Wisconsin requires none on the Articles of Organization — but at least one member (if member-managed) or manager (if manager-managed) name on the Annual Report, starting the year after formation on its public LLC filing. Wisconsin's Articles of Organization stay clean, but the Annual Report requires a member or manager name every year — seat a Wyoming holding LLC there from formation so no future report ever needs to name a person, and weigh separately whether the Wisconsin subsidiary should carry more than one member given § 183.0503(6)'s Sole Member Foreclosure regime. See our Wyoming holding company guide and full list of anonymous LLC states for more.
$130
Articles of Organization filing fee
Articles clean
No member/manager name required at formation
1 name/yr
Annual Report requires at least one member or manager
§ 183.0503(6)
Sole Member Foreclosure regime — a real gap
Wisconsin is a near-miss privacy state, and the gap is worth understanding precisely. The Articles of Organization ($130), filed with the Department of Financial Institutions, ask only for the organizer, registered agent, and principal office under Wis. Stat. § 183.0201 — no member or manager name. The leak comes a year later: the $25 Annual Report, under § 183.0212, requires naming at least one member or manager, and DIY privacy plans often fail right there. Seat a Wyoming holding LLC as that named member or manager from the first Annual Report, and the exposure never surfaces. A separate issue worth knowing — Wisconsin's 2021 Act created an explicitly named 'Sole Member Foreclosure' regime that a Wyoming parent doesn't fix by itself unless the Wisconsin subsidiary carries more than one member.
Wisconsin's Articles of Organization (Wis. Stat. § 183.0201) require only the organizer, registered agent, and principal office — no member or manager name at all, which is a deliberate change under the state's 2021 New LLC Act (2021 Wisconsin Act 258). The gap opens a year later: the Annual Report, under Wis. Stat. § 183.0212, requires naming at least one member (if member-managed) or one manager (if manager-managed), and that name is public through DFI's Corporate Records Search. Wisconsin is therefore a disclosure state overall, just not at the moment of formation — the first Annual Report is where an unplanned structure typically leaks an owner's name.
Because Wisconsin's Articles of Organization ask for no member or manager name, formation itself is clean — the exposure comes a year later, when the Annual Report (Wis. Stat. § 183.0212) requires naming at least one member or manager. Seat a Wyoming holding LLC as that named member or manager from day one, and every future Annual Report names the Wyoming entity instead of a person. One nuance worth flagging, similar to Vermont: Wisconsin's 2021 Act created an explicit 'Sole Member Foreclosure' regime at Wis. Stat. § 183.0503(6) that lets a foreclosure purchaser take full membership from a sole member — and naming a single Wyoming holding LLC as the Wisconsin LLC's only member does not itself escape that carve-out, since the Wisconsin LLC is still a sole-member LLC from the state's perspective, just owned by an entity rather than a person. The privacy fix and the foreclosure fix are two separate problems that happen to share the same page.
Naming a Wyoming LLC as the member or manager on Wisconsin's Annual Report keeps a person's name off the DFI record, 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.
Wis. Stat. § 183.0503(6), (8) — exclusive remedy for multi-member LLCs, but a named "Sole Member Foreclosure" regime lets a foreclosure purchaser take full membership from a sole member. Wisconsin's New LLC Act (2021 Wisconsin Act 258, effective for LLCs formed after January 1, 2023) generally makes the charging order the exclusive remedy under subsection (8). But subsection (6) creates an explicitly named 'Sole Member Foreclosure' regime: the court 'shall confirm the sale,' the purchaser obtains 'the member's entire interest, not only the member's transferable interest,' and becomes a member, while the original sole member is dissociated. State Bar of Wisconsin commentary confirms this was an intentional legislative distinction between single- and multi-member LLCs, not an oversight. Pre-2023 Wisconsin LLCs could file a statement of non-applicability by December 31, 2022 to opt out of the New LLC Act's default rules — confirm which regime applies to a specific existing entity.
Wisconsin LLCs owe a $25 Annual Report, due by the last day of the LLC's anniversary quarter (not a fixed calendar date), filed with DFI at wdfi.org. There is no Wisconsin franchise tax on LLCs. Pass-through income is taxed to members at Wisconsin's graduated personal income tax rates, 3.5% to a top marginal 7.65% (2026).
Note: The Sole Member Foreclosure regime is brand-new (2021 Wisconsin Act 258, effective for LLCs formed after January 1, 2023) — confirm whether a specific Wisconsin LLC formed before that date filed a statement of non-applicability, since its exposure may differ from a newly formed entity. Also confirm the current $130 formation fee and $25 Annual Report fee directly at wdfi.org before relying on this page for a specific filing.
Not on the Articles of Organization — Wis. Stat. § 183.0201 asks only for the organizer, registered agent, and principal office. The Annual Report, under § 183.0212, does require naming at least one member or manager, starting the year after formation, and that name is public.
File the Articles of Organization normally — they don't ask for an owner's name. Then seat a Wyoming holding LLC as the member or manager named on the Annual Report from the very first filing, so every future report names the Wyoming entity instead of a person.
Not automatically. Wis. Stat. § 183.0503(6) lets a foreclosure purchaser of a sole member's interest take full membership, and a Wisconsin LLC owned by a single Wyoming holding LLC is still a sole-member LLC from Wisconsin's perspective. The carve-out is only avoided if the Wisconsin subsidiary has more than one member of record.
Bottom line: Wisconsin's formation filing is clean, but the Annual Report requires a member or manager name every year — a Wyoming holding LLC belongs in that slot from day one, and the subsidiary's member count deserves separate thought given the Sole Member Foreclosure regime.