Massachusetts requires each manager's name and address if the LLC has managers, or otherwise the name of at least one person authorized to execute filings on its public LLC filing. Massachusetts always requires a name in the manager or authorized-signatory field on the Certificate of Organization, so real privacy here depends on a Wyoming holding LLC occupying that slot instead of an individual. See our Wyoming holding company guide and full list of anonymous LLC states for more.
$500
Certificate of Organization filing fee
Manager listed
Manager or authorized signatory named under M.G.L. c. 156C § 12
$500/yr
Annual Report due on formation anniversary — highest flat fee in the U.S.
§ 40
Charging order available, single-member exclusivity unsettled
Massachusetts is not a name-privacy state on its own filing. The Certificate of Organization ($500), governed by M.G.L. c. 156C § 12, requires the name and address of each manager — or, for a member-managed LLC with no managers, at least one person authorized to execute filings. Either way, a human name ends up in the Corporations Division's public database at corp.sec.state.ma.us unless a Wyoming holding LLC is named in that slot instead. Massachusetts also carries the highest flat annual LLC fee in the country ($500 every year) and a charging-order statute (M.G.L. c. 156C § 40) whose single-member exclusivity has never been squarely tested by a Massachusetts court — two more reasons a Wyoming parent is often layered on top of a Massachusetts operating LLC.
Massachusetts's Certificate of Organization, governed by M.G.L. c. 156C § 12, requires the name and address of each manager if the LLC has managers at the time of formation. If the LLC has no managers (i.e., it's member-managed), the certificate must instead name at least one other person authorized to execute documents filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth. Either way, a name reaches the public record — Massachusetts's statute does not ask for 'member' names as such, but it always forces a human name into one of those two slots unless an entity occupies it instead. That information is searchable through the Corporations Division's online database at corp.sec.state.ma.us. Massachusetts is a disclosure state on its own filing, not a privacy state.
Because M.G.L. c. 156C § 12 always forces a name into either the manager slot or the authorized-signatory slot on the Certificate of Organization, the way to keep an individual owner's name off Massachusetts's public record is to name a Wyoming holding LLC as the manager rather than a person. The Massachusetts filing then shows the Wyoming entity, and Wyoming's own filing discloses nothing further about who owns it. This has to be set up at formation — Massachusetts's Certificate of Organization is public from day one, so listing yourself even once puts your name in a searchable state record. Pairing the two also layers Wyoming's cleaner charging-order statute on top of a Massachusetts LLC whose own charging-order exclusivity for a single member has never been squarely tested by a Massachusetts court.
Naming a Wyoming LLC as the Massachusetts manager keeps a name off the Corporations Division's public record, but it doesn't change federal law: beneficial owners of both the Massachusetts LLC and the Wyoming holding LLC must still be reported to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act, which is not a public database.
M.G.L. c. 156C, § 40 — assignee-only rights for the creditor, but exclusivity for single-member LLCs is unsettled. Massachusetts is genuinely unsettled here — one of the few states in this guide where the answer is neither clearly yes nor clearly no. M.G.L. c. 156C § 40 limits a judgment creditor to only the rights of an assignee of a member's interest, but the statute contains no 'exclusive remedy' language at all and doesn't expressly authorize or bar foreclosure. Massachusetts still operates under its original 1995 LLC Act, and no Massachusetts court has directly addressed a single-member charging-order fact pattern. This is a real reason, beyond privacy, that owners often place the ownership-holding layer in Wyoming — whose statute has clear no-foreclosure language — rather than relying on Massachusetts's own unresolved statute.
Massachusetts requires a $500 Annual Report every year, due on the anniversary of the LLC's original Certificate of Organization filing — the highest flat recurring LLC fee of any state in the country, and it applies regardless of profitability. There is no separate franchise tax, but pass-through income is taxed to members at a flat 5% Massachusetts personal income tax rate, plus an additional 4% surtax on individual income above an inflation-adjusted threshold ($1,107,750 for tax year 2026) under the state's 'Fair Share Amendment.'
Note: Confirm the current $500 Certificate of Organization fee and $500 Annual Report fee directly at corp.sec.state.ma.us before relying on them. Also confirm the exact 2026 Fair Share Amendment surtax threshold with the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, since it's indexed annually and tracker sites report slightly different figures. Finally, Massachusetts's charging-order exclusivity for any LLC member — single or multi — remains textually unresolved under the state's 1995-era LLC Act; verify no subsequent statutory update or court decision has settled the question before treating it as settled either way.
Yes, in effect. M.G.L. c. 156C § 12 requires the name and address of each manager if the LLC has managers, or otherwise the name of at least one person authorized to execute filings. Either way, a name reaches the public record through the Corporations Division's database at corp.sec.state.ma.us unless an entity occupies that slot instead of a person.
Name a Wyoming holding LLC — not yourself — as the manager on the Certificate of Organization. Massachusetts's public record then shows the Wyoming entity, and Wyoming's own filing discloses no owners, so an individual's name stays off both states' records.
It's genuinely unclear. M.G.L. c. 156C § 40 limits a creditor to assignee-style rights but contains no 'exclusive remedy' language and doesn't address foreclosure, and no Massachusetts court has squarely tested a single-member fact pattern. This unresolved gap is a separate reason, beyond privacy, that owners often place the holding layer in Wyoming instead.
Bottom line: Massachusetts always forces a name into the manager or authorized-signatory field on its own filing, so anonymity here requires naming a Wyoming holding LLC in that slot — worth doing given Massachusetts's unresolved charging-order exclusivity and the nation's highest flat annual LLC fee.