Washington requires at least one "Governor" (Washington's term for a governing member or manager) — not required on the Certificate of Formation itself, but required within 120 days on the Initial Report and kept current annually on the Annual Report on its public LLC filing. Washington requires a Governor's name within 120 days via the Initial Report, but that Governor can be a business entity — naming a Wyoming holding LLC there keeps an individual's name off the public CCFS record even though Washington's own filings do eventually require someone (or something) to be named. See our Wyoming holding company guide and full list of anonymous LLC states for more.
$200
Certificate of Formation filing fee
120 days
Deadline to name a Governor on the Initial Report
WY parent
Holding LLC can serve as the Governor for privacy
$70/yr
Annual Report (republishes Governor info)
Washington's Certificate of Formation ($200) looks private on its face — RCW 25.15.071 requires only the name of whoever executes it, not any member or manager. The catch is a separate filing: every Washington LLC must submit an Initial Report within 120 days of formation naming at least one 'Governor,' Washington's term for a governing member or manager, and that name is public and refreshed every year on the $70 Annual Report. The fix is structural rather than optional: because a Governor can be a business entity — Washington only bars an LLC from being its own Governor — naming a Wyoming holding LLC in that slot keeps an individual's name off the public CCFS record while Washington's own filing is satisfied.
Washington's Certificate of Formation, under RCW 25.15.071, requires only the name and address of whoever executes the document — it does not ask for member or manager names directly, which reads like privacy at first glance. But every Washington LLC must separately file an Initial Report within 120 days of formation, naming at least one 'Governor' (Washington's term for a member or manager who governs the LLC), and that name is kept current every year on the Annual Report — both are public and searchable through CCFS at ccfs.sos.wa.gov. A Governor cannot be the LLC itself, but it can be a separate business entity, which is the detail that makes a Wyoming holding LLC a workable fix (see holdingCompanyInteractionParagraph). Overall, Washington is a disclosure state: a name resolves to the public record within 120 days of formation regardless of what the Certificate of Formation itself asked for.
Washington requires naming at least one Governor within 120 days of formation, and — critically — a Governor can be a separate business entity rather than a person; Washington's rule only forbids an LLC from being its own Governor, not a different LLC from serving in that role. That makes a Wyoming holding LLC a clean fit: name the Wyoming entity as the Washington LLC's sole Governor, and the public CCFS record shows the Wyoming company rather than an individual, with Wyoming's own filing then disclosing nothing further about who owns it. This is worth setting up deliberately in Washington specifically, since the Certificate of Formation's clean appearance — no member or manager fields at all — can lull a self-filer into overlooking the separate Initial Report until it's overdue, and once a personal name fills that Governor field it stays on the public record until affirmatively changed.
Naming a Wyoming LLC as the Washington LLC's Governor keeps a person's name off the CCFS record, but it doesn't change federal obligations: beneficial owners of both entities must still be reported to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act, which is not a public database.
RCW 25.15.256 — ambiguous — exclusive remedy in name, but foreclosure on the charged interest may be allowed "at any time" without a clear reasonable-time gate. RCW 25.15.256(5) calls the charging order the exclusive remedy a judgment creditor has against a member's interest. But subsection (2) allows a court to order foreclosure on the transferable interest 'at any time' — without the explicit 'reasonable time' evidentiary showing that gates foreclosure in several other states' statutes. No distinction is drawn between single- and multi-member LLCs, but the underlying foreclosure trigger itself reads more permissive than it first appears; this needs direct confirmation against the official RCW text before relying on it for a specific asset-protection plan.
Washington's Annual Report fee is $70 (rising to $95 if delinquent, including a $25 late penalty), due by the LLC's anniversary month. Washington has no general personal wage income tax, but its capital gains excise tax (7% on long-term gains between roughly $250,001 and $1 million, 9.9% above $1 million) could apply on a sale of the LLC interest, and the Business & Occupation (B&O) Tax applies to gross receipts at 0.138% to 1.75% by classification regardless of profitability; most LLCs also pay a one-time $90 state Business License fee.
Note: The exact reading of RCW 25.15.256's foreclosure trigger ('at any time' vs. a 'reasonable time' evidentiary gate) needs one more verification pass against the official RCW text — this page flags it as an open question, not a settled fact. Separately, new laws affecting submissions to the Corporations and Charities Division were reported as taking effect June 11, 2026, but the specific changes could not be confirmed for this guide; reconfirm the Initial Report/Governor mechanic and the current filing fees directly at sos.wa.gov before relying on this page for a specific filing.
Note: apps/LLA/data/states/anonymous-llc/wa.ts focuses only on the Certificate of Formation and RCW 25.15.071's requirement that whoever executes the certificate be named — it does not mention the separate Initial Report (due within 120 days of formation, kept current on the Annual Report) that requires naming at least one Governor. Read on its own, apps/LLA/data/states/anonymous-llc/wa.ts could leave a reader thinking Washington's only public-disclosure risk is the certificate's signature line. This page follows apps/LLA/data/states/llc-search/wa.ts's membersPubliclyListed: true as the more complete account, confirmed independently against the Washington Secretary of State's own FAQ page on Governors during this build (per the task's explicit instruction to double-check Washington's Initial/Annual Report mechanic carefully). Worth a human review of the anonymous-llc/wa.ts copy to add the Initial Report Governor requirement.
Not on the Certificate of Formation itself — only the executor who signs it is named there. But every Washington LLC must file an Initial Report within 120 days naming at least one 'Governor' (a member or manager), and that name is public and kept current on the Annual Report every year after.
Name a Wyoming holding LLC — not yourself — as the Washington LLC's Governor on the Initial Report. Washington only bars an LLC from being its own Governor; a different LLC can serve in that role, so the public CCFS record shows the Wyoming entity rather than a person.
It's genuinely ambiguous. RCW 25.15.256(5) calls the charging order the exclusive remedy, but subsection (2) allows foreclosure 'at any time' without the clear 'reasonable time' showing other states require — worth confirming directly against the statute before relying on it for a specific plan.
Bottom line: Washington's clean-looking Certificate of Formation hides a real disclosure requirement one step later — the Initial Report's Governor field — so a Wyoming holding LLC belongs in that slot from day one, not added after the fact.