LLC cost by state

How to read the table

Each row is one jurisdiction. Formation fee is what the state charges to file the document that creates a domestic LLC, usually called articles of organization or a certificate of formation. It is the fee for a standard LLC at standard processing speed, filed online where the online and paper fees differ. Report says how often the state asks an LLC for a periodic report, and Report fee is what it charges to file one. Annual tax is an annual, franchise or privilege tax or fee that the state charges an LLC separately from the report fee. Read is the latest date on which a page for that row was read.

Every column heading is a button. Press one to sort by that column, and press it again to reverse the order. A row whose value was not read stays at the bottom in both directions, because a missing figure is not a low figure. In the annual tax column the amounts that every LLC pays sort by number, a minimum by its floor. After them come, each as a group of its own, the amounts that only some LLCs pay, the taxes set by a rule, and the rows that say "none stated". None of those is counted as $0. Where an official page says no annual report is required, the report fee sorts as $0. A report fee printed as $0 is a fee the state's page states as zero.

What the figures show

Of the 51 jurisdictions read, 50 have a formation fee on record. The lowest is $35 (Montana) and the highest is $500 (Massachusetts).

In 1 jurisdiction the state's own pages disagree on the formation fee. No figure is shown for it, and it takes no part in any ranking: New Jersey.

43 require a periodic report from an LLC (35 annual, 8 biennial, 0 every ten years). For 6 an official page says no annual report is required, and for 2 the requirement was not read.

An annual tax separate from the report fee was read in 15: as a flat amount in 5, as a minimum in 1, as an amount that only some LLCs pay in 2, and as a rule with no single amount in 7, where the rule says which LLCs pay and how much. In 7 an official page says that one named tax does not apply to an LLC. That is a statement about that tax, and the table prints it as "none stated", not as zero. In 29 the tax was not read: no official statement either way was found, which is not the same as no tax. No jurisdiction is counted here as tax-free.

3 require formation to be published in newspapers: Arizona, Nebraska and New York.

The cheapest states to form an LLC are ranked on their own page, with ties shown as ties, together with the LLC annual tax and franchise tax of each state where one was read. The annual report due dates are set out as a calendar. To put two, three or four states next to each other, use compare.

What the table leaves out

It covers a standard domestic LLC. Professional, series and low-profit LLCs, foreign registrations, expedited service, name reservations, registered agent charges, business licences, local taxes, newspaper charges for publication, and state and federal income taxes are not in these columns. A state page may mention some of them in its notes, in the words of the researcher who read the page.