LLC Annual Compliance Checklist
by State (2026)

Quick answer

Here is what is at stake. The state does not send a bill when the report is missed; it changes one word on the public record, from “active” to “delinquent”, and later to “dissolved”. Nothing else happens until the day it matters: the bank asks for a certificate of good standing and the state will not issue one, a lender pauses a closing, or a lawsuit arrives and the liability shield you paid for is in question because the entity behind it lapsed. The fix is a list, checked on a schedule, not a memory.

Counts from our state dataset, 50 states plus DC, verified 2026-09-01 against each state site.

The four recurring obligations

Every state’s rules are different, but an LLC’s year has the same four moving parts everywhere. Miss any one and good standing is at risk.

1. The state report or annual tax

What it is: a filing that confirms the LLC still exists, who its agent is and, in some states, who runs it. Some states attach a fee, some attach a tax instead, and six ask for nothing at all: Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio and South Carolina.

When: 22 states use a fixed calendar date, 16 tie it to your formation anniversary, seven collect it every two years. The deadline calculator gives your state’s exact date and sets free reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days.

Cost: from $0 (five states with a required filing charge nothing) to California’s $800 minimum annual LLC tax, which is due even in a year with no income. The state-by-state table is below.

2. The registered agent

Every state except New York and Pennsylvania requires an LLC to keep a registered agent at a street address in that state, staffed in business hours, from the day the articles are accepted. It is the address the state and the courts use for official notice. In New York the Secretary of State receives service and mails it to the address on file, so an agent there is optional. Pennsylvania asks for a registered office: a street address in the state or a Commercial Registered Office Provider. A lapsed agent is the fastest route out of good standing in the six no-report states, because there is nothing else to miss. Ours is $74.25 a year, any state.

3. Tax accounts, federal and state

The federal return is separate from the state report: a single-member LLC reports on the owner’s Schedule C, a multi-member LLC files Form 1065 and issues K-1s, unless it elected corporate treatment. Some states also run an LLC tax on a tax-agency calendar that has nothing to do with the Secretary of State: California’s $800 annual tax on April 15, Delaware’s $400 LLC tax on June 1, Texas’s franchise report on May 15 (still required, even though you owe $0 under the $2.65 million revenue threshold that applies to 2026 and 2027 reports), and New York’s income-based filing fee form alongside the $9 biennial statement. Your accountant owns these dates; you own knowing they exist. Our Compliance Desk compares the annual report, franchise tax and income tax using Florida, Texas and Delaware examples. Federal beneficial ownership (BOI) reporting no longer applies to US-formed LLCs; see the FinCEN final rule.

4. Licences and local registrations

City and county business licences, sales tax permits and professional licences renew on their own calendars, usually yearly. They rarely dissolve the LLC, but an expired licence is the first thing a customer, landlord or insurer finds when they check.

The checklist

Copy it into whatever you already keep a calendar in. The dates are the only part that changes by state.

Formation year

Every year, on a fixed date you choose

60 days before each state deadline

Tax season

Fees and deadlines by state

The full 51-row table, with the official filing link for each state, lives on the deadlines by state page. These are the ends of the range, so you know which kind of state you are in.

Fees and dates verified 2026-09-01 against each state’s official site; states change them without notice. We rechecked the Texas threshold on 2026-10-04 against the Comptroller’s franchise tax page. Confirm on the state page before you pay.

Multiple LLCs: one calendar, not ten

Owning three companies in two states means three report cycles, three agent renewals, two tax-agency calendars and a stack of state mail that never arrives at the same address twice. The failure mode is not forgetting one deadline; it is that no single place shows all of them.

Two free tools fix that. The compliance calendar takes each LLC you hold and lays every due date and yearly cost on one strip, saved in your browser. The holding-LLC portfolio board does the same for a portfolio: every entity, every state, good-standing status side by side, with dormant entities that are still billing you flagged for dissolution. Neither files anything; both stop the surprise.

If you miss a deadline

The sequence is the same in most states, and it is slower than people fear and more expensive than they expect.

Delinquent

The state marks the record delinquent and adds a late fee. Florida’s is $400, the steepest in the country; Delaware adds $200 plus 1.5% a month. You can still file; you simply pay more. Good-standing certificates stop issuing immediately.

Administratively dissolved or revoked

Keep missing and the state dissolves the LLC on its own motion. The entity can no longer transact in its own name, the shield between the business and your personal assets is open to argument, and in some states the name goes back into the pool. The state still expects the missed reports and fees.

Reinstatement

Every state has a path back: the missed reports, the state’s reinstatement fee, a current registered agent and, in some states, a tax clearance. Timelines and fees are set by each state. How reinstatement works, state by state, and the real cost of a missed annual report if you want the long version.

Questions