When you form a Washington LLC, you file a Certificate of Formation with the Secretary of State. This filing legally creates your limited liability company.
A Washington Certificate of Formation is a fairly simple form, but it does require specific information about your company and its owners. This guide will walk you through the different articles in the Certificate of Formation.
It is important to recognize that the Certificate of Formation and all of the information on it will become part of the public record. Many business owners are understandably uncomfortable with this reality. If you are concerned about the privacy of your information, then you may be interested in our Private Washington LLC Package. This is a specially designed privacy package which will keep your name and personal information out of the public record.
When you file your Certificate of Formation, don’t forget that there is a $180 filing fee. If you are mailing the form, you should include a $50 expedite fee and mark the Expedite box. Non-expedited paper forms may take up to two months to process (online filings are automatically expedited and get processed by the state in around two to five business days).
You can make changes to your Certificate of Formation after it has been processed by filing a Washington LLC Certificate of Amendment.