What happens if I file my Montana LLC annual report late?

Filing late costs $35. It charges a different price for the same report: nothing at all if you file between January 1 and April 15, and $35 if you file after April 15. A report filed on April 16 and one filed in August both cost $35, but one left unfiled for 140 days can lead to involuntary dissolution. The real risk is time, not money. Under Montana law the Secretary of State may involuntarily dissolve an LLC that has failed for 140 days to file its annual report. Dissolution ends the company's registered status, and reinstating an involuntarily dissolved LLC costs $35 plus an additional $35 for each year of delinquent annual reports, so a lapse that runs several years compounds. File through the Secretary of State's online service at sosmt.gov as soon as you notice the miss, and set a calendar reminder for early April so next year's filing lands inside the free window.

How do I file my Montana LLC annual report?

File through the Montana Secretary of State's business filing service at sosmt.gov. Sign in, find your LLC, and open its annual report. You confirm or update the principal office and mailing addresses, the registered agent name and address, and the current members or managers. The report is free when filed between January 1 and April 15 and costs $35 after April 15. Pay online by credit or debit card at submission, or by check or money order made out to the Montana Secretary of State if you file on paper. The window runs January 1 to April 15 each year. Montana law requires the first annual report between January 1 and April 15 of the year following the calendar year in which the LLC is organized, so an LLC organized in 2026 files its first report in the January 1 to April 15, 2027 window and nothing before then. Filing online gives you an immediate confirmation. Print or save the receipt and keep it with your business records, because it is the only proof of the date you filed.

How much does it cost to file a Montana LLC annual report?

Nothing, provided you file on time. The Montana Secretary of State waives the fee for annual reports filed between January 1 and April 15, so an on-time filer pays $0. A report filed after April 15 costs $35. That $35 is Montana's price for a report filed after April 15, not an amount added to a base fee. Pay by credit or debit card in the online filing service, or by check or money order made out to the Montana Secretary of State if you file on paper. The waiver is an administrative policy of the Secretary of State rather than a statutory rate, so check the current fee at sosmt.gov at the start of each filing season rather than assuming $0 forever. Other filings around the report are priced separately: a name reservation is $10, a certified copy is $10, and a Certificate of Existence is $5.

When is my Montana LLC annual report due?

Montana's filing window opens January 1 and closes April 15, and the same window applies to every LLC on the register regardless of the month it was formed. One qualification matters for new companies: Montana law requires the first annual report between January 1 and April 15 of the year following the calendar year in which the LLC is organized, so an LLC organized in 2026 files its first report between January 1 and April 15, 2027. The report is free inside that window and $35 after April 15. The $35 replaces the on-time price rather than being added to it. Missing the deadline is survivable, but not indefinitely. Montana law allows the Secretary of State to involuntarily dissolve an LLC once its annual report is 140 days overdue, and reinstatement then costs $35 plus another $35 for each year of delinquent reports. File at sosmt.gov a couple of weeks before April 15 so there is room to correct a rejected submission while the filing is still free.

Are there any exemptions from filing Montana LLC annual reports?

No, Montana exempts no active LLC from filing. Every LLC on the register files an annual report between January 1 and April 15 each year to stay in good standing, regardless of revenue, activity level, or whether it has one member or twenty. An LLC with no income and no operations files the same report as a trading company. The one timing exception is the first year: an LLC organized in 2026 does not file in 2026, because Montana law puts the first report in the January 1 to April 15 window of the following year. The report is free inside the window and $35 after April 15. Skipping it altogether is what causes trouble: under Montana law the Secretary of State may involuntarily dissolve an LLC whose report is 140 days overdue, and reinstatement costs $35 plus an additional $35 for each year of delinquent annual reports. Put April 15 in your calendar now and file at sosmt.gov.

Montana LLC Annual Report: $0, Filed Every Year

Montana's annual report is free when you file it between January 1 and April 15 and costs $35 after that. Here are the deadlines, the real price of being late, and how to file.

By Edmond Hui · Last updated: October 2026

Montana LLC annual reports are due April 15 and cost $0 to file. See details below.

Filing for a corporation instead? See the Montana corporation annual report.

Ready to file?

Go directly to the Montana Secretary of State website.

File with the Montana Secretary of State →

When is the Montana LLC annual report due, and what does it cost?

Due Date	April 15
Fee	$0
Filing Method	Online or mail
Late Penalty	$35 (the report's price after April 15; it is free on or before April 15)
Official state page	sosmt.gov

Step diagram for filing the Montana LLC annual report, $0 filing fee, due April 15. — Filing the Montana annual report, with the state's own fee and deadline. Source: Montana Secretary of State.

How do you file the Montana LLC annual report?

1
Gather Required LLC Information
Collect your Montana LLC's registered agent name and address, principal office address, member or manager details, and anything that changed since last year's filing.
2
Access the Montana Secretary of State Website
Go to the Montana Secretary of State at https://sosmt.gov/business/ and open the annual report filing service. You can look your LLC up by name or filing number from the same place.
3
Complete the Annual Report Form
Confirm or correct every required field: current principal office and mailing addresses, registered agent name and address, and member or manager details. Read it back before you submit, because a correction filed later is a separate document.
4
File Free Before April 15, or Pay $35 After
The report costs nothing when it is filed between January 1 and April 15. File after April 15 and the same report costs $35. That $35 is Montana's price for a report filed after April 15, and it replaces the on-time price rather than being added to it. Pay online by credit or debit card, or by check or money order made out to the Montana Secretary of State if you file on paper. The waiver on the pre-April 15 filing is set by administrative rule rather than statute and covers only the filing windows through April 15, 2027, after which an on-time report costs $20, so confirm the current amount at sosmt.gov each January.
5
Submit and Save Confirmation
Submit the report and save the confirmation receipt with your LLC records as proof of the filing date. Montana publishes no standard turnaround for business filings, though the office does sell 24-hour priority handling for $20 and 1-hour expedite for $100 on documents generally.

Do You Need a Paid Service to File?

No. You can file this report yourself, using the filing method in the table above, and pay only the state's own fee shown there, with no service fee on top.

Hiring a registered agent service is a separate choice, and it is optional too. Every LLC must keep a registered agent, but in most states the LLC's owner, or another individual who qualifies, may serve as its registered agent themselves, generally subject to that state's rules on keeping a street address in the state and being available there during normal business hours. The Montana registered agent requirements set out what Montana itself asks.

Registered agent services for Montana LLCs

Affiliate disclosure: Northwest Registered Agent, Bizee, ZenBusiness and LegalZoom pay us a commission if you sign up through our link, at no extra cost to you. We list only the registered agent services we have an affiliate relationship with, so this is not a survey of the whole market.

This list is not scored. The four are listed cheapest annual renewal first, and every claim below is about the services listed here rather than the whole market.

Northwest Registered Agent$125/yr renewal
Best for: Privacy-focused owners and anyone who just needs an agent, not a formation bundle
Bizee$149/yr renewal
Best for: A free first year (some visitors are being shown shorter free periods, so confirm at checkout), renewing at $149/yr, if you're comfortable with the BBB caveat
ZenBusiness$199/yr renewal
Best for: First-time founders forming a new LLC who want phone, email and chat support
LegalZoom$249/yr renewal
Best for: Complex structures that want attorney consultations, which come with LegalZoom's $299 formation plan (and, in one version of its plans, the $249 plan) rather than this renewal price

Note: Bizee holds a C rating from the BBB and is not accredited. BBB's profile carries a live alert describing a pattern of complaints about unexpected charges, difficulty canceling and filing delays, and Bizee has posted a response to it. We flag this so you can make an informed choice.

Annual renewal is each provider's own standard published rate. Check the current terms at each provider before you buy. The scored ranking, and the formula behind it, is in our full formation services review →

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state publishes about filing deadlines, fees, and the consequences of missing them, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you what your own company owes: the date turns on when and where you formed, states change these rules between our reviews, and in several states an entity-level tax falls due in a year when no report does. Confirm your own dates with the filing office named on this page before you rely on one here, because missing a deadline can cost the company its good standing or, in many states, its existence.

Read this guide for another state:

Frequently Asked Questions

: Filing late costs $35. It charges a different price for the same report: nothing at all if you file between January 1 and April 15, and $35 if you file after April 15. A report filed on April 16 and one filed in August both cost $35, but one left unfiled for 140 days can lead to involuntary dissolution. The real risk is time, not money. Under Montana law the Secretary of State may involuntarily dissolve an LLC that has failed for 140 days to file its annual report. Dissolution ends the company's registered status, and reinstating an involuntarily dissolved LLC costs $35 plus an additional $35 for each year of delinquent annual reports, so a lapse that runs several years compounds. File through the Secretary of State's online service at sosmt.gov as soon as you notice the miss, and set a calendar reminder for early April so next year's filing lands inside the free window.
: File through the Montana Secretary of State's business filing service at sosmt.gov. Sign in, find your LLC, and open its annual report. You confirm or update the principal office and mailing addresses, the registered agent name and address, and the current members or managers. The report is free when filed between January 1 and April 15 and costs $35 after April 15. Pay online by credit or debit card at submission, or by check or money order made out to the Montana Secretary of State if you file on paper. The window runs January 1 to April 15 each year. Montana law requires the first annual report between January 1 and April 15 of the year following the calendar year in which the LLC is organized, so an LLC organized in 2026 files its first report in the January 1 to April 15, 2027 window and nothing before then. Filing online gives you an immediate confirmation. Print or save the receipt and keep it with your business records, because it is the only proof of the date you filed.
: Nothing, provided you file on time. The Montana Secretary of State waives the fee for annual reports filed between January 1 and April 15, so an on-time filer pays $0. A report filed after April 15 costs $35. That $35 is Montana's price for a report filed after April 15, not an amount added to a base fee. Pay by credit or debit card in the online filing service, or by check or money order made out to the Montana Secretary of State if you file on paper. The waiver is an administrative policy of the Secretary of State rather than a statutory rate, so check the current fee at sosmt.gov at the start of each filing season rather than assuming $0 forever. Other filings around the report are priced separately: a name reservation is $10, a certified copy is $10, and a Certificate of Existence is $5.
: Montana's filing window opens January 1 and closes April 15, and the same window applies to every LLC on the register regardless of the month it was formed. One qualification matters for new companies: Montana law requires the first annual report between January 1 and April 15 of the year following the calendar year in which the LLC is organized, so an LLC organized in 2026 files its first report between January 1 and April 15, 2027. The report is free inside that window and $35 after April 15. The $35 replaces the on-time price rather than being added to it. Missing the deadline is survivable, but not indefinitely. Montana law allows the Secretary of State to involuntarily dissolve an LLC once its annual report is 140 days overdue, and reinstatement then costs $35 plus another $35 for each year of delinquent reports. File at sosmt.gov a couple of weeks before April 15 so there is room to correct a rejected submission while the filing is still free.
: No, Montana exempts no active LLC from filing. Every LLC on the register files an annual report between January 1 and April 15 each year to stay in good standing, regardless of revenue, activity level, or whether it has one member or twenty. An LLC with no income and no operations files the same report as a trading company. The one timing exception is the first year: an LLC organized in 2026 does not file in 2026, because Montana law puts the first report in the January 1 to April 15 window of the following year. The report is free inside the window and $35 after April 15. Skipping it altogether is what causes trouble: under Montana law the Secretary of State may involuntarily dissolve an LLC whose report is 140 days overdue, and reinstatement costs $35 plus an additional $35 for each year of delinquent annual reports. Put April 15 in your calendar now and file at sosmt.gov.

Sources

5 documents

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Montana 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 statute: MCA 35-8-209 (involuntary dissolution)
Montana statute: MCA 35-8-208 (annual report due date)
sosmt.gov/business/Montana Secretary of State: business entity filings
archive.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0350/chapter_0080/part_0020/section_0080/0350-0080-0020-0080.htmlMontana statute: Annual Report
sos.mt.gov/business/fees/Montana agency guidance: Annual Report

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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.

How we check facts

When is the Montana LLC annual report due, and what does it cost?

How do you file the Montana LLC annual report?

Gather Required LLC Information

Access the Montana Secretary of State Website

Complete the Annual Report Form

File Free Before April 15, or Pay $35 After

Submit and Save Confirmation