How much does it cost to start an LLC?

The worksheet: every line, in order

Copy these lines into a note and fill in your state figures from its state page. Line one is the formation filing fee, paid once, under the exact label the state uses, for example Articles of Organization or Certificate of Formation. Line two is the first recurring state charge, under its exact label and cycle, for example annual report, Statement of Information, Periodic Report, or annual LLC tax. Line three is any additional recurring state charge the state page lists separately, such as the Kentucky Limited Liability Entity Tax or the California Statement of Information. Line four is the registered agent line: $0 if you serve yourself and meet the state rules, or the price you were quoted if you hire a service, entered by you. Line five is publication, only where the checked record requires it. Line six is the EIN, which is $0 from the IRS. Line seven is the operating agreement line: $0 if you write and keep your own, or a quoted professional price if you hire one. Line eight is a separate allowance for licenses, permits, and taxes for the activity, which are not formation fees and are never in the state total.

Add lines one to three for the state total. Add lines four to seven for the setup total beyond the state. Keep line eight separate, because a license fee for one trade tells you nothing about the cost to form in a state, and mixing it in makes two states look different when the difference is the activity, not the filing office.

• Line 1: formation filing fee, once, exact state label.
• Line 2: first recurring state charge, exact label and cycle.
• Line 3: additional recurring state charges listed on the state page.
• Line 4: registered agent, $0 if you serve, or your quoted price if hired.
• Line 5: publication, only where the state record requires it.
• Line 6: EIN, $0 from the IRS.
• Line 7: operating agreement, $0 if you write your own, or a quoted price.
• Line 8: licenses, permits, and activity taxes, kept separate from formation.

Worked totals for named states, arithmetic shown

Colorado: filing fee $50 plus Periodic Report $25 per year equals a first year state total of $75. Over five years the state total is $50 plus five times $25, which is $175. Colorado is a clean low cost example because there is one filing and one small annual charge, with no additional recurring charge in the checked record.

Kentucky: filing fee $40 plus annual report $15 per year plus the Limited Liability Entity Tax at a $175 minimum per year equals a first year state total of $230. The arithmetic is $40 plus $15 plus $175 equals $230. Over five years the total is $40 plus five times $190, which is $990. Kentucky shows why the filing fee alone misleads: the lowest filing fees in the dataset sit next to a separate entity tax that decides the real total.

California: filing fee $70 plus the Franchise Tax Board annual LLC tax of $800 per year plus the Statement of Information at $20 every two years equals a first year state total of $890, counting one Statement of Information payment in year one, which is how the calculator on this site counts it. Over five years the total is $70 plus five times $800 plus three Statement of Information payments of $20, which is $4,130. California filing looks modest at $70. The recurring tax is the cost.

Massachusetts: filing fee $500 plus annual report $500 per year equals a first year state total of $1,000. Over five years the total is $500 plus five times $500, which is $3,000. Arizona, by contrast, is $50 for the filing and $0 in recurring state charges in the checked record, for a state total of $50 in year one and $50 over five years, before any publication cost a county requires. The range across these five worked states, $50 to $1,000 in year one, is the honest answer to the cost question: there is no national price, there is your state price, counted in full.

The registered agent line: $0 or a price you enter

Every LLC needs a registered agent with an in state street address who is available during business hours. If you serve yourself and meet those rules, the agent line is $0. If you hire a commercial agent, the price is a market price set by that service, not a state fee, and this site does not publish a figure for it because no official record controls it. Enter the renewal price you were quoted, not a first year promotion price, and count it once per year for each state where you hire an agent. A company registered in two states that hires an agent in both states has two agent lines.

Do not let an agent quote hide inside the state total. When a formation package bundles the filing, the agent, and extras into one number, ask for the bundle broken into lines and copy each line into the worksheet. The state lines should match the state page exactly. If they do not, confirm the current fee with the filing office before you pay, because either the bundle is padded or the state record on this site needs a correction, and either answer matters before money moves.

Publication: only two states in the checked record

Most states require no publication at all. In the checked records on this site, publication appears in two places. In Arizona, most counties require newspaper publication within 60 days unless the company qualifies for the Maricopa or Pima database exemption noted on the Arizona page. In New York, many counties require publication, plus a $50 Certificate of Publication filing with the state. In both states the newspaper price is set by the newspaper or the county, not by the state, so it is not in the state total and this guide does not state a figure for it. If you form in Arizona or New York, get the newspaper price for your county as a separate worksheet line. If you form anywhere else, leave the publication line at $0 unless your state page says otherwise.

New York also carries a separate point worth naming. The state filing fee is $200 and the Biennial Statement is $9 every two years, so the calculator state total for year one is $209. The $50 Certificate of Publication filing sits on top of that, before any newspaper charge. A New York worksheet that stops at $200 has missed three lines.

The EIN, the operating agreement, and the first annual report

The EIN is free. The IRS states the rule plainly on its application page: you never have to pay a fee for an EIN, and the online application issues the number in the same session when it is approved. Form the LLC with the state first, then apply, because the IRS advises forming the entity through the Secretary of State before applying so the application is not delayed. Any site charging for the EIN itself is charging for typing, not for a government fee. Put $0 on this line every time.

The operating agreement has no state filing fee in the ordinary case because it is a company record you keep, not a form you file. Writing your own costs $0 in fees. Hiring a lawyer to draft or review one costs the quoted professional price, which varies with ownership complexity and is not a state charge. Price it as its own line, and price it honestly: a one owner company with no outside money needs a shorter document than a multi member company taking investment.

The first annual report is already in the worksheet if you counted line two. The mistake to avoid is counting it twice, once as a startup cost and once as upkeep, or not counting it at all because it is due next year. The due rule on your state page controls when the first payment falls. Some reports are due in the first year, some on the first anniversary, and some, like a biennial report, fall every second year. The calculator on this site counts each recurring payment scheduled inside the window you select, which is the counting rule this worksheet follows.

What this worksheet does not include, on purpose

It does not include income tax, sales tax, payroll accounts, industry licenses, local permits, insurance, a business bank account deposit, bookkeeping, or a filing service fee. Each of those can be real, and some can be larger than the state total. They are excluded for one reason: none of them is the price of forming the LLC, and blending them into a formation total produces a number that cannot be checked against any public record. Budget them in a separate startup budget, using the SBA startup cost method of listing one time and monthly costs for the activity itself, and keep the formation worksheet clean enough to verify line by line against the filing office.

It also does not include foreign registration. If the business operates in a second state, that state gets its own worksheet, with its own filing, agent, and report lines. Adding the two worksheets together is the true cost of the structure you actually run.

How to finish the worksheet in ten minutes

Open your state page and copy lines one to three exactly, labels included. Decide the agent question and enter $0 or your quoted renewal price. Check the publication note for your state and enter a county price only if your state is Arizona or New York. Enter $0 for the EIN. Enter $0 or a quoted price for the operating agreement. Add the state lines, then add the setup lines, and write the two subtotals and the combined total with todays date. Then run the calculator for one, three, and five years and compare its state total with your worksheet state total. If the two differ, one of the lines was copied wrong, and finding that now is the entire point of the worksheet.

Checklist

1. Open your state page and copy the filing fee label and amount exactly.
2. Copy each recurring charge with its exact label and cycle.
3. Add any additional recurring charge the state page lists separately.
4. Enter the agent line: $0 if you serve, or the quoted renewal price if hired.
5. Enter publication only if your state record requires it (Arizona or New York in the checked data).
6. Enter $0 for the EIN and apply through the IRS only.
7. Enter $0 or a quoted professional price for the operating agreement.
8. Keep licenses, permits, and activity taxes in a separate startup budget.
9. Compare your state subtotal with the calculator for one, three, and five years.
10. Confirm the current fee and due rule with the filing office before you pay.

Next step

Use the linked tools and state records before you rely on a general rule. LLC duties turn on the state, the owners, the activity, and the tax choice.