Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: a dissolved Wisconsin corporation reinstates by filing Application for Reinstatement (mandatory DFI form, provided by DFI only on request), followed by a Certificate of Reinstatement issued by the Department under Wis. Stat. § 180.1422 (Reinstatement following administrative dissolution), with grounds/procedure at § 180.1421 and the filing fee set at § 180.0122(1m)(r) for $90, with no statutory deadline to do it.
If you’d rather have the reinstatement filed for you
Bizee can prepare and file the Wisconsin reinstatement paperwork described above on your behalf. State filing fees and any back taxes owed are separate, and you pay those directly either way.
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The filing, and what Wisconsin calls it
A business corporation administratively dissolved under §180.1421 may apply to the Department of Financial Institutions for reinstatement using DFI’s mandatory reinstatement form, stating the dissolution date, that each ground for dissolution has been cured, and that the name still satisfies §180.0401. DFI reinstates once satisfied and once all fees/penalties owed are paid, issuing a Certificate of Reinstatement effective retroactive to the dissolution date.
How long you have to reinstate
Wisconsin sets no deadline for reinstating a dissolved corporation. Wis. Stat. §180.1422 imposes no explicit time limit for applying for reinstatement following administrative dissolution. That does not mean waiting is free; back fees and penalties keep accruing the whole time the entity sits dissolved. (Wis. Stat. § 180.1422)
What you must pay before it goes through
Wisconsin will not reinstate the corporation until every year it sat delinquent is paid for. DFI will only reinstate once all fees and penalties owed by the corporation to the department under this chapter have been paid. The application filing fee itself is $90.00, separate from delinquent annual report fees owed. (Wis. Stat. §§ 180.1422, 180.0122(1m)(r))
Whether your name is still yours
Your original name is not guaranteed to still be yours. The reinstatement application must state that the corporation’s name satisfies Wisconsin’s naming requirements as of reinstatement, implying a new/modified name may be required if the original is no longer available or compliant. Check Wisconsin’s business-name database before assuming the reinstatement filing will go through under the old name. (Wis. Stat. § 180.1422)
What the filing costs
Wisconsin’s Application for Reinstatement (mandatory DFI form, provided by DFI only on request), followed by a Certificate of Reinstatement issued by the Department carries a $90 filing fee. $90 per the chapter-180 statutory fee schedule (§180.0122(1m)(r)); note this contradicts the $100 figure widely repeated by commercial compliance sites; the DFI-CCS 10.01(7) $100 catch-all fee explicitly does not apply to chapter 180 (business corporations).
What this page does not answer
Reinstating the entity at the state level and squaring things up with the IRS are two separate processes. Late federal returns, penalty abatement requests, and reinstating a lapsed EIN’s associated accounts are governed by federal law, not by Wisconsin’s corporation statute, and this page does not source them. We have the state-filing answer at primary and the federal-cleanup answer not at all.
This page covers a for-profit business corporation. If you are reinstating an LLC in Wisconsin instead, the filing, fee and statute are different: see reinstating an LLC in Wisconsin.
Sources
Every citation on this page is statutory or the Secretary of State’s own official filing instructions. No formation service, no registered-agent marketing page and no aggregator is cited anywhere in this cluster as a source of law; those are the only publishers of the competing versions.
- Official Wisconsin Legislature statute text (reinstatement): https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/180/xiv/1422
- Official Wisconsin Legislature statute text ($90 fee): https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/180/i/0122