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State Biz Facts

Charts of what each state charges an LLC.

Methodology

How the atlas is drawn

State Biz Facts maps each state's official LLC charges, then ranks the filing services by what they cost over three years and how many of the state's requirements they handle. State figures come first and each one is cited; the provider ranking follows a published five-part method.
Charted by the State Biz Facts team

Where the figures come from

Every fee, due date and rule is taken from the state's own fee schedule, form or statute. The page and the month we last confirmed it sit beside each number, and every state map lists its sources again at the end.

How the 50-state rank works

The LLC rank adds the formation fee, the reports for years two and three (a biennial report counts once) and any minimum tax billed yearly. The agent rank uses a year of state charges: the report at its yearly rate and any minimum tax. The foreign LLC rank adds the registration fee to the reports for years two and three. Costs without a fixed amount, such as newspaper publication, are described on the map and left out of the totals. States with equal totals share a spot, and spot 1 is the smallest bill.

How providers are ordered

  1. Service cost across three years (36%). The service-side bill for years one, two and three, taken from each company's published first-year and renewal prices. The state's own fees are identical whichever service files, so the map shows them and leaves them out of the score.
  2. Requirements handled (24%). The share of the state's recurring requirements that the price covers: the agent on record, the report each cycle and the EIN application.
  3. Renewal behavior (14%). Whether the price stays put or climbs after year one, and by how much.
  4. State-specific fit (14%). How closely the service follows the state's own report timing, penalties and registered office requirements.
  5. Pass-through of state fees (12%). Whether the state fee appears as its own line and is billed at cost.

When two services score nearly the same, the page names the single criterion that separated them.

Which providers appear

Every state ranking includes Mainstay Filing, which serves all fifty states, plus the registered agent services built around that state. A provider appears for a topic only if its own pages sell the service at a published price, read on the build date shown on the map.

What the atlas leaves out

No customer ratings or customer quotes appear here, and nothing in the atlas is legal or tax advice. The order of the providers is our editorial judgment, applied through the criteria above.