A limited liability company (LLC) is a business structure that blends characteristics of a corporation with that of a sole proprietorship or partnership. For example, owners of an LLC can file taxes as a corporation, keeping revenue or losses separate from their personal taxes, or they may choose to report LLC revenue or losses on personal tax forms. If you have dissolved an LLC and later choose to reactivate it, you will have to contact your Secretary of State's office. Fortunately, in many cases, paying a fee and refiling paperwork is all that is needed.

Things You Will Need

  • Money for filing fees and penalties

  • State form or letter

Make sure that the name of your company is still available. When you refile paperwork to reactivate your LLC and your previous name is still available in your state, no changes are necessary. However, if another organization has taken your name during the period of dissolution, you will have to pick a different name.

Update your members or managers. During the previous version of your LLC, you may have had different owners. Update any correspondence with your new owner or owners and in your Articles of Organization, which details who does what in the organization and whether there are shareholders or not.

Request reinstatement of your business from your Secretary of State office (see the Resources section). In Montana, for example, refiling paperwork and paying a small fee is all that is needed to reactivate your LLC, as long as the dissolution occurred within five years of the reactivation. In your state, you may be able to submit the original Articles of Organization to the Secretary of State, unless there have been major changes in the structure or name of your LLC or it has been suspended for serious reasons.

Provide the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) your updated business information, including a new address. Your Employer Identification Number (EIN) still will be valid with the IRS, as these numbers are permanent and never reused.

Update your contact information with business associates, if there have been any changes. Also, open or update your business bank account.