Business formation · 51 jurisdictions
What does an LLC really cost in your state?
Not the filing fee everyone quotes. The whole first year — formation, annual report, minimum state tax, and the requirements that catch people out. Every number links to the state agency that set it.
The spread
The same LLC costs 20× more in one state than another
Most expensive first year
- Massachusetts $1,000
- California $890
- Tennessee $700
Cheapest first year
- Montana $35
- New Mexico $50
- Missouri $50
6 states require no annual report at all for a standard LLC — Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina. Nobody tells you that when you're choosing where to file.
Why trust these numbers
Three things most guides get wrong
They quote the filing fee and stop
California's filing fee is $70. Your first year is $890, because the $800 minimum franchise tax hits in year one. The temporary exemption expired — plenty of pages still say it hasn't.
They go stale and nobody notices
Delaware raised its annual LLC tax from $300 to $400 on 1 August 2026. Pennsylvania replaced its ten-year report with an annual one. We publish a changelog so you can see what moved and when.
They hide the requirement that costs most
New York makes you publish notice in two newspapers for six weeks. In Manhattan that runs past $2,000, and the clock starts the day you file. It is not on the fee schedule.
Every jurisdiction
First-year cost, state by state
1 jurisdictions are still being verified. We publish a figure when we can point at the official page that sets it — not before. Why we do it that way.