana LLC vs Michigan LLC (2026)
Written for owners based in Montana.
Verdict: for most owners, form where the business is based
Michigan is $50 to organize and $25 a year for the Annual Statement due February 15, so five years is $175 against Montana's $35. Two Michigan specifics are worth knowing. Filings go to LARA's Corporations Division rather than the Secretary of State, and an ordinary LLC faces no late fee at all, though LARA dissolves a company that stops filing after a two-year grace period and charges $50 plus every missed $25 statement to restore it. Michigan also permits an anonymous LLC where Montana does not. The Michigan LLC then needs $70 to register as a foreign LLC in Montana.
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Compare Montana LLC vs Michigan LLC on filing fees, taxes, privacy laws, and annual costs. Find out which state is actually better for your business.
By Edmond Hui · Last updated: September 23, 2026
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| Factor | Montana | Michigan |
|---|---|---|
| Filing Fee | $35 | $50 |
| Processing Time | Not published by the state | Not published by the state |
| Annual Report Fee | $0 (waived when filed by April 15; $35 after) | $25 |
| Annual Report Due | April 15 | February 15 |
| State Income Tax | Yes | Yes |
| Anonymous LLC | No | Yes |
| Publication Requirement | No | No |
| Foreign LLC Cost (if forming out-of-state) | N/A, you're in your home state | $70 + registered agent ~$150/yr |
Full fee breakdown for either state: Montana LLC cost and Michigan LLC cost. Owner privacy options for either state: Montana anonymous LLC guide and Michigan anonymous LLC guide.
Business Climate: Montana vs Michigan
| Factor | Montana | Michigan |
|---|---|---|
| 5-year business survival rate | 53% (#16 of 51) | 55% (#4 of 51) |
| Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months)) | +13.4% YoY (#40 of 51 by volume) | +17.3% YoY (#11 of 51 by volume) |
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics · U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics (BFS)
Compare LLC Costs: Montana vs Michigan
Montana
Michigan
A figure shown as "from" is the least the state can charge, not a price. Tennessee's report is $300 for up to six members and $50 for each member above six, its franchise tax is the greater of $100 or 0.25% of Tennessee net worth, Wyoming's report is the greater of $60 or $.0002 per dollar of in-state assets, Kentucky's entity tax is $175 up to $3 million of gross receipts and graduated above it, and New York's annual filing fee is graduated on New York source gross income. A total that contains one of those is shown as "from" for the same reason. Costs include every mandatory state charge: the filing fee, the report fee (annualised where a state files biennially), any state entity-level tax shown in its own row above, a one-time publication cost where the state publishes a rate for it, and any one-time registration charge a state requires before the LLC may trade. Two exclusions follow from that wording. Arizona and Nebraska require publication and publish no rate, so no newspaper cost is carried for either and their totals are not the whole cost. Alaska's $50 annual state business licence is a separate charge from the Secretary of State fees and is not carried here either. Annualising makes the 1, 3 and 5 year rows a cost of ownership rather than a payment schedule: a biennial state charges its whole report fee in the years it falls due and nothing in between. Entity-level taxes that only apply after a corporate election, or above an owner or income threshold, are excluded and flagged on the state's own cost page. New York's publication cost is carried at a $250 floor, roughly $200 of newspaper cost in a low-cost county plus the $50 Certificate of Publication fee. No county-clerk-designated New York City newspaper publishes a rate card, so the four-figure NYC estimates in wide circulation cannot be traced to a primary source and are not asserted here; budget for materially more than the floor if you file in a NYC county. Every fee was verified against the state's own fee schedule, statute, or revenue authority on 29 July 2026. Excludes registered agent and legal fees. For informational purposes only, not legal or tax advice.
Filing Fees & Formation Costs
Montana charges $35 to form an LLC, while Michigan charges $50. Montana is $15 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Michigan but operate in Montana, you must also register as a foreign LLC in Montana (a $70 filing) and maintain a registered agent in Michigan (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the Michigan route at roughly $270, versus $35 for simply forming in Montana. Speed isn't a basis for choosing between them: neither Montana nor Michigan publishes a standard processing time, so any figure comparing the two is guesswork.
Taxes: Montana vs Michigan
Both Montana and Michigan levy a personal income tax on pass-through business income, and your LLC's profits will be taxed where you live and operate. Forming in Michigan doesn't change what a Montana-based owner pays. Montana levies a two-bracket individual income tax; under a 2025 Montana law the top rate drops from 5.9% to 5.65% effective January 1, 2026, with the 4.7% lower rate applying up to $47,500 single/$95,000 joint (Montana Department of Revenue). Michigan levies a flat 4.25% individual income tax; Treasury confirmed on April 15, 2026 that the rate remains 4.25% for the 2026 tax year because the statutory rate-reduction trigger wasn't met. No franchise or privilege tax on LLCs; the Secretary of State currently waives the annual report fee for reports filed by April 15 ($35 if filed late).
Privacy & Asset Protection
Michigan allows anonymous LLC formation. Member and manager names don't appear on routine public filings. Articles of Organization (Form CSCL/CD-700) require only the company name, purpose, duration, resident agent, and registered office, signed by an organizer who may be a third party, and the annual statement requires only the resident agent's name and registered office address. No member or manager is listed on any routine public filing. One caveat: Michigan law requires the annual statement to name the person signing and the capacity in which they sign, so a member who signs it personally appears on the public record (the law lets an authorized agent sign instead). A professional LLC is no exception (form CSCL/CD-701 names no member or manager either) but its Article V attests that all members and managers are licensed or otherwise legally authorized to render one or more of the services stated, except as Michigan's LLC Act provides; that limits who may own a PLLC, not who is disclosed. Montana doesn't offer that same privacy. Montana law requires the LLC's annual report to state the names and business mailing addresses of the managers (if manager-managed) or of the members (if member-managed), and these reports are public. Both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members, and for most small businesses the practical difference in asset protection between the two is minimal. One important caveat: if you register your Michigan LLC as a foreign LLC in Montana, that Montana registration is itself a public record, which can undercut much of the privacy benefit for a business that operates in Montana.
Annual Maintenance Costs
Montana LLCs file a free annual report (due April 15), and Michigan LLCs file an annual report ($25, due February 15). If you form in Michigan while operating in Montana, you maintain filings in both states, Michigan's report plus Montana's equivalent for your foreign registration, and pay a Michigan registered agent roughly $150 per year. Counting report fees, the agent and any entity-level tax, that brings the Michigan route to roughly $175 a year, versus about $0 to keep a domestic Montana LLC in good standing. The tax inside those totals: No franchise or privilege tax on LLCs; the Secretary of State currently waives the annual report fee for reports filed by April 15 ($35 if filed late).
When Michigan Actually Makes Sense
Forming in Michigan makes sense in a few specific situations: you need anonymous ownership. Montana puts owner or manager information on public filings and Michigan doesn't (usually via a holding company, since operating in Montana still requires a public foreign registration there), your business genuinely operates in Michigan, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to Michigan in the near future. For a typical small business based in Montana, none of these usually apply. Registering a Michigan LLC to do business back home means $70 in Montana foreign-registration fees, on top of Michigan's $50 formation fee, while Montana's own annual report stays free to file and is due April 15. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Sources
Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so. Where we hold the citation but no stable public link, the citation is printed on its own rather than pointed at a guessed address.
- Montana bill: HB 337 (2025) (income tax rate cut)
- Michigan law: Section 904 of P.A. 23 of 1993 (professional LLC ownership)
- Michigan statute: MCL 450.4207(3) (annual statement contents)
- Michigan statute: MCL 450.4103(2) (signer named on filings)
- Michigan statute: MCL 450.4103(3) (authorized agent may sign)
- Montana statute: MCA 35-8-208 (annual report contents)
- sosmt.gov/business/Montana Secretary of State: business entity filings
- sosmt.gov/business/fees/Montana LLC filing fees
- michigan.gov/lara/bureau-list/cscl/corpsMichigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations Division: business entity filings
- michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/lara/cscl/Folder6/Filing_Fees.pdfMichigan LLC filing fees
Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC
Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.