Which state is cheapest to incorporate in?

Montana has the lowest incorporation filing fee in the country at $35, against a 50-state average of $113.06 and a high of $300 in Texas. But the filing fee is a one-off charge, and over five years it is routinely outweighed by the recurring report fee and any annual franchise or minimum tax — Delaware's $89 filing fee sits alongside a $175 minimum franchise tax every year after. Incorporating out of state also tends to trigger foreign-corporation registration back home, meaning fees in both states rather than one.

Do all states require corporations to file an annual report?

No. 41 states require an annual corporate report, 7 require one every two years, and 2 (Ohio and Oklahoma) require no recurring report with the business filing agency at all. A state requiring no report still expects any state tax return the corporation owes.

How many states have a corporate income tax?

44 of the 50 states levy a corporate income tax. The six that do not are Nevada, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wyoming — but none of them leaves business activity untaxed: Texas uses a franchise (margin) tax, Washington a B&O gross-receipts tax, Ohio and Nevada their own gross-receipts taxes, Wyoming through its annual report license tax, and South Dakota through its $55 annual report rather than any general corporate franchise tax. Each state page sets out what applies there; this site publishes no national count of franchise taxes, because the state-by-state definitions differ too much for one to mean anything.

Is it cheaper to form an LLC or a corporation?

On the state filing fee alone it is usually a wash. Across the 50 states the two entities cost the same to file in 25, the corporation is cheaper in 15, and the LLC is cheaper in 10. The filing fee is a one-off charge and a poor basis for choosing an entity type — ongoing reports, self-employment tax treatment and investor expectations matter far more.

Corporations · 50 states

Corporation Filing Fees and Annual Reports by State (2026)

By Edmond Hui · Facts verified July 29, 2026 against primary state sources

Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC

Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.

Incorporation filing fees run from $35 in Montana to $300 in Texas, averaging $113.06. 41 states require an annual corporate report, 7 require one every two years, and 2 require none. 44 states levy a corporate income tax.

Cheapest to incorporate$35

National average fee$113.06

States with corporate income tax44

States requiring no report2

All 50 states, cheapest filing fee first

Filing fee is the one-off charge to incorporate; "from" marks a state whose published fee is a floor or scales with what you file. Report fee is the recurring charge, at the cadence shown. Corporate income tax and franchise tax are excluded from these columns because both depend on income or net worth — each state page carries the rate schedule as the state publishes it, and for several states an annual franchise minimum outweighs everything in this table.

State	Filing fee	Report	Report fee	Corporate income tax	Guides
MTMontana	$35	Every year	$0	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
KYKentucky	from $40	Every year	$15	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
ARArkansas	$50	Every year	$150	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
COColorado	$50	Every year	$25	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
HIHawaii	$50	Every year	$15	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
IAIowa	$50	Every two years	$45	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
MSMississippi	$50	Every year	$25	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
OKOklahoma	$50	None required	—	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
MOMissouri	$58	Every year	$20	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
UTUtah	$59	Every year	$18	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
AZArizona	$60	Every year	$45	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
MIMichigan	$60	Every year	$25	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
FLFlorida	$70	Every year	$150	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
LALouisiana	$75	Every year	$30	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
NVNevada	from $75	Every year	$650	None	Form · Report · S-corp
VAVirginia	from $75	Every year	$50	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
KSKansas	$85	Every two years	$53	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
DEDelaware	from $89	Every year	$50	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
INIndiana	$90	Every two years	$50	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
OHOhio	from $99	None required	—	None	Form · Report · S-corp
CACalifornia	$100	Every year	$25	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
GAGeorgia	$100	Every year	$50	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
IDIdaho	$100	Every year	$0	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
NENebraska	$100	Every two years	$26	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
NHNew Hampshire	$100	Every year	$100	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
NJNew Jersey	$100	Every year	$75	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
NMNew Mexico	from $100 (unconfirmed)	Every two years	$25	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
NDNorth Dakota	$100	Every year	$25	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
OROregon	$100	Every year	$100	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
TNTennessee	$100	Every year	$20	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
WVWest Virginia	$100	Every year	$25	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
WIWisconsin	$100	Every year	$25	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
WYWyoming	$100	Every year	$60	None	Form · Report · S-corp
MDMaryland	from $120	Every year	$300	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
NYNew York	$125	Every two years	$9	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
NCNorth Carolina	$125	Every year	$25	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
PAPennsylvania	$125	Every year	$7	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
SCSouth Carolina	$135	Every year	$0	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
MEMaine	$145	Every year	$85	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
ILIllinois	from $150	Every year	$75	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
SDSouth Dakota	$150	Every year	$55	None	Form · Report · S-corp
MNMinnesota	$155	Every year	$0	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
VTVermont	$155	Every year	$60	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
WAWashington	$180	Every year	$70	None	Form · Report · S-corp
ALAlabama	$200	Every year	$10	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
RIRhode Island	$230	Every year	$50	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
AKAlaska	$250	Every two years	$100	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
CTConnecticut	$250	Every year	$150	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
MAMassachusetts	$275	Every year	$125	Yes	Form · Report · S-corp
TXTexas	$300	Every year	$0	None	Form · Report · S-corp

The states that require no corporate report

Ohio and Oklahoma are the only states that require no recurring report from a for-profit corporation with the business filing agency. That removes a filing and its fee — it does not remove any state tax return the corporation owes, and both states tax business activity another way.

Ohio · Oklahoma

The biennial-filing states

7 states put corporations on a two-year reporting cycle rather than an annual one. When comparing them against annual-filing states, halve the fee: a $100 biennial report is $50 a year, not $100. Every state page in this cluster shows the averaged figure alongside the headline fee for exactly this reason.

Alaska · Iowa · Indiana · Kansas · Nebraska · New Mexico · New York

Frequently Asked Questions

: Montana has the lowest incorporation filing fee in the country at $35, against a 50-state average of $113.06 and a high of $300 in Texas. But the filing fee is a one-off charge, and over five years it is routinely outweighed by the recurring report fee and any annual franchise or minimum tax — Delaware's $89 filing fee sits alongside a $175 minimum franchise tax every year after. Incorporating out of state also tends to trigger foreign-corporation registration back home, meaning fees in both states rather than one.
: No. 41 states require an annual corporate report, 7 require one every two years, and 2 (Ohio and Oklahoma) require no recurring report with the business filing agency at all. A state requiring no report still expects any state tax return the corporation owes.
: 44 of the 50 states levy a corporate income tax. The six that do not are Nevada, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wyoming — but none of them leaves business activity untaxed: Texas uses a franchise (margin) tax, Washington a B&O gross-receipts tax, Ohio and Nevada their own gross-receipts taxes, Wyoming through its annual report license tax, and South Dakota through its $55 annual report rather than any general corporate franchise tax. Each state page sets out what applies there; this site publishes no national count of franchise taxes, because the state-by-state definitions differ too much for one to mean anything.
: On the state filing fee alone it is usually a wash. Across the 50 states the two entities cost the same to file in 25, the corporation is cheaper in 15, and the LLC is cheaper in 10. The filing fee is a one-off charge and a poor basis for choosing an entity type — ongoing reports, self-employment tax treatment and investor expectations matter far more.

Where these numbers come from

Every figure on this page and the 150 state pages beneath it comes from a 50-state review of corporate filing fees, report requirements and state tax treatment, checked against Secretary of State fee schedules, state statutes and Department of Revenue guidance on July 29, 2026. Commercial formation-service pages were used as leads only and are never cited. Figures that could not be confirmed from an official source are left blank rather than estimated, and each state page lists the primary sources it relies on — start with Delaware or California to see the format.

One exception, stated plainly: the incorporation fee for New Mexico could not be read off an official primary page. It is shown from statute, labelled as unconfirmed on the state page, and excluded from every ranking and average on this page.