Montana LLC Annual Report: Due Date, Fee and Late Penalty

Montana LLC annual report rules at a glance

State fees verified October 2026 and set by the state, not by us. Deadlines, penalties and dissolution rules are Montana's, read from its statutes and the pages of the Montana Secretary of State; the statutes are cited in the text.

How Montana's annual report works

Montana's annual report is filed with the Secretary of State through the biz.sosmt.gov portal (a login is required) between January 1 and April 15 each year. For the 2026 and 2027 reports the Secretary of State has waived the on-time fee, so a report filed by April 15 costs nothing; a report filed after April 15 costs $35. The waiver should be rechecked before the 2028 season.

The report confirms the principal office and mailing address, the registered agent, and the names and addresses of the managers or members, and it is signed electronically by an authorized person. Montana also asks whether the LLC is manager-managed.

The $35 after April 15 is best thought of as the late price of the report rather than a separate penalty: the state's fee schedule lists the report at one rate in the window and a higher rate after it.

Who files it and what the form asks

Every Montana LLC on the state's active record owes the annual report for each report year, whether or not it did any business; an LLC that has stopped trading still owes it until it files articles of dissolution. A member, manager or someone they authorize signs it, and in practice the owner, the registered agent or the company's accountant files it.

The form confirms what the state already holds: the principal office and mailing address, the registered agent and registered office, and the people who run the LLC, with the Montana-specific fields described above. What matters is that anything that changed during the year is corrected here, because the state sends its notices, including the next year's reminder, to the addresses on the report.

Changing the registered agent is best treated as a separate filing in Montana: the annual report confirms the agent on record, and the state's statement of change names the new one. Owners who switch agents usually file the change first so the report shows the right agent. We can make the switch for you, and the Montana registered agent rules cover who may serve. Every state's change form and fee is in how to change a registered agent.

When the Montana annual report is due

Montana uses one date for every LLC: April 15, every year. The state starts accepting the report on January 1, so the filing window runs from then to the due date, and filing in the first weeks of it is the simplest way never to meet the penalty.

There is no grace period: the day after the due date the report is late. Montana keeps accepting that year's report, with the penalty, through December 31 of the report year; after that the consequences below take over.

Your first annual report

The first annual report is due April 15 of the year after the LLC was formed: formed any time in 2026, first report by April 15, 2027. Nothing is owed in the formation year itself.

The state fee and the late penalty

Montana charges nothing for the annual report itself. The report is still required, and the consequences of missing it are the same as in a state that charges: the fee was never the point of the filing.

Filed late, the report costs $35 more, $35 in state charges altogether. The penalty is Montana's, owed to the Montana Secretary of State, and it is charged whether the report is a day late or six months late.

If you missed the Montana annual report

Once the report is 140 days late the Secretary of State has grounds to dissolve the LLC and does so if it is not cured within 90 days of its notice, which puts administrative dissolution around December 1 of the same year. Reinstatement, allowed within five years, is $35 in state fees plus $35 for each missed report (the after-April rate), together with a Title 15 certificate from the Department of Revenue unless the LLC is a single-member LLC not taxed as a corporation: $70 for one missed report.

The ladder is the same everywhere: a late fee where the state has one, then loss of good standing (which blocks a certificate of good standing and the loans, contracts and registrations that need one), then administrative dissolution or revocation, then reinstatement. Our guide to reinstating a dissolved LLC walks through the steps and the state fees in every state, and we file reinstatements. Until the LLC is dissolved, the cheapest fix is almost always to file the report now.

Before you file the Montana annual report

The filing itself takes minutes once the details are to hand; most of the time lost on an annual report is spent hunting for them. Have ready:

• The LLC's Montana file or entity number, as it appears on the articles or on the Montana Secretary of State business search; the Montana Secretary of State requires an online account tied to the record, so set that up before the deadline week.
• The registered agent's current name and Montana street address; if the agent has changed, file the change first.
• The principal office and mailing address as they should read for the coming year.
• The names and addresses the Montana form asks for (above), spelled as the state has them.
• No payment: the report is free, but it still has to be submitted.
• The signer's name and capacity: member, manager or authorized person.

Save the state's confirmation when it arrives. It is the proof of filing a bank, a lender or a buyer will ask for, and the date on it is the date the state goes by.

How Montana compares with its neighbors

Montana's annual report is due April 15, with no state fee. Next door:

• Idaho: an annual report due the last day of the anniversary month (no fee, no late fee).
• Wyoming: an annual report due the first day of the anniversary month ($60 state fee, no late fee).
• South Dakota: an annual report due the first day of the anniversary month ($55 state fee, $55 late penalty).
• North Dakota: an annual report due November 15 ($50 state fee, $50 late penalty).

An LLC registered to do business in more than one of these states owes each state's report on each state's calendar; the formation state's filing never covers a foreign registration, and the due dates rarely line up.