Pick your state and see every fee it charges: on the day you file, in your first year and every year after. Each figure links to the state’s own page, and nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Year one counts the filing, set-up items and any tax charged for the year you form. Yearly reports sit under "every year after" even when the first one lands inside your first 12 months; the due dates tab shows exactly when. Taxes that depend on profit or sales are explained, not counted. Not legal or tax advice.
Downloads a calendar file. Nothing is sent anywhere.
| Service | They charge | Year one, all in | Each year after | Five years |
|---|
What it counts
A single number answers the wrong question. The calculator works out what your LLC costs to set up and to keep, for your own case.
Most answers stop at the filing fee. Many states then charge a report or a tax every year, and that is where an LLC really costs money.
Pick your filing date and the calculator lists every report and tax date, then downloads them.
Form in Wyoming while you trade from Texas and you register in Texas too, paying both states every year.
Formation services sell on the first-day price. We add their registered agent renewal and rank them by five-year cost: see the best LLC service for what you really pay.
Where the figures come from
Each fee links to the state page it came from: its fee schedule, its forms or its laws. Nothing is copied from other guides.
Five years of state fees, if you are your own registered agent. Wyoming, the usual answer to “cheapest state”, comes to $340 before you register back home. See LLC fees in every state, or read about starting a Wyoming LLC.
The business tax number is free from the IRS and takes minutes: apply on irs.gov. Services charge $50 to $99 for the same form.
Keep business and personal money apart from day one. That separation is a big part of what the LLC protects.
Use your own domain, then check the records that get your email into inboxes. LeadLamp checks SPF, DKIM and DMARC for free.
The calculator’s Due dates tab downloads every filing date as a calendar file, with a reminder two weeks before each.
It depends on the state. Filing costs from $35 to $500, and keeping the LLC in good standing costs from nothing to $810 a year. Over five years, state fees alone run from $35 to $4,130. Pick your state in the calculator for the exact figures.
Every LLC needs one: a person or company with a street address in the state, there in office hours, to receive legal papers. You can be your own if you live in the state. If you form somewhere else, you need a service, from about $125 a year.
Usually not. If you run the business from your home state, you register there too and pay both states every year, plus a registered agent where you formed. The calculator’s Other states tab shows the difference for your state.
The filing fee, set-up items such as a newspaper notice, and any tax charged for the year you form, such as California’s $800. Yearly reports count under each year after, even when the first one falls inside your first 12 months. The Due dates tab shows exactly when.
No. You can file on the state’s own website. A service helps if you want a registered agent or someone to handle the forms. If you use one, compare what it costs over five years, not on day one.
Every fee links to the state page it came from, with the date we checked it. We look at each of those pages once a week, and when one changes we check our figures again.
Five years of fees for your state, every due date, and every service ranked by what it really costs.