Anonymous LLC States: Which Ones Actually Keep Your Name Off the Record

Wyoming, New Mexico, Delaware, and Nevada each allow LLCs to be formed without disclosing member or manager names in public records. New Mexico is the only one of the four with no annual report requirement at all, meaning your name never appears in a state database after formation. Wyoming and Delaware require annual reports but do not require member names in those filings. Nevada requires a list of managers or managing members annually, which makes it the weakest of the four for raw anonymity.

New Mexico charges a one-time filing fee around $50, has no annual report, and asks for nothing beyond a registered agent address and a company name at formation. There is no ongoing state cost and no recurring disclosure window where your name could surface. The tradeoff is that New Mexico has less established case law protecting LLC charging order protection compared to Wyoming, which matters if litigation is a serious concern in your situation.

Wyoming combines member privacy with one of the strongest charging order protections in the country, meaning a creditor who wins a judgment against you personally cannot seize your LLC interest, only attach a lien on future distributions. The state explicitly limits the remedy to a charging order even for single-member LLCs, which most states do not do. Formation runs $100 to $150 through a registered agent, plus the $62 annual report fee. For anyone structuring around asset protection as well as privacy, Wyoming is the default first choice. The Wyoming vs. Delaware comparison breaks down exactly where each state wins and loses.

Delaware is the most famous LLC jurisdiction in the country, but its anonymity advantage is narrower than its reputation suggests. Member names do not appear in public filings, and the Court of Chancery offers deep, predictable business law. However, Delaware's $300 annual franchise tax and registered agent fees make it more expensive to maintain than Wyoming or New Mexico. Delaware works best when you need institutional credibility alongside privacy, such as when raising outside capital or opening corporate bank accounts where Delaware formation is preferred by counterparties.

You do not have to operate in Wyoming or New Mexico to get their privacy benefits. You can form a Wyoming LLC and then register it as a foreign LLC in your home state, or simply operate nationally under the Wyoming entity. The Wyoming LLC holds the ownership interest and its members remain private in Wyoming's public records. Your home state may require a registered agent and a foreign registration filing, but it typically asks for the LLC's name and principal address, not the names of individual members. This structure lets a California or Texas business owner use Wyoming's privacy rules without relocating.

State public records are only one layer of disclosure. The IRS receives beneficial ownership information on single-member LLCs through Schedule C or Form 8832, and since January 2024 FinCEN's Beneficial Ownership Information registry requires most LLCs to report actual beneficial owners, even if those names never appear in state filings. Banks will collect ownership information at account opening regardless of your state's public disclosure rules. Anonymous LLCs block casual public searches and reduce lawsuit targeting, but they do not create secrecy from federal agencies or financial institutions. For deeper detail on what the structure actually conceals versus what it does not, see the full breakdown on anonymous LLCs.