Florida LLC Filing Fee (2026): $125 to Form, $138.75 a Year

Form an LLC in Florida and the state’s bill is $125. That single payment, the Florida LLC filing fee, covers the two charges the state requires at filing: $100 for the Articles of Organization (the document that legally creates the company) and $25 for designating a registered agent. Both amounts are written into statute, not set by an agency price list. What pricing pages tend to bury is the second number: $138.75 every year for the annual report, inside a fixed January-to-May window, with a $400 late charge standing behind it.

This guide takes the Florida LLC filing fee apart line by line, straight from the Florida Statutes: what the $125 buys, why the annual report lands on the odd figure of $138.75, the September cutoff that can end the company on paper, and the effective-date rule that lets a late-year filer lawfully push the first report out a full year. Every dollar amount below is quoted from Florida’s official statute databases rather than from a formation seller’s price sheet.

What the $125 Florida LLC filing fee covers

Two line items make up the total, and both sit in section 605.0213 of the Florida Statutes, the fee schedule of chapter 605, which the statute itself names the Florida Revised Limited Liability Company Act. The state charges $100 for filing original Articles of Organization and $25 for the certificate designating your registered agent. Every new LLC files both together, so the required state total is $125.

Numbers this load-bearing deserve a second source, so here is one: the identical amounts appear in Online Sunshine, the Legislature’s other official statute database. Search for Sunbiz LLC fees and you will see the same two charges bundled into one $125 payment on the state’s filing portal, which is where the articles actually get submitted. In most cases, that payment is the entire cost of bringing the company legally into existence.

Most Florida LLC fees beyond the $125 are optional, conditional, or recurring, which is why quotes elsewhere drift between $125 and several hundred dollars. The full schedule is tabled below.

The $25 registered agent charge is a state fee, not a service

A registered agent is the person or company named to receive lawsuits and official notices for the LLC. The $25 inside your formation total is the state’s charge for recording that designation under s. 605.0213(7). It is not a subscription, and it does not hire anyone.

You are generally free to serve as your own registered agent, and plenty of owners do. Private registered agent services are optional; they can make sense for privacy or convenience, and they are typically sold as a yearly subscription. The distinction is worth a sentence because formation sites often blur it, folding a paid service into “required” startup costs. The only registered agent charge inside the Florida LLC filing fee is the $25 designation fee you were paying anyway. Read the line item before you pay for it twice.

Every Florida LLC cost on one table

Here is the complete schedule, from formation through a worst-case reinstatement. Beyond the Florida LLC filing fee itself, every line is optional, conditional, or annual, and each row lists its statute section so you can verify it yourself.

The combinations stay simple. The Florida LLC cost at formation is $125 with nothing optional, $130 if you add a certificate of status (the state’s one-page confirmation that the company exists and is active), $155 if you add a certified copy of the articles, and $160 with both.

Why the annual report costs the odd $138.75

The Florida LLC annual report fee looks strange until you see that it is two statutory fees stacked together. The first piece is the $50 annual report filing fee in s. 605.0213(5). The second is an $88.75 “supplemental corporate fee” that section 607.193 imposes on every business entity required to file a Florida annual report, LLCs included. Stack them and you get the $138.75 on your renewal invoice.

The split has a practical payoff. The $400 late charge lives in that same section 607.193 and attaches when the supplemental fee is remitted after May 1, so the deadline that matters is written directly into the statute that creates the fee. Put differently: the Florida LLC filing fee opens the company once, and this $138.75 pair is what keeps it on the state’s books every year after.

Your first year: what you pay and when

So how much does an LLC cost in Florida for year one? Generally the $125 Florida LLC filing fee and nothing else, if you act as your own agent and skip the add-ons. Under s. 605.0212, your first annual report is not due in the year you form. The first one doesn’t come due until the year after the calendar year your articles became effective, in the January 1 to May 1 window. Form in March 2026, for example, and that first $138.75 won’t land until 2027.

That timing is why the “$263.75 to start” figure some guides publish overstates the up-front bill. It bundles the first annual report into the formation price. The state charges $125 to form; the $138.75 first recurs the following January-to-May window. Both numbers are real, but they land in different years, and merging them misstates your startup cash flow. If you are budgeting the whole launch beyond state fees, our LLC formation cost calculator covers the rest.

Day 0: File Articles of Organization on Sunbiz, pay $125 (optional: +$30 certified copy, +$5 certificate of status)
January 1 (year after your effective year): first annual report window opens ($138.75)
May 1: annual report deadline; after this date the statute adds a $400 late charge ($538.75 total)
Third Friday in September, 5:00 p.m. ET: last day before the state may administratively dissolve the LLC
Every later year: repeat the January 1 to May 1 window, $138.75

File after May 1 and the report costs $538.75

Florida’s late penalty is statutory, and it lands flat: no sliding scale, no grace window. Section 607.193 imposes a $400 late charge when the fee is remitted after May 1, which turns the $138.75 report into a $538.75 one. Miss the deadline and the state’s bill runs nearly four times the report itself.

The section allows exactly one exception: an entity that has been administratively dissolved and, rather than filing late, applies for reinstatement and pays the reinstatement fee. That is a description of how the statute reads, not a recommendation, because dissolution carries its own costs, covered next. For everyone else the rule is short. The window is four months wide, and a report filed in January costs the same $138.75 as one filed on April 30.

The September cliff, and what coming back costs

Missing May 1 makes the report expensive. Missing the fall cutoff changes the company’s legal status. If the annual report still has not been delivered by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the third Friday in September, s. 605.0714 authorizes the Department of State to administratively dissolve the LLC, meaning the state ends its existence as a matter of record. You can reverse that outcome. You cannot reverse it for free.

Reinstatement costs $100 under s. 605.0213(6), plus every annual report the company missed along the way. Run the statutory numbers and the detour prices out like this. Skip the 2026 report, get dissolved that September, come back in March 2027: the state wants the $100 reinstatement fee plus both missed reports, 2026 and 2027, at $138.75 apiece. Total, by our arithmetic, $377.50. And the $400 late charge? Absent, because reinstatement is the single path s. 607.193 exempts. A business that wants to keep going survives all of this. What changes is the bill, which grows at every step past the $138.75 that would have prevented the whole trip.

Forming late in the year? A January 1 date saves a full cycle

Here is the timing rule the pricing pages skip. Under s. 605.0207, your articles may specify a delayed effective date up to 90 days after filing, or a retroactive one up to five business days before. The effective date is the day the LLC legally begins to exist, and for annual reports it is the date that starts the clock.

Pair that with s. 605.0212 and the math turns friendly for October-to-December filers. File in November 2026 with no stated date and the articles are effective in 2026, so the first $138.75 report is due in the January-to-May window of 2027, weeks after you formed. File the same articles naming January 1, 2027 as the effective date and the first report moves to the 2028 window, because the report follows the year after the effective year. The Florida LLC filing fee stays $125 either way; what moves is the year your recurring costs begin. Since the delay tops out at 90 days, the January 1 option generally works for filings from early October onward.

Optional extras: copies, a DBA, and the EIN you never pay for

Three add-ons cover most real needs. A certified copy of the articles costs $30 under s. 605.0213(1), and a certificate of status costs $5 under s. 605.0213(12). Banks and licensing agencies sometimes ask for one or the other. Both can be ordered after formation, so there is no need to guess on day one.

Then there is the fictitious name, which is what Florida calls a DBA (“doing business as” name). You only need one if the company will operate under something other than its legal name. Registration runs $50 under s. 865.09 and stays valid through December 31 of the fifth calendar year after you register; renewal is another $50. One quirk comes first: the statute requires the name to be advertised at least once in a county newspaper before you register, and the paper, not the state, sets that price.

The employer identification number, your federal tax ID, costs nothing. Get it directly from the IRS, which puts it plainly: “You never have to pay a fee for an EIN.” Any site charging for one is reselling a free government service.

Taxes, and how Florida compares with other states

On entity-level income tax, the statute is specific in the LLC’s favor. Florida’s corporate income tax code defines “corporation” broadly, but s. 220.03(1)(e) excludes limited liability companies that are taxable as partnerships for federal income tax purposes. Read together, a default, pass-through Florida LLC generally owes no Florida entity-level income tax; the 5.5% rate in s. 220.11(2) reaches an LLC only if it elects to be taxed as a corporation. Tax elections carry consequences beyond this page, so treat that as the entity-level picture, not personal tax advice.

On formation cost, Florida sits at the middle of the national pack. Our verified 50-state LLC filing fee table shows a national average of about $122 and a median of $100, so the Florida LLC filing fee is right at the national average. Montana is the cheapest at $35. Kentucky ($40) and Arkansas ($45) come next. At the other end, Massachusetts charges $500 to form and another $500 every year.

The bottom line? The Florida LLC filing fee gets paid once. $125, done. After that the annual report runs $138.75 a year, and a single date, May 1, decides whether the yearly bill stays $138.75 or becomes $538.75. Filing the articles yourself takes an afternoon; marking the window on your calendar takes a minute. None of these dates should sneak up on you now.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is the Florida LLC filing fee in 2026?

$125 total. The Florida LLC filing fee splits into $100 for the Articles of Organization and $25 for designating your registered agent, both fixed by s. 605.0213 of the Florida Statutes. That is the entire required state cost to form if you serve as your own registered agent. A certified copy of the articles runs $30 more if you want one, and a certificate of status adds $5. Neither is required. The federal EIN? Free, straight from the IRS. Do not fold the $138.75 annual report into your startup math. It repeats yearly. The first falls between January 1 and May 1 in the year after your articles take effect.

How much is the Florida LLC annual report fee?

$138.75 a year, and it’s separate from the one-time Florida LLC filing fee. Two statutory fees make up the odd number: a $50 annual report filing fee under s. 605.0213(5) and an $88.75 supplemental corporate fee under s. 607.193. The window is January 1 to May 1. Your first report waits until the year after the calendar year your articles of organization became effective; after that, the same window comes around each year.

What happens if I miss the May 1 annual report deadline in Florida?

Miss it and the statute adds a flat $400 late charge. The bill becomes $538.75. If the report still has not been delivered by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the third Friday in September, the Department of State may administratively dissolve the LLC under s. 605.0714. Coming back from dissolution means applying for reinstatement: $100 plus every annual report the company missed. The one exception to the $400 charge, under s. 607.193, is an entity that was administratively dissolved and instead applies for reinstatement and pays the reinstatement fee.

Do I have to pay for a registered agent for a Florida LLC?

You must name a registered agent, but you generally do not have to hire one. The $25 registered agent charge inside the $125 Florida LLC filing fee is a state designation fee, paid to the Department of State when you name your agent, and it applies whether the agent is you, a co-owner, or a company. You can generally serve as your own registered agent, and many owners do. Private registered agent services are optional and typically sold as a yearly subscription.

When is the first annual report due for a new Florida LLC?

Between January 1 and May 1 of the year after the calendar year in which your articles of organization became effective, under s. 605.0212. Form in March 2026 and your first $138.75 report is due in the 2027 window. The effective date, not the filing date, controls. Because s. 605.0207 lets your articles set an effective date up to 90 days after filing, an LLC filed in late 2026 with a January 1, 2027 effective date owes its first report in the 2028 window, a full year later.

ClearLegalTips

ClearLegalTips is an independent publisher of plain-English legal guides, free document templates, and cost calculators for common U.S. legal tasks. Every article is reviewed by founder and editor Fatih Öztürk and fact-checked against official sources: statutes, court fee schedules, and government filing pages. Not a law firm; nothing here is legal advice.