In the 11 states we checked, standard filing fees for a single-owner LLC run from $70 to $300. Recurring charges start at $0 in Ohio and $800 in California. The yearly bill, not the filing fee, is the number to plan around.
Almost everything else a formation website sells you is optional, free from the government, or no longer required at all.
On this page
- The fee to form your LLC is the easy part
- What your state charges every year to keep your LLC
- What you have to pay for, and what you can skip
- The cheapest state to form your LLC is usually your own
- Forming in December? Pick your start date on purpose
- Letters about your LLC that only look official
- When a lawyer or a CPA is worth paying
- Before you file, check these
- Frequently asked questions
The fee to form your LLC is the easy part
The filing fee is the first state charge to check. Across our 11 states it runs from $70 in California to $300 in Texas, and Tennessee starts at $300 too. Most of these states call the form articles of organization. Delaware and Texas call it a certificate of formation.
Two quirks are worth knowing. Florida's $125 is really $100 to file plus a required $25 for naming your registered agent. Georgia adds a $10 service charge to its $100 fee.
New York adds a newspaper bill to the filing fees. Within 120 days after your articles take effect, the LLC has to publish a notice in two newspapers for six weeks in a row, in papers the county clerk picks. File the certificate of publication within the same 120 days for $50. Miss that window and the LLC's authority to do business is suspended. New York's own guidance says only that "the newspapers charge a fee for the publication of the notice," so get prices from the designated papers before you file.
The state approving your LLC's name doesn't make it a trademark, either. That's a separate step, and our guide to protecting your business name as a trademark prices it.
The filing fee happens once. The next bill keeps coming.
What your state charges every year to keep your LLC
This is the cost that matters. The yearly report or tax isn't optional. It's how the state keeps your LLC active, and some formation websites still list it under optional costs anyway. You owe it whether or not the business made a dime. In our 11 states, recurring charges start at $0 in Ohio and $800 a year in California. Ohio has no state annual report for LLCs. The due dates, and the price of missing them, differ just as much as the amounts.
What 11 states charge to form an LLC and keep it
| State | To form | Every year after | When it's due | If you miss it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | $70 | $800 tax, plus $20 every two years for the Statement of Information | April 15 for most. Year one: 15th day of the 4th month, counting the filing month as month one | Penalty plus interest. $250 penalty for a missed Statement of Information |
| Delaware | $110 | $400 tax | June 1, for the year before | $200 penalty plus 1.5% interest a month |
| Florida | $125 | $138.75 annual report | January 1 to May 1 | $400 late fee after May 1. Dissolved if still unfiled after the third Friday in September |
| Georgia | $110 | $60 annual registration | January 1 to April 1 | $25 late penalty, then dissolution |
| New York | $200, plus newspaper publication and a $50 certificate | $9 every two years, plus a $25 tax filing fee with any New York income, gain, loss or deduction | Statement every two years in your formation month. Tax fee by March 15 for most | Authority to do business suspended if you don't publish and file the certificate within 120 days |
| North Carolina | $125 | $200 annual report | April 15 | Grounds for dissolution. Reinstatement starts at $100 |
| Ohio | $99 | $0. No state annual report | None | Nothing to miss |
| Pennsylvania | $125 | $7 annual report | January 1 to September 30 | Starting with the 2027 reports, dissolution six months after the deadline |
| Tennessee | $300 and up | $300 annual report, plus a $100 minimum franchise tax for most LLCs | Report: April 1 for most. Tax: April 15 for most | Dissolution |
| Texas | $300 | $0 tax at or below $2.65 million in revenue, with a Public Information Report unless exempt | May 15 | A notice that the LLC will forfeit its right to do business |
| Wyoming | $100 | $60, or $200 for each $1 million of Wyoming assets if that's more | First day of your formation month | Dissolved if not filed within 60 days |
Standard state charges for a small LLC owned by one person and formed in that state. Fee waivers can apply. Registered agent services, local licenses and professional help are extra. California adds a separate LLC fee from $250,000 of California income. Tennessee's franchise tax rises with net worth, and its report fee rises by $50 for each member past six, up to $3,000.
Forming somewhere else? Your state sets its own amounts, so search your secretary of state's website for "annual report" and "fee schedule."
California charges $800 a year even when you lose money
An LLC organized in California or doing business there normally owes an $800 annual tax. The Franchise Tax Board doesn't soften it. The tax "will be due, even if you are not conducting business, until you cancel your LLC."
Your first payment is due by the 15th day of the fourth month, counting the filing month as month one. After that, it's April 15 each year for an LLC on a calendar year. You may have read that new LLCs skip the first year. That break covered only tax years beginning in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and it's gone.
Two more charges sit beside the tax. Once your California income reaches $250,000, a separate LLC fee starts at $900 and tops out at $11,790 at $5 million or more. Every LLC also files a $20 Statement of Information within 90 days of forming and every two years after. Skip it and you'll face a $250 penalty. Pay the tax late and you'll owe a penalty plus interest.
There's one relief valve. Cancel within a year through the short-form process, and California waives the first $800 tax. Your LLC must never have done business and must meet the form's other conditions.
Delaware works differently, and it just got pricier.
Delaware's yearly tax went up in 2026
Delaware's LLCs don't file an annual report. They pay a flat yearly tax instead, due June 1 for the year before. That tax rose from $300 to $400 under House Bill 400, signed on May 21, 2026. The increase took effect January 1, 2026. The Division of Corporations' own formation instructions, revised in August 2026, now say annual taxes "in the amount of $400" are due by June 1 of each year after the LLC is formed. Plenty of published cost guides still show $300, and that figure is out of date.
Miss June 1 and Delaware adds a $200 penalty plus 1.5% interest a month on the tax and the penalty. Nothing is prorated. An LLC that's active on any day of a year owes that year's full tax.
Every Delaware LLC also has to keep a registered agent with an office in Delaware. If you live elsewhere, you'll need someone eligible in Delaware to serve.
Texas runs the other way.
Texas usually charges no tax, but it still wants a report
Texas charges $300 to form an LLC. After that, most small LLCs owe no franchise tax at all. For reports due in 2026 and 2027, an LLC with annualized revenue at or below $2.65 million owes nothing (the line was $2.47 million for 2024 and 2025).
Most LLCs still file a Public Information Report by May 15. Qualifying new veteran-owned businesses skip this report for their first five years. Missing a required report brings a notice that the LLC will forfeit its right to do business in Texas. The report costs nothing to file. So a service charging to "file your Texas franchise tax" for a small LLC is selling you a free form.
What you have to pay for, and what you can skip
Start with your state's filing fee and recurring bills. Beyond those, most of what a formation website bundles in is one of three things. It's a job you can do yourself, something the government gives away, or something that's no longer required.
What you have to pay, and what's optional
| Cost | Do you have to pay it? | What it runs |
|---|---|---|
| State filing fee | Usually, once. Fee waivers can apply | Standard single-owner fees: $70 to $300 in the 11 states above |
| Yearly report or state tax | Generally. Ohio has no annual report. Texas usually wants only a free report | Starting charges: $0 to $800 a year in the 11 states above |
| Registered agent | Required in most states, and it can be you if you live there. New York uses its Secretary of State instead | $0 if it's you. Services list about $100 to $300 a year |
| EIN | Only if you need one | Free from the IRS |
| BOI report | No, not for an LLC formed in the U.S. | $0 |
| Operating agreement | Not filed with the state. New York's law requires a written one | Free template, or a lawyer's fee |
| Newspaper publication | Only in New York, of the states above | Set by the newspapers |
| City or county business license | Depends on where you work and what you do | Varies |
| Name reservation or rush filing | No | Optional extras |
Your registered agent can be you
Most states require an LLC to keep a registered agent, the person or company that accepts lawsuits and official notices for it at an address in the state. In Texas, any individual who lives in Texas can serve, at a street address that isn't just a mailbox service. In Delaware, any individual resident can serve. New York's Secretary of State is every LLC's agent by law, and naming another one is optional.
So if you live in your LLC's state and someone's there to take delivery, the agent can be you, at no cost. We'd do it ourselves. Services charge for convenience and privacy. LegalZoom puts the usual price at $100 to $300 a year, and ZenBusiness renews its service at $199.
Skipping the service is fine. The mistake is letting the agent's address go stale. That's where a lawsuit or a state notice lands, and a court summons nobody reads can end in a default judgment against your company.
The EIN is free, and U.S. LLCs no longer file a BOI report
The IRS issues an employer identification number (EIN), a business's federal tax ID, online at no charge. It says so outright: "Beware of websites that charge for an EIN. You never have to pay a fee for an EIN."
Then there's the beneficial ownership information (BOI) report, a federal filing that names who owns and controls a company. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a Treasury bureau, issued a final rule on August 11, 2026 that made permanent what its March 2025 interim rule started. U.S. companies "are no longer required to file BOI reports." Only certain foreign companies registered to do business here still report. FinCEN never charged a fee to file, and it warns that letters citing a "Form 4022" or "Form 5102" are fraudulent.
New York's own LLC Transparency Act, in force since January 1, 2026, now reaches only LLCs formed in another country. The Department of State says LLCs formed in New York or another state "are exempt from reporting requirements."
Sign an operating agreement even if nobody asks for it
An operating agreement is a document you keep, not one you file. It says who owns the company and how money moves in and out of it. New York's LLC law says members "shall adopt a written operating agreement," and you can sign it up to 90 days after the articles are filed.
We'd sign one anyway, even as the only owner. A template costs nothing. The failure we'd watch for is a generic PDF from a formation service that nobody ever filled in or signed.
The cheapest state to form your LLC is usually your own
Online ads push Wyoming, Delaware or Nevada as the cheap or smart place to form. For a business you run where you live, forming elsewhere usually costs more.
Texas makes the math plain. A business operating in Texas has to register there to transact business, even if it was formed somewhere else. Registering an out-of-state LLC in Texas costs $750, against $300 to form one there. Form in Wyoming instead and you pay Wyoming's $100 plus Texas's $750, which is $850 just to get started. After that, you file Wyoming's yearly report at $60 or more on top of your Texas filings and keep a registered agent in both states.
California is blunter still. Its $800 tax applies to any LLC doing business in California, wherever it was formed.
Out-of-state LLCs have real uses, mostly for holding companies and asset-protection setups. A local business isn't one of them. We wouldn't form in Wyoming to run a business in Texas.
Where you form matters. So does when.
Forming in December? Pick your start date on purpose
Late in the year, the date on your filing can cost you a full year's fee.
California starts an LLC's first tax year the day it files. File on December 1, 2026, and you owe $800 for December by March 15, 2027, then another $800 for 2027 by April 15, 2027. The exception is a first tax year of 15 days or less with no business done in it. That year owes no tax and files no return. So filing in the last two weeks of December, and doing nothing until January, avoids the stub-year $800.
Florida lets an LLC formed between October 1 and December 31 list January 1 as its effective date, if it won't do business until the new year. That postpones your first annual report by a full calendar year, which saves you $138.75.
Delaware doesn't prorate, so an LLC formed December 28 owes the full year's tax. Georgia and North Carolina generally want the first report the following spring (Georgia between January 1 and April 1, North Carolina by April 15), so a December LLC pays within months.
If the business can wait, a January start is often the cheaper one. Still testing the idea? Check when your state's fees start.
Letters about your LLC that only look official
Forming an LLC puts its name, address and entity number in public records. That brings mail dressed up as a government bill.
California's Secretary of State published a sample, a "California Corporations Annual Order Form" with a form number and a year printed in the corners to look like an official tax form. Its service fee is "nearly 10 times" the $20 you'd pay to file the Statement of Information yourself, and it warns that "your entity could be taken." Pennsylvania says some third parties charge $100 to $200 for a filing you can make directly for $7. Delaware tells its companies to view with suspicion any mail that doesn't come straight from the state or their registered agent.
California adds the part that matters most. Paying a third party doesn't count as filing. If a letter like this reaches you, report it to your state attorney general's consumer protection office.
Red flags on a letter about your LLC:
- It's styled like a government form, with a bold form number and a year printed at the top, but you'd be paying a private company.
- The fee is several times what your state charges to file the same report yourself.
- The fine print says it isn't a bill, or that no government agency stands behind it.
- It warns that your company "could be taken" or shut down unless you act now.
- It asks you to pay to file a beneficial ownership report. FinCEN never charged a fee, and U.S. LLCs no longer file at all.
- It already knows your entity number. That number is public, so it proves nothing.
When a lawyer or a CPA is worth paying
On our own business attorneys page, we put a single-owner LLC setup with an operating agreement at about $450 to $1,000. That's a planning estimate from published U.S. provider prices, not a quote. The price covers the formation documents, a basic one-owner agreement and help getting your EIN, and the state's filing charge comes on top.
We'd pay a lawyer for more than one owner (who can buy out whom, what happens in a deadlock, who puts in what), a New York LLC with its required agreement and publication, a licensed profession, an LLC holding real estate, or a business working in more than one state. Whoever you pick, check a lawyer's license first.
CPA firms earn their keep on California's LLC fee once income nears $250,000, on any tax election, and on year-one bookkeeping. The IRS treats a one-owner LLC as part of you for income tax unless you choose otherwise. Its profit lands on your own return, so the deadlines tax preparers watch are yours, and so is what late filing costs you.
Bookkeepers keep the LLC's money apart from yours, and that matters more than it sounds. Mixing personal and business funds can weaken your LLC's liability protection.
With one owner, one state and a simple business, you can do this yourself. We're not your lawyer or your accountant. If you have partners or real money on the line, an hour with one costs less than fixing a bad setup later.
Before you file, check these
Eight things that cost you minutes now and save you fees later.
Before you file:
- Look up your state's yearly report or tax and its due date, not just the filing fee.
- Put that first due date on your calendar the day the state approves your LLC.
- Decide who your registered agent is, and make sure someone reads the mail sent there.
- Get your EIN at IRS.gov, where it's free.
- Forming late in the year? Check whether a January start saves you a year's fee.
- Forming in New York? Book the newspaper notices early, because the 120 days start when your articles take effect.
- Sign an operating agreement and keep it with your records, even if you're the only owner.
- Pay state fees only to your state, or to a service you chose yourself, never to one that found you by mail.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to pay for my LLC every year?
In most states, yes. Of the 11 states we checked, only Ohio has no yearly state report for LLCs, and Texas usually wants only a free report. The rest charge every year or every two years, from $9 every two years in New York to $800 a year in California. A loss doesn't erase the bill. California also taxes inactive LLCs, subject to its short-year and cancellation exceptions.
What happens if I don't file my LLC's annual report?
You pay more, and eventually the state can dissolve your LLC. Florida adds a $400 late fee after May 1 and dissolves LLCs still unfiled after the third Friday in September. Georgia charges $25 late. North Carolina treats a missed report as grounds for dissolution. Pennsylvania starts dissolving LLCs that skip the reports due in 2027. Reinstatement means more paperwork and more fees, so calendar the date now.
Can I form my LLC in another state to save money?
You can, but if the business runs from your home state, you'll usually have to register there too and pay both states. Texas charges $750 to register an out-of-state LLC, against $300 to form one at home. California's $800 tax applies to any LLC doing business in California, wherever it was formed. Forming elsewhere makes more sense for a holding company than for a business you run where you live.
Do I need an operating agreement if I'm the only owner?
Your state probably won't ask to see it, but we'd sign one anyway. New York's LLC law requires a written operating agreement, which you can sign before filing or up to 90 days after. Even with one owner, it's the document that shows who owns the company and how money moves in and out. Templates are free. A lawyer's tailored version costs more.
Can I start an LLC for free?
Usually you pay a filing fee. Texas waives it for qualifying businesses wholly owned by honorably discharged veterans. A "$0" formation offer drops the service's own fee, not the state's. The real savings are elsewhere. Be your own registered agent if you live in the state, get your EIN free from the IRS, and file your yearly report directly with the state instead of paying someone to do it.
Do LLCs still have to file a BOI report?
Not if the LLC was formed in the United States. FinCEN's final rule of August 11, 2026 made permanent the exemption it first granted in March 2025, so U.S. companies no longer file beneficial ownership reports. Only certain foreign companies registered here still do. FinCEN never charged a fee to file, so any letter asking you to pay for a BOI filing is a red flag.
How much does it cost to close an LLC?
Usually little in state fees, but settle the yearly bills first. Florida charges $25 for articles of dissolution, North Carolina $30 and Ohio $50, and California charges nothing to file the termination. The catch is the last year's tax. California wants a timely final return, no business after that tax year, and cancellation within 12 months of filing the return. Delaware wants the full year's tax paid before cancellation. Stopping business doesn't close the LLC. File the state's closing paperwork to end its ongoing filing duties.