Arkansas Corporation Annual Report
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.
What Arkansas requires
Annual Franchise Tax Report – Corporation
| Frequency | every year |
| Due | May 1 each year |
| Fee | $150 |
| Form | Annual Franchise Tax Report – Corporation (filed with the Secretary of State; this filing serves as Arkansas's combined annual report and franchise tax) |
Arkansas is one of 41 states on an annual corporate reporting cycle. Nationally, 41 states require an annual corporate report, 7 require one every two years, and 2 require none.
What the filings cost over five years
State filing charges only — incorporation plus five years of reporting, annualized. Corporate income tax and franchise tax are excluded, because both depend on income or net worth.
| Period | State filing charges |
|---|---|
| Incorporation | $50 |
| Each year after (report, annualized) | $150 |
| Five-year equivalent (annualized) | $800 |
That ranks Arkansas 44th cheapest of 49 states on five-year corporate filing charges.
Arkansas corporation vs Arkansas LLC
State filing charges only. Corporate income tax and franchise tax are excluded because both depend on income or net worth, so no flat figure exists for either entity.
| Corporation | LLC | |
|---|---|---|
| Formation filing fee | $50 | $45 |
| Report cadence | Every year | Every year |
| Report fee | $150 | $150 |
| Entity-level tax on the LLC side | — | Arkansas Franchise Tax |
An LLC is $5 cheaper to file here. That is a one-off charge, so it should not decide the entity type on its own.
Full Arkansas LLC cost breakdown · LLC vs C-corp explained · LLC vs S-corp explained
State taxes a Arkansas corporation pays
Corporate income tax
| Applies | Yes |
| Rate | Graduated (tax years beginning on/after 1/1/2024): 1% on the first $3,000; 2% on the next $3,000; 3% on the next $5,000; 4.3% on net income over $11,000. Filed on Form AR1100CT, due the 15th day of the 4th month (April 15 for calendar-year filers). |
Franchise or gross-receipts tax
Arkansas levies an annual franchise tax, administered by the Secretary of State and due May 1. Stock corporations pay 0.3% (.003) of the outstanding capital stock apportioned to Arkansas, with a minimum of $150; corporations without authorized stock pay a flat $300. LLCs pay a flat $150. The franchise tax filing is the same as Arkansas's annual report.
What these totals leave out: the filing-charge figures on this page are what you pay the business filing office. They exclude corporate income tax and any franchise or gross-receipts tax, because both depend on income, net worth or receipts. The section above sets out what Arkansaslevies — or that it levies neither. Where a state's franchise tax carries a flat minimum, that minimum is an unavoidable annual cost these totals do not include, and over five years it can be the larger number.
C-corp return: Form AR1100CT (Arkansas Corporation Income Tax Return), due the 15th day of the 4th month (April 15)
Frequently Asked Questions
Where these numbers come from
This page covers the recurring report a for-profit corporation files with Arkansas. Every figure was checked against Arkansas's own published sources on July 29, 2026— the state business filing agency's fee schedule, the governing statute, and where a state tax applies, the state Department of Revenue. Commercial formation-service pages were used as leads only and are never cited. Anything the review could not confirm from an official source is left blank on this page rather than filled with an estimate.
Corporate income tax and franchise tax are quoted as the state publishes them, as rate schedules and thresholds, and are excluded from every dollar total here. They depend on income or net worth, so there is no flat figure that would be true for every corporation.
Primary sources:
- http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/uploads/bcs/Corp_Filing_Fees_2.pdf
- http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/uploads/bcs/Corp1_FT_2026.pdf
- https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/wp-content/uploads/SubS_Corp_IncomeTaxInst_2025.pdf
- https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/office/taxes/income-tax-administration/corporation-income-tax/corporate-faqs/
- https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/office/taxes/income-tax-administration/small-business-corporate-sub-s/