How to dissolve an LLC in South Dakota

Step 1: Agree to dissolve

Follow the LLC's operating agreement: most say what vote closes the company. Without one, South Dakota's default rules decide, which usually means the members' consent. Write the decision down, signed by the members or managers, and keep it with the company's records; South Dakota doesn't ask you to file it.

Step 2: Wind up the business

Winding up is the time between the decision and the final filing, when the LLC does only what closing requires:

• finish or hand off its contracts and stop taking new work;
• tell creditors, collect what customers owe, and pay its debts or set money aside for them;
• sell or distribute its property, then pay what's left to the members as the operating agreement says;
• cancel its licenses, permits and any fictitious business name (dba) filings, and close its bank accounts last.

Step 3: File final tax returns

South Dakota doesn't ask for a tax clearance certificate with the filing, but the LLC still files its final returns and closes its state tax accounts, such as sales tax and payroll withholding, with the revenue department.

On the federal side, a multi-member LLC files a final Form 1065 (check the final return box), a single-member LLC reports its last year on the owner's return, and an LLC with employees files final payroll returns. The IRS doesn't cancel an EIN, but it will close the LLC's account if you write to it.

Step 4: File the Articles of Termination with the South Dakota Secretary of State

What to file: Articles of Termination. File with the Secretary of State by mail or in person, or online through SOS Enterprise. (Confirm how to file with the office.)

When it takes effect: When filed, or on the later date the articles give.

File online, or open the form or its instructions.

Step 5: Keep the records

Keep the filed Articles of Termination, the members' decision, the final returns and the records of what was paid and distributed. Tax records are usually kept for several years, and the filed document is what shows a bank, a landlord or a court that the LLC closed. On our sister site, the South Dakota company records show each company's status as the state's register lists it.

If you just stop filing

An LLC that stops filing its recurring report isn't closed: South Dakota eventually ends it administratively, but until then fees, penalties and any state tax keep adding up, and an administratively dissolved LLC can usually be reinstated, debts included. Filing the Articles of Termination closes it on your terms and on the record. South Dakota's recurring filing, for reference: $55 online ($70 on paper) each year (due the 1st of the anniversary month).

Sources

• LLC domestic termination (PDF), sdsos.gov
• Filing fees, sdsos.gov

Read from the South Dakota Secretary of State's pages and forms on October 10, 2026. Parts marked unconfirmed came from search listings of those pages, because the office's site wouldn't load for us: confirm them with the office before you file.