How to Form an LLC
in New Mexico

New Mexico charges a $50 filing fee for Articles of Organization filed online through the Enterprise portal (enterprise.sos.nm.gov). That is tied for the cheapest Secretary of State filing fee in the United States alongside Colorado ($50), Michigan ($50), and Mississippi ($50) — only Kentucky ($40) and Montana ($35) charge less. There is no publication requirement. There is no franchise tax. There is no annual report fee (ever). Optional extras: expedited service is not offered as a paid tier because standard online processing is already 1–3 business days. Eleet AI charges $199 all-inclusive — that covers the $50 state fee, Articles of Organization preparation, filing with the New Mexico Secretary of State, and first-year New Mexico registered agent service. National services commonly advertise New Mexico packages at $0–$149 for "formation" but add the $50 state fee, a mandatory registered agent ($125–$299/yr), and various upsells, so the realistic first-year total is typically $225–$500.

No — and this is what makes New Mexico unique. New Mexico is one of only five US states (along with Arizona, Missouri, Ohio, and South Carolina) that requires NO annual report and charges NO annual fee to keep an LLC in good standing. Once you file the one-time $50 Articles of Organization, you owe nothing more to the New Mexico Secretary of State for the life of the company. A 10-year New Mexico LLC costs $50 total at the state level — compare to Wyoming ($60 × 10 = $600), Delaware ($300 × 10 = $3,000), California ($800 × 10 = $8,000+ minimum franchise tax), or Massachusetts ($500 × 10 = $5,000). New Mexico LLCs are the cheapest lifetime-compliance business entities in the United States. Separately, the LLC must file federal taxes annually (Form 1065 partnership return or Schedule C for single-member disregarded entities), and if the LLC has New Mexico gross receipts it must file New Mexico Gross Receipts Tax returns with the Taxation and Revenue Department — but the Secretary of State itself requires nothing after formation.

Yes — New Mexico is one of only a handful of US states where member and manager names are NOT required on the Articles of Organization and never become part of the public state record. The Articles list only the LLC name, the registered agent name and address, the principal office, and the organizer. When you use a commercial registered agent and a commercial organizer service, zero owner information appears in the New Mexico Secretary of State database. That is comparable to Wyoming (the other US anonymous-LLC leader) and stronger than Delaware (where Court of Chancery filings and franchise-tax processes can surface ownership in practice). Two important caveats apply to every US state, including New Mexico: (1) federal law — the Corporate Transparency Act requires Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting to FinCEN within 30 days of formation, though that registry is non-public and restricted to law enforcement and financial institutions; (2) banks opening a business account, the IRS processing your EIN application, and courts conducting litigation discovery all see ownership regardless of state filings. New Mexico anonymity protects you from casual public searches, creditor judgment searches, and non-litigation due diligence — not from subpoenas or regulatory inquiries.

Both states offer genuine public-record anonymity and are the two most popular non-resident anonymous LLC destinations in the US. The comparison comes down to what you optimize for. New Mexico wins on lifetime cost: $50 one-time filing and $0 ever after vs Wyoming $100 filing plus $60/year minimum license tax (= $600 over 10 years, $1,200 over 20). New Mexico also has a faster filing track — same-day to 1–3 business days online vs Wyoming typically 1 business day. Wyoming wins on asset-protection statute: W.S. § 17-29-503 makes the charging order the EXCLUSIVE creditor remedy against an LLC interest, including for single-member LLCs, and Wyoming case law treats LLC charging-order protection as among the strongest in the country. New Mexico charging-order protection exists under NMSA § 53-19-33 but has been less case-tested, and courts have not as definitively established single-member LLC charging-order exclusivity. For a pure holding company, digital business, or non-operating entity that only needs cheap anonymous shelter, New Mexico is the cost-optimal choice. For a serious asset-protection vehicle that may face sophisticated creditor pursuit, Wyoming is the stronger pick. Many founders use both: NM for low-value holding entities, WY for high-value asset protection.

Standard online processing through the New Mexico Secretary of State Enterprise portal (enterprise.sos.nm.gov) is typically 1–3 business days, with many filings clearing same-day or next-day. That is faster than California (5–7 business days), New York (3–5 days plus 6-week publication), and Texas (5–7 days), and on par with Wyoming (same-day to 1 business day) and Delaware (1–2 business days online). Paper filings mailed to the Santa Fe Secretary of State office take 10–15 business days once received. There is no paid expedited tier — online standard processing is already fast enough that expedited processing is unnecessary. If a national formation service quotes you a New Mexico "expedited" upcharge, that is an unnecessary fee pocketed by the service — the state does not offer or require expedited processing. Eleet AI's standard New Mexico filing uses online Enterprise portal submission and typically delivers a filed certificate within 1–3 business days.

Yes. Under NMSA § 53-19-5, every New Mexico LLC must designate a registered agent with a physical New Mexico street address (no P.O. boxes, no private mailbox services), available during normal business hours to accept service of process and official state correspondence. You can serve as your own registered agent only if you personally have a New Mexico street address — if you do not live in New Mexico, you MUST use a commercial registered agent. Because most people forming New Mexico LLCs are non-residents attracted by the anonymity and lifetime-cost advantages, commercial registered agent service is the default. Commercial agent services typically cost $100–$299 per year when purchased separately. Eleet AI includes first-year New Mexico registered agent service free with every New Mexico LLC formation, then $100/yr after — the same flat rate we charge in all 50 states.

New Mexico is the only US state that imposes a "Gross Receipts Tax" (GRT) on the seller rather than a traditional sales tax on the buyer. Under NMSA § 7-9, the GRT applies to gross receipts from the sale of goods, the performance of services, the leasing of property, and the licensing of property — all within New Mexico. The state GRT rate is 5.125% (reduced from 5.25% effective July 1, 2022, with further scheduled reductions), but counties and municipalities add local GRT on top, producing a combined rate of 5.375%–9.44% depending on location (Albuquerque ~7.75%, Santa Fe ~8.44%, Las Cruces ~8.31%, Rio Rancho ~7.7%). The GRT is the seller's tax — legally, YOU owe it even if you don't collect it from customers. Most sellers pass it through as a line item, but the compliance obligation is on the business. This is the single most-misunderstood New Mexico business tax: out-of-state founders often assume there is "no sales tax" in New Mexico and are surprised by GRT liability when they begin selling to New Mexico customers. IMPORTANT: if your New Mexico LLC has no New Mexico operations, no New Mexico customers, and no New Mexico employees (pure out-of-state holding company or digital business serving non-NM customers), you generally have no GRT exposure. GRT is triggered by New Mexico-source receipts, not by the mere fact of New Mexico formation.

New Mexico does not legally require a written operating agreement — NMSA § 53-19-19 permits oral, implied, or written operating agreements — but you absolutely should have a written one. Without a written agreement, courts default to the statutory rules in the New Mexico Revised Uniform LLC Act (NMSA Chapter 53, Article 19), and those defaults may not match how you actually want the LLC to operate (allocations of profit/loss, distribution timing, member withdrawal rights, voting thresholds, buy-sell provisions, dissolution triggers). For single-member LLCs, a written operating agreement is particularly important: it strengthens the liability shield in litigation by demonstrating that the LLC is a genuine separate entity with real governance, and it is often required by banks opening a business account, by title companies for real-estate purchases by the LLC, and by lenders making business loans. Eleet AI offers a New Mexico-specific operating agreement template for $99 that includes NM-statute-specific language on charging-order protection, member rights, capital contributions, distributions, and dissolution.

Yes — and in fact, most New Mexico LLCs are formed by non-residents. New Mexico actively attracts non-resident filers with its anonymity advantage, cheapest-lifetime-cost pitch, and straightforward Enterprise portal. The only New Mexico-resident requirement is the registered agent, which commercial services like Eleet AI satisfy. HOWEVER — and this is the trap that catches most founders — if you operate your business primarily in another state (employees there, storefront there, clients served from there, services delivered from there), that state will almost certainly require you to register your New Mexico LLC as a "foreign LLC" doing business there. That means another filing fee ($100–$750 depending on state), another registered agent in the home state, another annual report, and that state's income, franchise, or gross-receipts tax will apply to the New Mexico LLC's operations in that state. For example: if you live in California and operate a California business through a New Mexico LLC, California will still require the LLC to register as a foreign LLC AND pay the $800/yr California minimum franchise tax — New Mexico's $0 annual fee does not shield you. New Mexico LLCs genuinely save money for: (1) holding companies with no active operations, (2) pure-IP or investment LLCs, (3) remote-only digital businesses with no physical nexus in any US state, (4) cryptocurrency holding entities, (5) privacy-sensitive real-estate holding SPVs where the property is in an asset-friendly jurisdiction. New Mexico does NOT save money for local service businesses — those are better formed in the state where the business actually operates.

A New Mexico LLC is a pass-through entity by default for federal taxes, meaning the LLC itself does not pay federal income tax — profits flow to the members' personal returns. At the state level, New Mexico has no franchise tax on LLCs, no gross-receipts tax on out-of-state LLCs with no New Mexico operations, and no annual report fee. For pass-through income allocated to New Mexico-resident members, New Mexico personal income tax applies at rates from 1.7% to 5.9% across five brackets under NMSA § 7-2-7 (2025 rates: 1.7% up to $5,500, 3.2% $5,501–$11,000, 4.7% $11,001–$16,000, 4.9% $16,001–$210,000, 5.9% above $210,000 single; doubled for married filing jointly). Pass-through income allocated to non-resident members is generally NOT subject to New Mexico personal income tax if the income source is outside New Mexico. Since 2022, New Mexico offers a Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTE) election under NMSA § 7-3A-21 — multi-member LLCs can elect to pay state tax at the entity level as a federal SALT-cap workaround (up to 5.9% entity-level rate with owners receiving a corresponding state credit). If the LLC has New Mexico-source revenue (sales to NM customers, services delivered in NM, NM real estate), Gross Receipts Tax at 5.125%–9.44% combined state+local applies. For out-of-state holding LLCs with no NM operations, effective New Mexico state tax is zero.