Quick answer
Wyoming keeps member and manager names off both the Articles and the annual report, and pairs that with the strongest charging-order protection in the US. New Mexico is the cheapest - $50 to file, $0 annual report, no member names ever collected - but its asset protection is weaker for single-member LLCs. Nevada hides member names at formation but forces manager names onto a public annual list every year, and costs $350/year to maintain. For most non-resident founders, Wyoming wins the privacy-plus-protection-plus-cost combination.
Form your Wyoming LLC for $397 all-in (state filing fee included). Get started.
What "anonymous LLC" actually means (and doesn't)
Before comparing states, calibrate the word "anonymous." In all three states, "anonymous" means one specific thing: your legal name does not appear in the public records held by the Secretary of State. Anyone who runs a business search on the state website sees the LLC name, its registered agent, and an address - not you.
That is genuinely useful. It stops competitors, ex-partners, opportunistic litigants, data brokers, and curious strangers from connecting your name to the business with a free 30-second lookup. For most founders, that is the entire privacy goal.
What "anonymous" does not mean:
- The IRS knows you. Your EIN application (Form SS-4) names you as the responsible party. The IRS database is not public, but the government has your name.
- Your bank knows you. Mercury, Relay, Wise, and every other institution run KYC (Know Your Customer) checks under the Bank Secrecy Act. They collect your passport, your address, and your beneficial ownership. None of this is public, but it exists.
- Courts can pierce it. During litigation, a court can order discovery that compels disclosure of members and managers. Anonymity protects you from casual lookups, not from a subpoena.
- The IRS names you on tax filings. A foreign-owned single-member LLC must attach Form 5472 to a pro-forma Form 1120, and that form names the 25%-or-more foreign owner. More on the $25,000 penalty below.
- Federal beneficial-ownership rules can change. As of 2026, FinCEN's interim final rule (effective March 2025) exempts all US-formed entities - including foreign-owned domestic LLCs - from Corporate Transparency Act BOI reporting. Only foreign-formed companies that register to do business in a US state must file. That is the current state of play, but it has whipsawed twice in two years, so treat federal anonymity as policy-dependent, not guaranteed.
Bottom line: a privacy LLC is a tool for public-record privacy, not for hiding assets from regulators, tax authorities, or courts. Anyone selling you "untraceable" is selling you a problem. Set the expectation honestly and these three states all deliver real, legitimate value.
Wyoming privacy: what shows publicly
Wyoming is the structural privacy benchmark. Here is exactly what lands in the public record:
- Articles of Organization - LLC name, registered agent name and address, principal office address, mailing address. No member names. No manager names.
- Annual report - LLC name, registered agent, and the dollar value of assets located in Wyoming (used to compute the annual license tax). No member names. No manager names. Nothing about you updates publicly, year after year.
- UCC filings - If you take a secured loan, the lender's UCC-1 financing statement may name members or the LLC. This is a function of borrowing, not of the state, and it applies everywhere.
- Litigation - A Wyoming court can compel member disclosure during discovery. Standard everywhere.
The key Wyoming advantage is that privacy is durable: because the state never collects or publishes ownership or management, there is no annual filing that slowly erodes anonymity. You file the same minimal report in year 10 as in year 1.
Nevada privacy: what shows publicly
Nevada markets aggressively on privacy, but the mechanics are weaker than its reputation:
- Articles of Organization - LLC name, registered agent, and the organizer (which can be the formation company). No member names required here.
- Initial List of Managers/Members - Required within the first 30 days of formation. This is the catch: managers (or, in a member-managed LLC, members) appear on a public list.
- Annual List - Filed every year, updating the manager/member list. So the name disclosure is not a one-time event; it refreshes publicly on each renewal.
- Practical reality - Most single-member founders name themselves as manager because there is no one else. That puts your name on the public Annual List every year.
You can sometimes mitigate this with a nominee manager or a corporate manager entity, but that adds cost and complexity - and you are now paying Nevada's premium fees on top of a workaround.
New Mexico privacy: what shows publicly
New Mexico is the privacy purist's pick on paper:
- Articles of Organization - LLC name, registered agent, organizer. No member or manager names.
- No annual report - New Mexico is the only US state that does not require LLCs to file any annual or biennial report. (Corporations file biennially; LLCs are exempt.) Nothing recurring is ever published.
- No ownership data collected - The state never collects member names at any stage, so there is nothing to leak, update, or subpoena from the Secretary of State.
- Annual state fee - $0. The $50 formation fee is the only state fee you will ever pay, per the New Mexico Secretary of State.
On raw public-record privacy, New Mexico is arguably the strongest of the three. The trade-off is what happens when someone actually comes after the LLC's assets - covered next.
The part nobody markets: asset protection
Privacy and asset protection are different things, and the states that win on privacy do not all win on protection. The mechanism that matters is the charging order: when a creditor wins a judgment against you personally, can they seize your LLC, or only intercept distributions?
- Wyoming provides the strongest charging-order protection in the US. Under Wyoming Statute § 17-29-503, the charging order is the exclusive remedy for a creditor of a member - and Wyoming extends this protection to single-member LLCs, which is the gap that sinks most other states. A creditor cannot foreclose on your membership interest or force a sale of the company.
- Nevada also offers strong sole-remedy charging-order protection, including for single-member LLCs. Its asset-protection statutes are well-tested. On this axis Nevada is genuinely competitive - it is the cost and the manager-disclosure that hurt it.
- New Mexico is the weak link. New Mexico's charging-order statute is not as explicitly protective for single-member LLCs, and there is far less case law and statutory clarity than Wyoming. For a single-member non-resident, that uncertainty is a real downside. New Mexico optimizes for cost and public-record privacy, not for litigation resilience.
This is why "cheapest" and "most private on paper" do not automatically equal "best." If asset protection matters to you - and for most founders holding any meaningful balance, it should - the single-member charging-order question is decisive, and Wyoming answers it best.
Side-by-side: privacy, cost, and protection (2026)
| Factor | Wyoming | Nevada | New Mexico |
|---|---|---|---|
| Member name public? | No | No (at formation) | No |
| Manager name public? | No | Yes - annual list | No |
| Names update publicly over time? | No | Yes (every year) | No |
| State filing fee (year 1) | $100 | $75 + $200 license + $150 list = $425 | $50 |
| Annual report required? | Yes (minimal) | Yes (annual list) | No |
| State annual cost (year 2+) | $60 min license tax | ~$350 ($200 license + $150 list) | $0 |
| Charging-order protection (single-member) | Strongest (§ 17-29-503) | Strong | Moderate / less tested |
| WyomingLLC service price (year 1) | $397 all-in | n/a | n/a |
Fee sources: Wyoming Secretary of State (annual license tax $60 minimum, or $0.0002 per dollar of Wyoming assets, whichever is greater); Nevada Secretary of State (state business license $200/year for LLCs plus $150 annual list); New Mexico Secretary of State ($50 Articles, no annual report). The WyomingLLC $397 price is all-inclusive with the Wyoming state filing fee already included.
Five-year cost: where the gap really opens
Year 1 prices flatter Nevada and hide Wyoming's value. The honest comparison is the multi-year total, because year 2+ is where Nevada's $350/year compounds:
| Year | Wyoming (state) | Nevada (state) | New Mexico (state) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $100 | $425 | $50 |
| Year 2 | $60 | $350 | $0 |
| Year 3 | $60 | $350 | $0 |
| Year 4 | $60 | $350 | $0 |
| Year 5 | $60 | $350 | $0 |
| 5-yr total (state fees) | ~$340 | ~$1,825 | ~$50 |
Over five years, Nevada costs roughly 5x Wyoming and 36x New Mexico in pure state fees - and you are paying that premium while also exposing manager names annually. New Mexico is the cheapest, but the savings versus Wyoming (~$290 over five years) is small relative to the asset-protection gap you accept. Wyoming sits in the sweet spot: near-bottom cost, top-tier protection, full privacy.
The non-resident angle: banking, tax, and the $25,000 form
State privacy is only one piece of a non-resident setup. Three things matter more than which state hides your name best.
Banking. None of these states bank you - your LLC does. Non-residents typically open with Mercury, Relay, or Wise. All three run KYC and will see your real identity and beneficial ownership regardless of how "anonymous" your state filing is. State-level anonymity does not help or hurt your bank application; a clean EIN, a real registered agent, and a coherent business description do. Mercury and Relay both onboard non-resident-owned LLCs from most countries; Wise is the most globally permissive but is a payment account, not a full bank.
Form 5472 - the federal filing that overrides "anonymous." A foreign-owned single-member LLC is treated as a "disregarded entity" and must file Form 5472 attached to a pro-forma Form 1120 every year it has a reportable transaction (which includes capital contributions and most owner activity). This form names the 25%-or-greater foreign owner. The penalty for failing to file, filing late, or filing incompletely is $25,000 per form, per the IRS. This is the single most expensive mistake non-residents make - and no amount of state privacy reduces it. Anonymity at the state level and a flawless 5472 at the federal level are not in conflict; you need both.
BOI / Corporate Transparency Act. As of 2026, FinCEN's interim final rule exempts US-formed LLCs (including foreign-owned ones) from BOI reporting; only foreign-formed entities registering to do business in a US state must file. This is favorable to non-resident founders right now, but it is rule-based and has reversed before - do not build your structure assuming it is permanent.
The hidden cost of New Mexico's "no annual report"
New Mexico's $0 annual report looks like a pure win, but the absence of a recurring state touchpoint has a practical flip side worth weighing. Because the state collects nothing each year, the only thing keeping your entity in good standing and your privacy intact is your registered agent relationship. There is no annual filing that prompts you to confirm the agent, update the mailing address, or notice that something has lapsed. If your registered agent stops forwarding mail or you let the agent service lapse, a lawsuit served on that agent can go unanswered and you may never know until a default judgment lands - and there is no annual report cycle to surface the problem. In Wyoming, the yearly report is a small forcing function: it puts a once-a-year checkpoint on your calendar that confirms the agent and keeps the entity active. None of this makes New Mexico a bad choice for a cost-minimizing founder, but "no annual report" should be read as "no annual reminder," not as "no maintenance." Pay your registered agent and keep the contact details current regardless of state.
Why single-member charging-order protection varies so much
The asset-protection differences between these states come down to a specific legal question that is easy to miss: does the state make the charging order the exclusive remedy for a single-member LLC? The original rationale for charging-order protection was to shield innocent co-members from one member's personal creditor - a logic that, on its face, does not obviously apply when there is only one member and no one else to protect. Several states have therefore allowed creditors broader remedies against single-member LLCs, and courts in some jurisdictions have permitted a creditor to reach the single member's interest directly. Wyoming closed this gap by statute: § 17-29-503 makes the charging order the exclusive remedy and applies it to single-member LLCs expressly, leaving little room for a court to grant more. Nevada's statutes are also strong on this point. New Mexico's protection is less explicit and far less tested in this single-member scenario, which is the precise reason it ranks below Wyoming despite winning on cost and public-record privacy. For a non-resident forming the typical single-member entity, this is not an abstract distinction - it is the dimension on which the cheapest option is genuinely weaker.
Non-resident privacy + compliance checklist
- Pick the state for the right reason. Want best overall (privacy + protection + cost)? Wyoming. Want absolute cheapest and accept weaker protection? New Mexico. Nevada rarely wins for a non-resident.
- Use a registered agent with a real address - it appears publicly in place of you and must reliably forward legal mail.
- Form member-managed or manager-managed deliberately. In Wyoming and New Mexico, neither role is published. In Nevada, naming yourself manager publishes your name.
- Get an EIN (you do not need an SSN; non-residents apply via Form SS-4 by fax/mail).
- Open banking with Mercury, Relay, or Wise - expect full KYC.
- Calendar your annual report. Wyoming: anniversary month. Nevada: anniversary month. New Mexico: none.
- File Form 5472 + pro-forma 1120 every year by the deadline. Treat the $25,000 penalty as non-negotiable.
- Re-check BOI status annually - federal rules here are volatile.
The verdict for non-resident founders
If your only goal is the lowest possible public-record footprint and the lowest possible cost, New Mexico is defensible - just go in clear-eyed about weaker single-member charging-order protection. If you have a specific, attorney-recommended Nevada-tested structure, Nevada can make sense, but you pay roughly $350/year and expose manager names for the privilege.
For the large majority of non-resident founders, Wyoming wins because it is the only state that delivers all three at once: no names on any public filing (now or in future years), the strongest single-member charging-order protection in the country, and a year-2+ cost of about $60. That combination is why WyomingLLC forms Wyoming LLCs exclusively - at $397 all-in with the state fee included. The privacy is real, the protection is real, and the math holds up over five years instead of just the first one.
Sources: Wyoming Secretary of State, Nevada Secretary of State, New Mexico Secretary of State, IRS - Form 5472 instructions, FinCEN - Beneficial Ownership Information, and Wyoming Statute § 17-29-503. Fees and rules current as of 2026; verify with the relevant state office before filing.
