North Carolina · Limited liability company

What an LLC costs in North Carolina

$125 in your first year. That's $125 to file with North Carolina Secretary of State, Business Registration Division, and about $200 a year to keep it in good standing after that.

First-year breakdown

  • State filing fee $125 One-time, paid when you form the LLC
  • Annual Report $200 — year 2 Not owed in your first year — see the ongoing filings below
  • Total, first year $125

Don't file on this alone. We're still verifying figures state by state. Open the source link below and confirm before you pay anything or rely on a deadline.

Verified Checked Source: law.justia.com All sources

In context

$125 puts North Carolina mid-range nationally

30 of 51 jurisdictions cost more than North Carolina. The national range runs $35 to $1,000, median $150.

Montana — $35Arizona — $50Hawaii — $50Iowa — $50Mississippi — $50Missouri — $50New Mexico — $50Colorado — $75Indiana — $75Michigan — $75Utah — $77Kansas — $85District of Columbia — $99Ohio — $99Idaho — $100Louisiana — $100New Hampshire — $100New Jersey — $100Georgia — $110South Carolina — $110Florida — $125Nebraska — $125Oklahoma — $125Pennsylvania — $125Virginia — $150Minnesota — $155West Virginia — $155Wisconsin — $155Wyoming — $160Maine — $175North Dakota — $185Arkansas — $195Alabama — $200Connecticut — $200Oregon — $200Vermont — $200South Dakota — $205Kentucky — $215Illinois — $225Alaska — $250Washington — $250Texas — $300Maryland — $400Nevada — $425Delaware — $510New York — $550Rhode Island — $550Tennessee — $700California — $890Massachusetts — $1,000

$35 · Montana$1,000 · Massachusetts

Keeping it alive

Your annual report

FilingAnnual Report
How oftenannual
Fee$200
When it's dueDue April 15 of each year FOLLOWING the year the LLC was created. $200 paper; online adds a transaction fee ($202 ACH, $203 credit card).
If you're lateNo separate monetary late fee exists. N.C.G.S. 57D-6-06 imposes no fine; instead, failing to deliver the annual report within 60 days of its due date becomes a GROUND for administrative dissolution.
If you keep ignoring itUnder N.C.G.S. 57D-6-06, grounds arise if the annual report is not delivered within 60 days of its due date, fees go unpaid for 60 days, or the LLC lacks a registered agent for 60+ days. The Secretary of State then mails a Notice of Grounds; the LLC has a further 60 days to cure before a certificate of administrative dissolution is signed.

State tax: North Carolina's corporate franchise tax applies to C corporations and any LLC electing corporate treatment; a standard pass-through NC LLC is not subject to it. Based on general NCDOR scope, not a fetched page.

What we're less sure about

Caveats on this page

  • STATUTE-CONFIRMED (10 Sep 2026). No monetary late fee — the consequence is a 60-day path to administrative dissolution with a further 60-day cure window.
  • The $200 annual report is due 15 April of the year AFTER creation, so year one is $125.
  • $200/year is among the highest recurring report fees in the dataset.

Ready to file?

File directly with North Carolina Secretary of State, Business Registration Division. It is the cheapest route in every state, it takes about twenty minutes online, and the form is linked below.

File it yourself with North Carolina → What you'll owe after that

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Where these figures come from

We publish a number only when we can point at the page that sets it. These are those pages — the statute and the agency, not someone else's article.

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If you're weighing North Carolina against somewhere else

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