LLC cost by state in 2026: filing fees, annual fees and taxes

The calculator and the table count four things the state itself charges: the filing fee for the articles or certificate of formation, the fee for the annual or biennial report (spread over two years when it is biennial), any fixed yearly tax or fee that every LLC owes regardless of profit, and one-time extras the state requires after formation, such as the $50 Certificate of Publication in New York. Income tax is not part of it. An LLC with one owner is a disregarded entity for federal purposes (IRS, single-member LLCs), so its profit lands on the owner's own return, and the state taxes that profit as personal income. The picture changes when the LLC elects S corporation status: California, for example, taxes S corporations at 1.5 % of net income with an $800 minimum.

The 51 fee schedules side by side

Sorted by state name. The last column adds the filing fee, the one-time extras and five years of recurring charges. A state whose filing or report fee could not be confirmed on its own website shows "n/a" instead of a figure copied from a commercial site.

Among the 37 states with a complete schedule, the yearly cost after formation goes from $0 to $810. Across all 51, the report comes every second year in 8 (Alaska, California, District of Columbia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, New York), which halves the yearly figure but not the obligation: the date still has to be tracked, and each state page gives its own deadline.

When the yearly charge is a tax, not a report fee

A fixed amount unrelated to any report appears in 5 states: California, Delaware, Kentucky, New York, Rhode Island. California is the heavy one. The Franchise Tax Board collects the $800 annual LLC tax from every LLC doing business or organized there, single-member ones included, every year until the LLC is cancelled; the first-year exemption covered only tax years 2021 to 2023 (FTB, limited liability company). Once California income reaches $250,000, a separate LLC fee based on gross receipts starts at $900, which the table leaves out because it depends on sales.

Delaware asks for no annual report from an LLC but raised its flat annual tax from $300 to $400 starting with 2026, payable by June 1 of the following year (Delaware Division of Corporations). Rhode Island charges $400 a year on top of a $50 report. Kentucky collects a $175 minimum Limited Liability Entity Tax from LLCs with gross receipts or gross profits of $3 million or less, in addition to a $15 annual report (Kentucky Department of Revenue). New York has a separate filing fee on Form IT-204-LL for an LLC with New York income; its amounts are in the IT-204-LL instructions.

Texas: a franchise tax most small LLCs never pay

Texas shows no yearly charge in the table, and that is accurate for most freelancers. Its franchise tax applies to LLCs, but for reports due in 2026 and 2027 an entity with annualized revenue at or below $2,650,000 owes nothing (Texas Comptroller, franchise tax). It still files a Public Information Report every May, free of charge. The $300 formation fee is the only state cost a small Texas LLC pays.

What the state total leaves out

Every state requires a registered agent with a physical address in the state to receive legal papers. Owners who live there can usually name themselves; anyone forming elsewhere pays an agent, and that yearly fee, set by private providers, is not in the table. Neither are expedited processing, certified copies, name reservations or the card fees some online portals add.

New York is the outlier on publication. Within 120 days of formation, a New York LLC must publish a notice in two newspapers for six consecutive weeks and then file the Certificate of Publication; until it does, it loses its authority to do business (New York Department of State). The filing fee is counted above, the newspaper bills are not, because they vary by county.

Licenses are a third layer. Alaska requires a state business license of $50 a year from every business, LLCs included (Alaska business license statute). Washington requires a separate business license from its Department of Revenue once gross income reaches $12,000 a year (Washington DOR). Cities and counties add their own licenses and, in some places, a tax on business profit; the local business taxes guide lists the ones read so far.

Forming in a cheap state while working from an expensive one

An LLC pays the fees of the state where it is formed and of every state where it registers to do business. A consultant living in California who forms in Missouri still has to register the LLC as a foreign LLC in California and pay the $800 tax there, so the out-of-state formation adds a second set of fees rather than replacing the first. The state where the work is done and the owner lives is almost always the one that counts, both for fees and for state income tax.

Some states appear as "n/a" because their fee pages blocked automated reading on the day of the survey or showed conflicting amounts: Alaska, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah. Their state pages link the agency where the current fee is posted. For what the LLC owes in federal tax once it exists, see LLC taxes; for the S election and its payroll, LLC vs S corp.