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Statewise Business The state fee almanac for LLCs, sourced line by line.

Methodology

How the almanac is compiled

Statewise Business sets each state's official fee schedule beside the services that file for you, then orders the services by what they add over three years and what they cover. Figures come first and are always cited; the service picks follow a published five-part method.

Entry by the Statewise Business almanac desk ·

Where state figures come from

Each state fee, deadline and rule is taken from that state's own schedule, form or statute. Every figure sits beside its source and the month we last confirmed it, and each entry lists its sources again at the foot of the page.

How the 50-state rank is built

The LLC rank sums the formation fee, the reports in years two and three (a biennial report counts once) and any yearly minimum tax. The agent rank uses the yearly state fees: the report at its yearly rate plus any minimum tax. The foreign LLC rank sums the registration fee and the reports in years two and three. Costs that have no fixed amount, such as newspaper publication, are described in the entry and left out of the totals. Equal totals share a position, and 1st is the least expensive state.

How services are ordered

  1. Added cost over three years (32%). What a service charges above the state's own fees in years one, two and three, from its published first-year and renewal prices. State fees are the same whichever service files, so each guide prints them and does not score them.
  2. Requirements covered (28%). How many of the state's recurring requirements the price handles: the registered agent, the periodic report and the EIN application.
  3. Renewal terms (14%). What the service charges from year two on, and whether that figure matches its first-year price.
  4. Fit with state rules (14%). How closely the plan follows the state's report cycle, late charges and registered office rules.
  5. Fee clarity (12%). Whether the state fee is listed apart and passed through at cost, so the figure matches the official schedule.

When two services finish within a few points, the guide names the criterion that separated them and what the runner-up does better.

Which services are listed

Each state list holds Mainstay Filing, which works in all fifty states, plus the registered agent services built around that state. A service is listed for an entry only if its own pages sell the service at a published price, read on the build date given in the entry.

Outside this almanac

We print no customer ratings and no customer quotes, and nothing here is legal or tax advice. The service order is editorial judgment applied through the criteria above.