This story is part of a collaborative legislative initiative by WyoFile, Wyoming Tribune Eagle, Sheridan Press and Jackson Hole News&Guide to deliver comprehensive coverage of Wyoming’s 2026 budget session.
CHEYENNE—A bill to combat a global issue stemming from Wyoming commercial registered agents is headed to the Senate for review after unanimous consent in a Wyoming Senate committee Friday morning.
Commercial registered agents in Wyoming can register thousands of limited liability corporations), allowing companies based all over the world access to Wyoming’s tax structure without a registered agent knowing who owns the company.
Currently, registered agents do not have to know who owns a company they are registering. Rather, they only need to have contact information. Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray described the requirement as a “somewhat low” bar.
Sen. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, sponsored Senate File 82, “Duties of registered agents-amendments,” in pursuit of raising that bar.
“We really have a problem in the home country,” Crago said. “Sheridan is the epicenter of LLC filings.”
A 4,125-square-foot office building at 30 N. Gould St. in downtown Sheridan is home to hundreds of thousands of businesses using the commercial registered agent business for LLCs. The Sheridan Police Department, Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce and The Sheridan Press receive many calls each year with concerns of fraud or scams by businesses registered at the address.
The bill would require registered agents to retain the names and addresses of each entity’s owners, unless the entity has more than 100 owners or maintains a fixed, physical business location in the state. Crago explained the exemptions are a carve-out for large, out-of-state corporations and legitimate Wyoming companies.
“(Trying) to create a know-your-customer type standard, more than what we already have, so that we can stop some of what’s going on,” Crago said.
Additional information about business owners could be audited by the Secretary of State’s office and used by law enforcement in criminal investigations. The requirement could also, though, decrease the number of LLC filings in Wyoming and the subsequent revenue generated.
In Fiscal Year 2024, Gray said there were 675,000 filings, which generated about $50.5 million in revenue, which goes into the state’s general fund. In FY2025, those figures both increased; there were more than 830,000 filings, which generated about $59.6 million in revenue.
Gray estimated the state’s business filings could decrease by as much as 35-40%. By his estimation, the number of filings could decrease to as little as approximately 498,000.
“That doesn’t mean that all those entities are bad. It means a portion of those could be people that value privacy,” Gray said. He added the bill would take Wyoming from one of the best states for business filing privacy “to much lower.”
Requiring registered agents to maintain additional information could still pose challenges, as Crago’s bill is less intensive than the Corporate Transparency Act, enacted by Congress in 2021. The federal law is intended to prevent illegal foreign investors, tax fraud and money laundering by requiring LLCs and other companies to report and file beneficial owners to the government through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
“We actually think that relying on individuals to hold the information and risking that, you know, law enforcement won’t come knocking at their door is a more diffuse system. It’s less efficient, it’s less accurate, it’s harder for law enforcement, it’s easier to evade,” said Gary Kalman, who investigates transnational corruption and financial crimes with Transparency International.
Scott Meier, a lawyer and commercial registered agent in Fremont County, said the bill presents a privacy issue, but he could obtain additional information from the business owners for whom he has registered businesses.
“I’m not sure it’s so overly burdensome that we couldn’t deal with it,” Meier said.
The Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee voted unanimously to send the bill to the full Senate. Crago said he plans to request the committee to review registered agent issues as part of its interim work between the Wyoming Legislature’s 2026 budget session and 2027 general session.
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