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Montana's LLC annual report runs on a statewide window: under MCA 35-8-208(3), reports "must be delivered to the secretary of state between January 1 and April 15" — every LLC, every year, same dates. What's unusual is the price: Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen has waived the annual-report filing fee for every business that files on time, each year from 2024 through 2027 — so a 2026 report filed by April 15 costs $0. Note what that is and isn't: a year-by-year waiver announced by the Secretary, not a statutory $0 (the fee schedule remains in force, and the waiver covers on-time filings only — file late and you pay the standard fee plus the late penalty, commonly reported at about $35 total; confirm current amounts at biz.sosmt.gov). A free filing also produces the same failure mode as Idaho's: no invoice, no bank-statement line, nothing in your books to remind anyone it happened — or didn't. And the statute behind the friendly price is specific about what a miss costs: an LLC that "has failed for 140 days to file its annual report within the time required by law" may be dissolved involuntarily by order of the secretary of state (MCA 35-8-209(1)(b)). April 15 plus 140 days lands in early September — filing services consistently report the Secretary's practice as a fall warning notice followed by a December 1 dissolution sweep [practitioner-reported; the statutory trigger is the 140 days].
| Item | Montana LLC |
|---|---|
| What's due | Annual Report with the Secretary of State — company name and jurisdiction, registered-agent information, principal-office mailing address, and manager/member names and addresses (MCA 35-8-208(1)) |
| When | January 1 – April 15, every year (35-8-208(3)); same window for every LLC |
| First one | The year following the calendar year of formation or foreign registration — form in 2026, first report is due January 1 – April 15, 2027 |
| Fee (on time) | $0 for 2026 — the Secretary of State has waived the fee for on-time filers every year 2024–2027 (official announcement); this is an annual waiver, not a statutory change |
| Fee (late) | The waiver applies only through April 15 — after that the standard fee plus late penalty apply, commonly reported at about $35 total [practitioner-reported — confirm at biz.sosmt.gov] |
| How | Online through biz.sosmt.gov, the Secretary of State's business-services portal |
| The fuse | 140 days past the deadline — "has failed for 140 days to file its annual report within the time required by law" is a ground for involuntary dissolution by order of the Secretary of State, as is failure to remit required fees (MCA 35-8-209(1)(b)–(c)); a 60-day registered-agent gap is a separate ground |
| In practice | Warning notices in the fall, with delinquent entities dissolved around December 1 [practitioner-reported; not a statutory date] |
| Reinstatement window | 5 years, hard. Apply "within 5 years after the effective date of dissolution"; the Secretary "may not order a reinstatement if 5 years have elapsed" (MCA 35-8-912(1), (4)) |
| What it takes | Application executed by someone who was a member or manager at the time of dissolution, a statement that assets haven't been liquidated, majority-of-members authorization, all unfiled annual reports — and a Department of Revenue certificate that all Title 15 taxes are paid, unless the LLC has only one member and hasn't elected corporate taxation (35-8-912(1)–(2)) |
| Relation-back | Reinstatement "relates back to the date the limited liability company was administratively dissolved" — the entity is treated as continuously existing (35-8-912(5)) |
| Your name | Not held for you. The application must state, "if its name has been legally acquired by another entity," the new name under which the LLC will be reinstated (35-8-912(1)(d)) |
| Where | biz.sosmt.gov — Montana Secretary of State online business services |
A free official filing is exactly what compliance-scam mail monetizes. The Secretary of State's office has publicly warned Montana businesses about deceptive solicitations — official-looking third-party mailers offering to handle filings for a fee. When the state's own filing is $0 through biz.sosmt.gov, anything that arrives with an invoice attached deserves a second look at the sender. The flip side: because the real filing costs nothing and generates no receipt, the fake invoice is often the only "annual report" paperwork an owner ever sees — which is how the real one gets missed while the fake one gets paid.
Montana's staircase: miss April 15, 2026, and the waiver evaporates — the late filing now costs real money, though not much. Stay unfiled 140 days (early September) and the statutory ground under 35-8-209(1)(b) exists; the Secretary's practice, per filing services, is to notify delinquent entities in the fall and dissolve the holdouts around December 1. After that you're in 35-8-912 territory, and Montana's version has three teeth worth knowing in advance. First, the window is a hard five years — subsection (4) affirmatively forbids reinstatement after it closes, the same cliff family as Utah (2 years) and Hawaii (2 years), against Idaho's 10 and Kentucky's any-time rule. Second, the application must be executed by someone who was a member or manager at the time of dissolution and carry majority-of-members authorization — in a partnership that has since fallen out, that signature can be harder to get than the money. Third, the Department of Revenue certificate: like Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky, Montana routes reinstatement through the tax agency — but with a carve-out those states don't have: a single-member LLC that hasn't elected corporate taxation skips the certificate entirely (35-8-912(2)(a)). If you've just discovered a dissolved status, the triage order is in what to do if you missed your annual report — in Montana, check the calendar first: inside five years this is paperwork; past it, the entity is gone for good.
| Where you are | What it costs |
|---|---|
| On time (Jan 1 – Apr 15) | $0 (fee waived through 2027) |
| Late, before dissolution | Standard fee + late penalty — ~$35 total [practitioner-reported] |
| 140+ days past due | Statutory ground for involuntary dissolution by SOS order (35-8-209(1)(b)); practice: fall notice, ~Dec 1 sweep [practitioner-reported] |
| Reinstatement, within 5 years | Application by a then-member/manager + majority authorization + all back reports + DOR tax certificate (single-member LLCs usually exempt) — relates back in full |
| Name taken meanwhile | Reinstate under a new name — the old one isn't reserved (35-8-912(1)(d)) |
| Past 5 years | Reinstatement barred — 35-8-912(4); a new LLC is the only path |
On price, Montana currently ties the free club — Minnesota's $0 renewal and Idaho's free-by-statute report — but it's the only member whose $0 is a year-by-year executive waiver with a built-in expiration (2027, as announced) and an on-time condition. On timing, its April 15 close puts it in the Tax Day family with Maryland and North Carolina — the date your CPA is busiest and most likely to assume someone else filed the state report — though Montana's is a January-opening window like Connecticut's or Georgia's rather than a single date. Its 140-day fuse is slower than the 60-day staircases (Iowa, Idaho) but harder-edged than Oregon's notice-and-cure: the statute makes the default itself the ground, no cure window guaranteed. And its five-year reinstatement limit with a tax-agency toll booth — softened only by the single-member exception — sits squarely in the middle of the repair spectrum: more forgiving than Utah or Hawaii, far less than Idaho, Oregon, or Connecticut. The 50-state table shows every state's cadence side by side.
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