What is the Washington LLC annual report?
The Washington annual report is the yearly filing every LLC on the state register makes with the Washington Secretary of StateCorporations and Charities Division. It confirms the company's current details, registered agent, principal office, and governing people, and keeps the state's public record accurate. It is not an income tax return; it reports no earnings. Its purpose is to keep the LLC in good standing and its record current.
Washington also requires an initial report shortly after formation, so a brand-new LLC has that first filing before the annual cycle settles in. After that, the annual report is owed by every LLC on the register regardless of activity, a dormant Washington LLC still owes it each year until the company is formally closed.
It is worth separating the annual report from Washington's tax obligations. Washington has no personal or corporate income tax, but it does levy a business and occupation (B&O) tax on gross receipts, administered by the Department of Revenue. That is a different agency and a different obligation from the Secretary of State's annual report, an unused LLC may have both to resolve when it closes.
When is the Washington annual report due?
Washington uses an anniversary-month deadline: the annual report is due by the end of the month in which your LLC was formed. An LLC formed in June files by the end of June each year. Because the timing is anniversary-based rather than a single statewide date, the exact month depends on your formation date. The Secretary of State sends reminders to the contact on file, so keeping that current matters.
What does the Washington annual report cost?
The fee is moderate, commonly around $60 filed on time, with a late penalty if you miss the deadline. Because the Secretary of State sets and can revise the amount, confirm the current fee on its online filing system before paying rather than relying on a single quoted number. The fee is the same whether the LLC traded all year or sat idle.
How do you file the Washington annual report?
Filing is done online through the Corporations and Charities Filing System (CCFS):
- Open CCFS and locate your LLC by name or UBI number.
- Review the detailsregistered agent, principal office, governors, and update anything that has changed.
- Pay the fee and submit by the end of your anniversary month.
- Keep the confirmation with your records.
What happens if you miss the deadline?
A late Washington annual report adds a penalty and puts the LLC out of good standing. If the report remains unfiled, the Secretary of State can administratively dissolve the LLC. An administratively dissolved company loses the authority to operate under its name and can be reinstated only by filing the overdue reports and paying the fees and penalties.
Administrative dissolution is not a clean exit. It ends the company's authority to operate but does not settle its tax affairs, the Department of Revenue B&O account and the IRS business account behind your EIN can remain open. If you actually want the LLC gone, a deliberate dissolution is both cheaper and cleaner than letting the state dissolve it for you.
How the Washington annual report differs from your taxes
It is easy to lump the annual report together with everything else a company files, but they are distinct obligations, and keeping them separate is what makes closing a Washington LLC clean rather than half-finished. The annual report confirms your existence and contact details to the Secretary of State. It is not your federal income tax return, it is not a Department of Revenue business and occupation (B&O) filing, and it is not your registered-agent fee or any local business license. Each has its own deadline and its own agency.
That distinction matters the moment you stop using the company. Filing the annual report keeps only the Secretary of State's side current; it does nothing about an open IRS business account, an open Department of Revenue B&O account, or a registered agent you are still paying. A Washington LLC can be perfectly up to date on its annual report and still be quietly carrying costs and obligations elsewhere, the B&O account is a particularly common one, since it can expect returns even in a year of no activity.
The registered agent is another clear example. Washington requires every LLC to maintain a registered agent, and if you pay a commercial service for the role, the charge recurs whether or not the company does anything, and whether or not you file the report on time. Closing the LLC is what ends the need for an agent; keeping up the annual report does not.
The B&O and other tax accounts follow the same rule. If the LLC registered for the B&O tax or collected sales tax, those Department of Revenue accounts keep expecting returns until they are formally closed, entirely independent of the annual report. And the federal side, the IRS business account behind your EIN, sits outside the state system altogether.
When you dissolve the company, you deal with all of these at once: the annual report stops, the B&O and other state tax accounts close, the registered-agent obligation ends, and you close the IRS account too. That is the practical reason a deliberate dissolution beats simply keeping a report current on a company you no longer use, it addresses every thread, not just the one the Secretary of State tracks.
How does dissolving the LLC end the annual report obligation?
The annual report is owed only while the LLC remains on the register. When you dissolve a Washington LLCyou file a certificate of dissolution with the Secretary of State, and once processed the company is no longer active, so there is no annual report to file and no fee to pay. For a company you are finished with, that ends the obligation permanently rather than letting it slide toward administrative dissolution.
The full process, winding up, settling debts, filing final federal and Washington returns, closing the Department of Revenue B&O account, and closing the IRS business account attached to your EIN, is covered in the guide to dissolving an LLC. If the LLC never really traded, closing an unused LLC may be a lighter path. Either way, dissolving is what actually ends the annual report, not simply skipping it.
For an active company you intend to keep, the annual report is routine upkeep, file it by the end of your anniversary month and move on. This page explains the obligation so you can decide, not to push you toward closing a business you still want.
If you have decided to close the Washington LLC
You do not need to buy anything to file your own annual report, the CCFS system handles it directly, and we would rather say so than repackage a routine filing as a service. What we handle is formally dissolving a Washington LLC so the annual report and the company's tax accounts stop for good. If that is the decision in front of you, the links above cover the detail, and a specialist can confirm the right path before you commit.