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Forming an LLC for Your Montana Hair Salon: The Complete Filing Guide

The parent guide gives you the short version: file the Articles of Organization, pay $35, get on with your salon. This page is the long version. Montana runs one of the cheapest entity regimes in the country, a $35 formation, an annual report whose fee is waived when you file by April 15, and no sales tax permit anywhere in the stack, but it has its own traps: the report clock and the assumed business name run on different cycles, and the reinstatement bill grows $35 for every year you ignore it. Here is the full walkthrough, from choosing the entity to the calendar that keeps it alive.

Researched from Montana state sources. Our guides are free. We may earn a commission when you use a partner service, at no additional cost to you.

LLC, sole proprietorship, or corporation for a Montana salon

The parent guide gives the short version of this choice. Here is the long one. A sole proprietorship is what you are by default if you open a salon in your own name and file nothing: there is no state formation step, and legally there is no business separate from you, which means the salon's debts, lease obligations, and legal claims reach your personal assets. A sole proprietor registers the salon's assumed business name with the Secretary of State, covered below, and that filing creates no shield at all.

A limited liability company creates a separate legal entity between you and the salon. Formed properly and kept separate, it holds the business's debts and claims at the business level instead of following you home. Two limits deserve plain words. The shield covers the business's obligations; it does not protect you from claims about your own work behind the chair, and it weakens if you run the salon's money through your personal accounts, which is why the bank account section below matters. An LLC is also taxed flexibly: by default its income passes through to the owners' Montana returns, and the entity can elect corporate taxation at the federal level if that ever fits better. That election is a federal tax choice, not a different Montana entity.

A corporation is the third route: a separate entity formed with the Secretary of State for the same $35 articles fee, owned through stock, and run with more formal machinery, directors, officers, and records, than most single salon operations need. It earns its keep for multi location groups and outside investors, and it changes your workers compensation position, because corporate officers sit under a different exemption rule than LLC members, as our Montana salon insurance guide explains. For a first salon, the LLC is the structure Montana owners usually land on, and it is the one the rest of this page walks through. Whichever you choose, remember that the entity is separate from licensing: your salon or shop license and your stylists' practice licenses are still required, exactly as the Montana hub lays out.

Filing the Articles of Organization: $35 with the Secretary of State

You form a Montana LLC under the Montana Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, Title 35, chapter 8, by filing Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State's Business Services division, online through the state's business filing portal. The filing fee is $35. A series LLC pays $50 more for each series member named in its articles, a structure almost no single salon needs. Work through the pieces in order:

1. Choose the legal name, and search it first. Search the Secretary of State's business records before filing, because a name that is not distinguishable from an existing record will be rejected. If the name is not ready to file yet, a name reservation holds it for $10. That reservation is a placeholder, not a registration, and it is not the assumed business name filing covered below.
2. Name a registered agent. The articles name a registered agent, a person or service in Montana who receives legal papers for the company. Pick someone who will actually be there and who has agreed to serve, because a missed lawsuit notice is the worst way to learn the agent moved. Changing the agent later costs nothing: the Secretary of State charges no fee for a statement of change of registered office or agent.
3. File the articles and pay the $35 fee. Filing creates the entity; it does not license the salon, and it does not finish your tax setup. The follow-on filings are cheap and rare: $15 to correct or amend the articles, $20 to merge, and a $5 certificate of existence when a landlord or lender asks for proof the company is on the register.
4. Keep the filing confirmation. Your bank, your landlord, and the board's salon license application will all assume the entity is real and current. Save the confirmation with your lease and licenses.

Two Montana features work in your favor. There is no general state business license to buy beyond the board's licenses, so the Secretary of State filing is the whole state formation step. And the annual report described in the calendar below costs nothing when filed on time, which makes Montana's upkeep the cheapest in this guide series when you respect the April 15 date. Voluntary termination, when the day comes, is free as well: the Articles of Termination carry no fee.

The assumed business name: Montana files it with the state

If your salon operates under a name different from your LLC's legal name, Montana calls that an assumed business name, and registration runs through the Secretary of State rather than the county, under Title 30, chapter 13, part 2. The registration fee is $20, and the registration is effective for five years under section 30-13-206. It renews for another five year term at the same $20, amending a registration costs $20, and canceling one is free. The Secretary of State notifies registrants before the term expires, so the renewal is not left to memory.

An assumed name registration is not a license and does not create your entity. It puts the public on notice of the name you trade under, and it is practical paperwork: your bank will typically want to see it before opening accounts in the salon's name, and a mismatch between your registered name, your lease, and your bank records is a small thing that stalls bigger things, including the loans on our Montana business loans page. Watch the two clocks: the LLC's annual report runs every April 15 while the name registration runs on its own five year cycle, so a salon formed and named on the same day still renews the two on different schedules. If your storefront name is exactly your LLC's legal name, you may not need the registration at all.

Your EIN from the IRS

Your EIN is the business's federal tax ID, issued by the IRS. You need one before the first payroll, because Montana withholding and unemployment reporting key off it, and most banks require one to open the business bank account even for a single member LLC. It is free. Apply directly through the IRS and ignore any website that offers to obtain one for a fee; those sites charge for a form the government gives away. Apply early, right after the LLC is formed, and use the same legal name on the EIN record, the Secretary of State filings, and the board's salon license application so the three files match.

Montana tax accounts: the sales tax you do not file, and the two you do

Montana is one of the few states with no general sales tax, and the Department of Revenue says so in terms: Montana does not have a general sales tax. For a salon the consequence is simple and total. There is no sales tax permit to obtain, no rate to program into the register, and no tax to collect on a cut, a color service, or a bottle of shampoo sold off the retail shelf. The price on the service menu and the price on the shelf are the amounts the client pays. One local exception deserves a check before you open: designated resort communities and resort areas may levy a local resort tax on luxury goods and services, so a salon in a resort town should ask the community and the Department of Revenue whether its retail sales sit inside that tax.

The two accounts that do follow formation are employer accounts. The first is withholding: register with the Department of Revenue through the Montana Business Registration form or the TransAction Portal, have each employee complete Form MW-4, and reconcile the year on Form MW-3. The second is unemployment insurance with the Department of Labor and Industry's Unemployment Insurance Division: contributions run on the first $47,300 of each employee's wages in 2026, and new employers are assigned their industry's average rate, for 2026 a services rate of 1.10 percent, plus the 0.18 percent Administrative Fund Tax every employer pays. New hires are reported to the Department of Labor and Industry within 20 days. Montana's minimum wage is $10.85 an hour from January 1, 2026, indexed annually, with no tip credit, so a tipped stylist is paid the full wage with tips on top.

The business bank account, and keeping the separation real

Open a business bank account in the LLC's name as soon as the EIN arrives, using your filing confirmation, your EIN letter, and your assumed business name registration if you filed one. Then run everything through it: card settlements, booth rent, payroll, product purchases, rent. The liability separation you paid $35 for is only as strong as the separation you actually keep. Money that flows back and forth between the salon and your personal account blurs the line the LLC exists to draw, and it makes your bookkeeping and any future loan application harder than they need to be. Pair the account with the insurance decisions in our Montana salon insurance guide, and your salon's legal and financial structure is genuinely in place rather than filed and forgotten.

Your Montana LLC annual duties calendar

• April 15, every year: the LLC annual report to the Secretary of State. The fee is waived when the report is filed by April 15 and is $35 when filed after. This is the one date that keeps the entity, and the liability shield your lease and licenses sit inside, alive.
• If reports lapse entirely: involuntary dissolution, then reinstatement at $35 plus $35 for each year of delinquent annual reports, on top of losing the good standing your lease, your bank, and your salon license application assume.
• Every July 1: salon or shop license renewal at $125, and each booth rental license at $95, on the board's premises calendar.
• March 1, every two years: practice license renewals at $100, with late online renewal for 45 days at a late fee of 100 percent of the renewal fee.
• Every five years: assumed business name renewal at $20, on the registration's own cycle; the Secretary of State notifies you before the term expires.
• On the schedules the agencies assign: withholding filings and the Form MW-3 annual reconciliation with the Department of Revenue, and unemployment contributions with the Department of Labor and Industry.
• Within 20 days of each hire: new hire report to the Department of Labor and Industry.
• Not on your calendar: a sales tax permit, sales tax returns, or any sales tax collection on services or retail sales inside Montana. Montana does not have the tax, and no filing substitutes for it.
• As things change: keep your registered agent and address current with the Secretary of State, where a statement of change is free, and your assumed name matched to the name on your storefront, lease, and bank account.

That calendar is the whole recurring burden of a Montana salon LLC at the state level, and April is its center of gravity: the annual report lands April 15, between the March practice renewals and the July premises renewals. The expensive mistakes are not the fees, which are the smallest in the country. They are the report skipped because it was free, discovered years later at reinstatement prices, and the personal card swiped for salon expenses until the entity and the owner are the same pile of money again.

This page is general information researched from official Montana and federal sources, not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Requirements, fees and forms change; verify the current rules with the agency or regulator linked above before you file, sign or spend.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to form an LLC in Montana?

The state filing fee for the Articles of Organization is $35, paid to the Montana Secretary of State. A series LLC pays $50 more for each series member named in its articles. That fee is the same whether you file it yourself or pay a formation service to file it for you.

Does a Montana LLC file an annual report?

Yes. The annual report is due April 15 every year. The Secretary of State waives the fee when the report is filed by April 15 and charges $35 when it is filed after. Letting reports lapse entirely leads to involuntary dissolution, and reinstatement costs $35 plus $35 for each year of delinquent annual reports.

Where do I register a DBA for a salon in Montana?

With the Secretary of State, not the county. Montana calls it an assumed business name registration: $20, effective for five years under MCA 30-13-206, renewable for another five years at the same $20. The Secretary of State notifies registrants before the term expires.

Does a Montana salon need a sales tax permit?

No. The Department of Revenue states that Montana does not have a general sales tax, so there is no sales tax permit to obtain and no tax to collect on services or retail product sales inside Montana. The accounts a salon does open are employer withholding with the Department of Revenue and unemployment insurance with the Department of Labor and Industry.

Do I need an EIN for a single member salon LLC in Montana?

In practice, yes. Montana withholding and unemployment reporting key off the EIN, so you need one before the first payroll, and most banks require one to open the business account in the LLC's name. It is free from the IRS, so there is no reason to wait, and no reason to pay a website that offers to get one for you.