Texas LLC Filing Fee (2026): $300 Once, Then $0 Most Years

The bottom line: $300 puts a Texas LLC on the books, and if you pay by check and skip the add-ons, that is the entire formation bill. The years after are where Texas turns cheap. Most states bill an LLC every year to stay registered; Texas charges nothing unless your revenue climbs past $2,650,000.

This guide walks through every 2026 number from the state’s own fee schedules: the Texas LLC filing fee itself, the 2.7% card surcharge, the Texas Express expedite tiers that replaced the old $25 fee, the free report that still catches first-year owners every May 15, and the veteran waiver that quietly became permanent. Where a cost is optional, the guide flags it.

Most of the list ends up flagged.

How much does an LLC cost in Texas?

If you form an LLC in Texas, the state’s price is $300, paid one time. That payment is the Texas LLC filing fee, and it buys a single document, the Certificate of Formation, Form 205; once the Secretary of State accepts that filing, your company legally exists. The official SOS fee schedule lists a flat $300. One payment, not a subscription.

Your realistic day-one total depends on two choices. Pay by credit card and a statutory 2.7% convenience fee raises the bill to $308.10. Add speed and Texas Express expedited processing runs $50, $500, or $750 per document depending on the tier. Pay by check with no rush, and the total stays at exactly $300.

After formation, the recurring state cost for most owners is $0, which is unusual, and the sections below cover the two catches: a free report you must file every May 15, and a revenue threshold that switches the franchise tax on. For a personalized year-one estimate that includes your optional picks, run our LLC formation cost calculator.

The Texas LLC filing fee, line by line

The table below is the complete 2026 schedule: every charge the state can attach to forming and running a Texas LLC, what triggers it, and which office collects it. Only two rows are unavoidable. One of those is free.

Read the table bottom-up and the pattern shows itself: the mandatory rows are the $300 formation charge and a free report. Everything else is a choice about speed, a name hold, or a certificate someone might request. Pay the Texas LLC filing fee once, then treat the rest as a menu.

Check or card: the 2.7% payment fee

The Secretary of State takes credit cards, but its payment options page is upfront about the cost: card payments carry a statutory 2.7% convenience fee. Statutory means state law sets the percentage; it is not a junk fee the office invented. On the $300 formation charge that works out to about $8.10, for a card total of $308.10.

Avoiding it is easy. Pay by check, money order, prefunded client account, or cash in person, and the Texas LLC filing fee stays at $300 even. An $8.10 surcharge will not sink anyone, but it is the cheapest discount in this guide, and claiming it costs you nothing more than writing a check.

Texas Express: what faster processing costs in 2026

If a website quoted you a $25 expedite fee, that page is out of date. Texas retired the old flat fee and replaced it with a tiered program called Texas Express, and the SOS announced on July 14, 2026 that every business filing type is now eligible. The current menu:

• Standard expedite: $50 per document. Processed ahead of regular submissions, typically within 2 to 3 business days.
• Next-day: $500 per document. Submit by 12 p.m. and it is processed by close of the next business day.
• Same-day: $750 per document. Submit by 12 p.m., processed by close of business the same day.

The premium tiers launched October 1, 2025, initially for a limited set of document types. Each tier is charged per document and stacks on top of the Texas LLC filing fee, so a same-day Form 205 runs $1,050 before any card fee.

Is it worth it? Generally only when a bank, a closing, or a signed contract is waiting on proof that the company exists. For everyone else the $50 tier is the sensible ceiling, and patience is free.

Texas LLC annual fees: what repeats and what never does

Here is the part that surprises people comparing states: Texas LLCs file no annual report with the Secretary of State. None. The SOS confirms on its formation FAQ that only certain entity types file periodic reports with its office; an LLC’s yearly obligation runs to the Comptroller of Public Accounts instead.

That Comptroller obligation is the franchise tax, Texas’s general business tax. Ignore the word franchise; the label is a leftover, and owning an actual franchise is beside the point. Whether you owe anything turns on a single line, the no-tax-due threshold, which the Comptroller’s 2026 figures set at $2,650,000 in annualized total revenue for report years 2026 and 2027, up from the $2,470,000 that governed 2024 and 2025. And below that line? You owe $0. Plenty of older guides still quote the stale $2.47 million figure, so check the year on whatever you read.

Run under the threshold, as most small companies do, and the pattern flips: the Texas LLC filing fee is steep up front, then the meter stops. That is rare. Nine states charge $0 in recurring report fees: Arizona, Idaho, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas, per our verified LLC filing fees by state table. And for how the taxing states handle it, there is a separate 50-state franchise tax guide.

The May 15 report you cannot skip

Below the threshold, no tax is due, but a filing still is. Each year your LLC owes the Comptroller a Public Information Report, a free informational form. Because the Comptroller never mails an invoice, nothing announces the May 15 deadline: an owner’s first one tends to slide past like any ordinary workday, mailbox empty, calendar clear, report unfiled. Write the date down somewhere you will actually look. When May 15 lands on a weekend or holiday, the state gives you the next business day.

Two mechanics worth knowing. First, the No Tax Due Report is gone: the Comptroller discontinued it starting with 2024 reports, so a below-threshold LLC files the Public Information Report (or an Ownership Information Report) and nothing else. Second, your first deadline is not in your formation year. Per the Comptroller’s filing rules, the first annual report is due May 15 of the year after the year the company became subject to the tax. Form in 2026, and your first filing is due May 15, 2027.

Miss the date and a $50 penalty attaches to each late report, even when no tax is owed, and a lapse left unfixed can eventually cost the company its right to do business in Texas. Compliance here runs $0 and one calendar entry; forgetting runs $50 a year plus a cleanup project. Set the reminder.

Your year-one Texas LLC calendar

Your whole first year fits on one screen. Paste it into your notes app and swap in your dates; the planning is done.

Filing day: Submit Form 205 (Certificate of Formation) to the Texas SOS and pay the $300 Texas LLC filing fee. Check or money order = $300; credit card = $308.10. Optional Texas Express: $50 standard (typically 2-3 business days), $500 next-day, $750 same-day (12 p.m. cutoff).
Same week: Get your EIN free at irs.gov. Never pay a third party for it.
Veteran-owned (100% honorably discharged owners)? File the TVC Letter of Verification + Comptroller Form 05-904 with your formation paperwork: $0 filing fee, five years of no franchise tax and no PIR.
May 15, 2027: First franchise-tax filing due to the Comptroller. At or below $2,650,000 in revenue: $0 tax, but file the free Public Information Report (PIR). Late = $50 per report.
Every May 15 after: Same PIR routine. There is no Texas SOS annual report and no recurring SOS fee.

One warning on the EIN, the federal tax ID your LLC uses for taxes and a bank account: the IRS issues it at no charge, and the agency’s own page says, “You never have to pay a fee for an EIN.” Any site that charges for one is reselling a free government service.

The veteran waiver: free formation, now permanent

Texas gives new veteran-owned businesses a genuine zero. Per the SOS veterans page, a new business formed on or after January 1, 2022 that is 100% owned by honorably discharged veterans pays no filing fee on its formation documents. For an LLC, that wipes out the Texas LLC filing fee entirely.

The Comptroller’s half of the benefit is bigger: a qualifying new veteran-owned business owes no franchise tax and files no Public Information Report or Ownership Information Report for its initial five-year period. Claiming both halves takes two documents alongside your Certificate of Formation: a Letter of Verification from the Texas Veterans Commission and Comptroller Form 05-904.

The deadline anxiety is over, too. The benefit was set to sunset on January 1, 2026, and plenty of guides still tell veterans to hurry before the door shuts. It won’t shut. Permanent is the right word now: when House Bill 346 (89th Legislature) took effect on September 1, 2025, the expiration came off the statute entirely. So if a page warns you that the window closes in 2026, it is warning you about an expiration date that was repealed before it ever arrived.

Optional costs: the $40 name hold and the $15 certificate

Texas sells two small extras, and both are genuinely optional. Want the LLC name locked down before you are ready to file? That is what the $40 name reservation on Form 501 is for; it holds the name 120 days, and another $40 renews the hold. It earns its keep only when your filing date is weeks away and the name matters to you; if you are filing this week, the reservation buys nothing the filing itself would not.

A Certificate of Fact, including the Certificate of Existence or Status, costs $15. Banks, lenders, and other states’ registration offices are the usual reasons anyone orders one. Buy it when someone asks for it, not before.

The other line owners often price in is a commercial registered agent, a person or company that accepts legal papers at a Texas address on the LLC’s behalf. Providers set their own prices there, not the state, so if you hire one, enter the real quote in the downloadable worksheet. None of these change the Texas LLC filing fee; they stack on top only if you choose them.

What the other 49 states charge, and where Texas lands

Honest framing first: $300 is expensive as formation fees go. For context, our verified 50-state table tracks what every state charges, and across all 50 states the average LLC filing fee works out to about $122, with the median at an even $100. Down at the floor: Montana, $35, then Kentucky at $40 and Arkansas at $45. The ceiling belongs to Massachusetts, which asks $500. Texas sits near the top of that range.

The flip side is everything after year one. The Texas LLC filing fee is a one-time charge, and for owners under the revenue threshold the state’s recurring take is $0, a club with only nine members. A $50-to-form state that bills you every year can pass Texas’s lifetime cost without you noticing; cheap entry and cheap ownership are different things.

So the playbook writes itself. Pay the $300 by check, not card. Skip Texas Express unless a real date is waiting, and cap it at $50 if you do pay. Take the free EIN from the IRS. Reserve the name only if your timeline needs the hold. The Texas LLC filing fee is fixed; everything around it is a choice, and every choice has a cheaper answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to start an LLC in Texas?

Plan on $300, paid once, when the Certificate of Formation (Form 205) goes to the Secretary of State; that payment is the whole Texas LLC filing fee. The total moves only if you add extras. Paying by credit card brings a statutory 2.7% convenience fee, which lifts the bill to $308.10, while a check or money order keeps it at $300. On the optional side, $40 reserves a name for 120 days, $15 buys a Certificate of Fact, and Texas Express expedited processing runs $50, $500, or $750 per document. For a do-it-yourself filer, the realistic total stays at $300.

Does a Texas LLC have to pay an annual fee?

For most owners, no. Once the Texas LLC filing fee is paid, the Secretary of State never bills the company again; Texas has no annual report for LLCs, so there is no recurring registration fee at all. The franchise tax does exist, but at or below $2,650,000 in annualized total revenue, the line for the 2026 and 2027 report years, it comes to $0. What remains is informational: a free Public Information Report, due to the Comptroller by May 15 each year. Filed late, that report draws a $50 penalty per report, whether or not any tax was due.

What is the Texas franchise tax no tax due threshold for 2026?

$2,650,000 in annualized total revenue. That is the line for report years 2026 and 2027, and it is higher than the $2,470,000 that applied in 2024 and 2025. An LLC at or below it owes no franchise tax, and since the Comptroller discontinued the No Tax Due Report starting with 2024 reports, there is no zero-tax form to send anymore. You file the Public Information Report or Ownership Information Report instead. On timing, count from the year after formation: an LLC formed in 2026 files first by May 15, 2027, because the first report comes due May 15 of the year after the year the company became subject to the tax.

Do veterans really get a free LLC in Texas?

Generally yes, when the company qualifies. That means a new Texas LLC formed on or after January 1, 2022 and owned 100% by honorably discharged veterans. For an LLC that fits, the state charges no filing fee on the Certificate of Formation. The same company owes no franchise tax and files no Public Information Report for its initial five-year period. Claiming it takes two documents: a Letter of Verification from the Texas Veterans Commission and Comptroller Form 05-904. And the rush is off. House Bill 346 erased the benefit’s expiration date in 2025, so treat any mention of a January 1, 2026 cutoff as history, not law.

How long does it take to form an LLC in Texas?

That depends on whether you pay for speed. Texas Express standard expedited service costs $50 per document on top of the Texas LLC filing fee, and those filings are processed ahead of regular submissions, typically within 2 to 3 business days. Next-day service is $500 and same-day service is $750, each with a 12 p.m. submission cutoff, and as of July 14, 2026 every business filing type qualifies. Regular, non-expedited filings wait behind that queue, so build in extra time or spend the $50 if a bank or closing date is waiting.

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.