Is it cheaper to form an LLC in Wyoming than New York?

Wyoming's filing fee is lower ($100 vs $200), but that's not the full picture: operating in New York means also registering as a foreign LLC there ($250) and paying a Wyoming registered agent. Realistic first-year cost is roughly $500 for the Wyoming route versus $200 for forming in New York.

Can I form my New York business in Wyoming?

Yes. Any New York business can form its LLC in Wyoming. But if the business operates in New York, it must also register there as a foreign LLC ($250 filing fee) and maintain a registered agent in Wyoming, so you take on two states' fees and filings instead of one.

State Comparison

New York LLC vs Wyoming LLC (2026)

Written for owners based in New York.

Based in Wyoming? Read Wyoming LLC vs New York LLC →

Compare New York LLC vs Wyoming 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 13, 2026

If your business is based in New York, a New York LLC needs no foreign registration there; a Wyoming LLC run from New York generally must also register in New York as a foreign LLC (New York's $250 filing fee). If your business is based in Wyoming, a Wyoming LLC needs no foreign registration there; a New York LLC run from Wyoming generally must also register in Wyoming as a foreign LLC (Wyoming's $150 filing fee). An LLC formed in one of these states and run from the other owes whatever filings, fees and taxes each state requires. A New York LLC runs $479.50 in year one and $29.50/yr after; a Wyoming LLC runs $160 and $60/yr. See the full breakdown below.

Verdict: for most owners, form where the business is based

Wyoming's $100 formation fee and $60 annual report are the usual pitch, but that $60 is a minimum. The report is a license tax equal to the greater of $60 or two-tenths of one mill on assets located in Wyoming, so $1,000,000 of in-state assets makes it $200. New York takes $29.50 a year and $200 to file, then wants six weeks of notices in two county-designated newspapers and a $50 Certificate of Publication. Wyoming's anonymity does not follow the company here, where registering costs $250 and LLC Law 802 repeats the publication duty.

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Factor	New York	Wyoming
Filing Fee	$200	$100
Processing Time	Not published by the state	Instant online; up to 15 business days paper
Annual Report Fee	$9	$60
Annual Report Due	Anniversary month (biennial)	First day of anniversary month
State Income Tax	Yes	No
Anonymous LLC	No	Yes
Publication Requirement	Yes	No
Foreign LLC Cost (if forming out-of-state)	N/A, you're in your home state	$250 + registered agent ~$150/yr

Full fee breakdown for either state: New York LLC cost and Wyoming LLC cost.

Business Climate: New York vs Wyoming

Factor	New York	Wyoming
5-year business survival rate	51.9% (#23 of 51)	47.5% (#42 of 51)
Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months))	+10.9% YoY (#4 of 51 by volume)	+13.3% YoY (#22 of 51 by volume)

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics · U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics (BFS)

See the full 50-state survival ranking.

Compare LLC Costs: New York vs Wyoming

State A

State B

New York

Formation fee$200

Annual report fee$9 / 2 yrs

State entity tax$25/yr, Partnership, LLC and LLP Annual Filing Fee

Publication (one-time)From $250

Report dueAnniversary month (biennial)

Processing timeNot published by the state

Late penalty$0

Wyoming

✓ Cheaper Upfront✓ Cheaper Long-Term

Formation fee$100

Annual report fee$60

State entity taxNone

Report dueFirst day of anniversary month

Processing timeInstant online; up to 15 business days paper

Late penalty$0

Total Cost

New York

Wyoming

1 Year

$479.5

$160

3 Years

$538.5

$280

5 Years

$597.5

$400

Will you operate outside your home state?

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. Montana's annual report is free when filed by April 15 and $35 after, a waiver that applies to reports filed between January 1 and April 15. 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

New York charges $200 to form an LLC, while Wyoming charges $100. Wyoming is $100 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Wyoming but operate in New York, you must also register as a foreign LLC in New York (a $250 filing) and maintain a registered agent in Wyoming (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the Wyoming route at roughly $500, versus $200 for simply forming in New York. Note that New York also requires newly formed LLCs to publish a newspaper notice (New York requires publication of the LLC's formation once a week for six weeks in two county-designated newspapers (LLC Law §206)), which adds to the true formation cost. Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Wyoming publishes instant online; up to 15 business days paper, while New York publishes no standard processing time, so the two can't be ranked against each other on speed.

Taxes: New York vs Wyoming

Wyoming has no personal income tax while New York does, but forming your LLC in Wyoming won't change that. LLC profits pass through to you and are taxed where you live and operate (in New York), not where the LLC is registered, so a Wyoming LLC offers no income-tax savings for a New York-based business. New York LLCs treated as partnerships/with NY-source income owe an annual filing fee of $25-$4,500 based on NY gross income. Wyoming charges an annual report license tax of $60 minimum ($62 filed online), based on in-state assets; no franchise or privilege tax otherwise.

Privacy & Asset Protection

Wyoming allows anonymous LLC formation. Member and manager names don't appear on routine public filings. Neither the Articles nor the annual report requires listing members or managers; only an organizer/signer appears, so ownership stays off public filings. New York doesn't offer that same privacy. The NY LLC Transparency Act (effective 2026) requires beneficial-ownership reporting to the state, and formation requires newspaper publication of the LLC's existence. 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. Wyoming's charging-order statute (W.S. 17-29-503) makes the charging order a creditor's exclusive remedy (including for single-member LLCs) and is widely regarded as the strongest in the country. One important caveat: if you register your Wyoming LLC as a foreign LLC in New York, that New York registration is itself a public record, which can undercut much of the privacy benefit for a business that operates in New York.

Annual Maintenance Costs

New York LLCs file a biennial report ($9, due in the anniversary month, every two years), and Wyoming LLCs file an annual report ($60, due in the anniversary month). If you form in Wyoming while operating in New York, you maintain filings in both states, Wyoming's report plus New York's equivalent for your foreign registration, and pay a Wyoming registered agent roughly $150 per year. That brings ongoing costs of the Wyoming route to roughly $219 per year, versus about $9 to keep a domestic New York LLC in good standing. There are also recurring state taxes to weigh on each side. New York LLCs treated as partnerships/with NY-source income owe an annual filing fee of $25-$4,500 based on NY gross income. Wyoming charges an annual report license tax of $60 minimum ($62 filed online), based on in-state assets; no franchise or privilege tax otherwise.

When Wyoming Actually Makes Sense

Forming in Wyoming makes sense in a few specific situations: you need anonymous ownership. New York puts owner or manager information on public filings and Wyoming doesn't (usually via a holding company, since operating in New York still requires a public foreign registration there), your business genuinely operates in Wyoming, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to Wyoming in the near future, which would also move you out of New York's personal income tax. For a typical small business based in New York, none of these usually apply. Registering a Wyoming LLC to do business back home means $250 in New York foreign-registration fees, on top of Wyoming's $100 formation fee, while New York's own biennial report runs $9 and is due in the anniversary month, every two years. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.

Frequently Asked Questions

: Wyoming's filing fee is lower ($100 vs $200), but that's not the full picture: operating in New York means also registering as a foreign LLC there ($250) and paying a Wyoming registered agent. Realistic first-year cost is roughly $500 for the Wyoming route versus $200 for forming in New York.
: Yes. Any New York business can form its LLC in Wyoming. But if the business operates in New York, it must also register there as a foreign LLC ($250 filing fee) and maintain a registered agent in Wyoming, so you take on two states' fees and filings instead of one.
: Wyoming offers more formation privacy. It allows anonymous LLCs while New York doesn't. Core asset protection is similar, though: both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members, and Wyoming’s statute is widely regarded as the strongest in the country. For most small businesses the practical difference is modest.
: It depends on where the business is based. For a New York-based business, New York: forming where the business is based keeps costs and compliance simple, and Wyoming is worth considering only if you actually do business there or want an anonymous holding company there. For a Wyoming-based business, the same reasoning points to Wyoming.
: Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Wyoming publishes instant online; up to 15 business days paper, while New York publishes no standard processing time, so the two can't be ranked against each other on speed. Only 19 of the 50 states publish anything about non-expedited turnaround at all. Whichever you pick, remember that forming in Wyoming while operating in New York means you're not fully set up until the New York foreign registration is also processed, so the out-of-state route is rarely the faster path end to end. If your timing is genuinely fixed, buy the state's expedite tier rather than relying on a standard turnaround.

Comparison chart of forming an LLC in New York versus Wyoming, contrasting filing fees, annual report cost and ongoing obligations across 8 factors. — New York and Wyoming side by side on the factors that decide where to form. Source: MyStateLLC 50-state cost dataset, verified against each Secretary of State's published fee schedule, July 2026.

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Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no cost to you. MyStateLLC is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.

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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.