West Virginia requires each initial manager (manager-managed) or each member with signing authority (member-managed) — named on the Articles of Organization itself, and kept current on the Annual Report on its public LLC filing. West Virginia names a manager or signing member on the Articles of Organization itself, not just an annual report, so a Wyoming holding LLC has to occupy that slot from the first filing — there's no later opportunity to retroactively scrub a personal name already on the public record. See our Wyoming holding company guide and full list of anonymous LLC states for more.
$100
Articles of Organization filing fee
Names public
Manager or signing member listed at formation
$25 / July 1
Annual Report fee and fixed deadline
2022 fix
Legislature raised the veil-piercing bar
West Virginia is not a name-privacy state on its own filing. The Articles of Organization (Form LLD-1, $100) require the name and address of each manager or signing member under W. Va. Code § 31B-2-203, and the $25 Annual Report, due every July 1, keeps that information current and public. Because the disclosure happens right at formation — not on a later annual filing you could still clean up — a Wyoming holding LLC needs to be named as the manager or signing member from the very first Articles of Organization. West Virginia's real appeal is elsewhere: a 2022 legislative fix that raised the bar for veil-piercing, and a charging-order statute that, while it permits foreclosure, doesn't single out single-member LLCs for worse treatment the way some newer state statutes do.
West Virginia's Articles of Organization, under W. Va. Code § 31B-2-203, require the name and address of each initial manager if the LLC is manager-managed, or each member with signing authority if it is member-managed. Unlike a state that only surfaces ownership on a later annual filing, West Virginia bakes the disclosure into the formation document itself — and the $25 Annual Report, due July 1 every year, keeps that name current in the public database at one.wv.gov. West Virginia is a genuine disclosure state on its own filing.
Because West Virginia requires a named manager or signing member right at formation — not just on a later annual filing — a Wyoming holding LLC has to occupy that role from the very first Articles of Organization for the structure to work. Name the Wyoming entity as the West Virginia LLC's manager (or as the member with signing authority), and the West Virginia public record shows the Wyoming company rather than a person; Wyoming's own filing then discloses nothing further. This pairs well with West Virginia's genuinely improved 2022 veil-piercing standard — the Legislature overrode the older Kubican v. The Tavern, LLC precedent and now requires showing both inadequate capitalization and a lack of at least $100,000 in liability insurance before a court can pierce the entity, regardless of member count — though West Virginia's charging-order statute still permits foreclosure, which is where a Wyoming parent's stronger statute adds real value beyond privacy.
Naming a Wyoming LLC as the West Virginia manager keeps a person's name off the Articles of Organization, but it doesn't change federal law: beneficial owners of both entities must still be reported to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act, which is not a public database.
W. Va. Code § 31B-5-504(b), (e) — exclusive remedy, but foreclosure on the charged distributional interest is expressly permitted. W. Va. Code § 31B-5-504(e) states the charging order 'provides the exclusive remedy' by which a judgment creditor may satisfy a judgment out of a member's distributional interest, with no distinction drawn between single- and multi-member LLCs. Subsection (b), however, expressly permits a court to foreclose the charging-order lien — weaker than Wyoming's no-foreclosure rule, though the statute's silence on member count is, unusually, favorable rather than a trap: West Virginia's older, 1996-derived LLC Act never added the sole-member foreclosure carve-outs found in newer statutes like Vermont's or Wisconsin's.
West Virginia LLCs owe a $25 Annual Report due July 1 every year — a fixed calendar date rather than an anniversary-month deadline. Sources disagree on the late-fee amount: apps/LLA/data/states/llc-search/wv.ts cites a $75 late fee, while apps/LLA/data/states/anonymous-llc/wv.ts cites $50 — confirm the current figure directly with the Secretary of State. West Virginia has no franchise tax on LLCs. Pass-through income is taxed to members at graduated rates that have been trending downward under automatic-reduction triggers, reported at roughly 5.12% at the top bracket for 2026 in secondary sources (confirm the exact current-year rate with the West Virginia State Tax Department, since the reduction is trigger-based and can shift year to year).
Note: Two figures need direct confirmation before relying on this page: the Annual Report late fee (cited as $75 in one internal source and $50 in another — see stateAnnualComplianceNote), and West Virginia's exact current-year top personal income tax rate, which moves via automatic statutory triggers rather than a fixed schedule. Separately, the 2022 amendment to W. Va. Code § 31B-3-303 overriding Kubican v. The Tavern, LLC is recent enough that how courts apply the new capitalization-plus-insurance standard is still developing.
Yes. Under W. Va. Code § 31B-2-203, the Articles of Organization require the name and address of each initial manager (manager-managed) or each member with signing authority (member-managed), and the $25 Annual Report, due July 1 each year, keeps that name current and public at one.wv.gov.
Name a Wyoming holding LLC — not yourself — as the manager or signing member on the Articles of Organization from the start. West Virginia'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.
Yes, on veil-piercing specifically. A 2022 legislative override of Kubican v. The Tavern, LLC now requires showing both inadequate capitalization and a lack of at least $100,000 in liability insurance before a court can pierce the LLC veil — a more defendant-friendly standard than before, though the charging-order statute still permits foreclosure.
Bottom line: West Virginia discloses a manager or member right on the Articles of Organization, so anonymity here requires naming a Wyoming holding LLC in that slot from day one — worth doing given how much West Virginia's own asset-protection law improved in 2022.