Is Arizona an expensive state to incorporate in?

On the filing fee alone, Arizona is the 11th cheapest of 49 states to incorporate in. Filing fees across the states run from $35 in Montana to $300 in Texas — a one-off charge that is usually dwarfed by the recurring report fee and any annual franchise or minimum tax, which is where the real long-run difference between states sits.

Is it cheaper to form an LLC or a corporation in Arizona?

An LLC is cheaper to file in Arizona — $50 against $60 for a corporation, a $10 difference on a one-off charge.

Does Arizona tax corporate income?

4.9% of Arizona taxable income (flat rate, A.R.S. § 43-1111), computed on Form 120. The minimum tax is $50.

Incorporation · AZ

How to Form a Corporation in Arizona

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.

Incorporating in Arizona costs $60 to file the Articles of Incorporation - For-Profit, Form C010 (filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission; must be accompanied by a Certificate of Disclosure, Form C003, and Arizona requires newspaper publication of the filing except in Maricopa and Pima counties). After that the corporation files every year and pays $45. First-year state filing charges come to $105.

Filing fee$60

Report cadenceEvery year

First-year filings$105

Corporate income taxYes

What you file in Arizona

Incorporation filing

Document	Articles of Incorporation - For-Profit, Form C010 (filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission; must be accompanied by a Certificate of Disclosure, Form C003, and Arizona requires newspaper publication of the filing except in Maricopa and Pima counties)
Fee	$60
Recurring report	Annual Report – For-profit corporation ($45), filed online through the Arizona Business Center (ABC, formerly eCorp); a Certificate of Disclosure must accompany it — every year, $45
First report due	Annually on the due date assigned by the Arizona Corporation Commission (based on the anniversary of incorporation). Note: Arizona LLCs file NO annual or biennial report — the annual report requirement applies only to corporations.

This page covers the state filing and the charges that follow it. For the procedural side — name availability, registered agent, bylaws and the federal EIN — see the formation guide and how to get an EIN, both of which apply to corporations as well as LLCs.

What it costs to incorporate and stay filed

State filing charges only. Corporate income tax and franchise tax are excluded — both depend on income or net worth, so no flat figure would be true for every corporation.

Charge	Amount	How often
Articles of Incorporation - For-Profit, Form C010 (filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission; must be accompanied by a Certificate of Disclosure, Form C003, and Arizona requires newspaper publication of the filing except in Maricopa and Pima counties)	$60	One time
Annual Report – For-profit corporation ($45), filed online through the Arizona Business Center (ABC, formerly eCorp); a Certificate of Disclosure must accompany it	$45	Every year
First-year state filing charges	$105	—
Five-year state filing charges	$285	—

Arizona is the 11th cheapest of 49 states on the incorporation filing fee alone. Nationally the fee runs from $35 in Montana to $300 in Texas, averaging $113.06. It is a one-off charge, so over five years it is usually outweighed by the recurring report fee and any annual franchise or minimum tax.

States that are cheaper to incorporate in

State	Filing fee	Difference
Montana	$35	$25
Kentucky	$40	$20
Arkansas	$50	$10
Colorado	$50	$10
Hawaii	$50	$10

A cheaper filing fee elsewhere rarely saves money if you actually operate in Arizona. Every state sets its own threshold for what counts as transacting business, and where that threshold is met an out-of-state corporation is generally required to register as a foreign corporation — which would mean fees in both states rather than one. Whether it applies to you depends on facts this page cannot see, so check foreign qualification in Arizona before incorporating elsewhere to save on the filing fee.

Arizona corporation vs Arizona 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	$60	$50
Report cadence	Every year	Not required
Report fee	$45	No report required

An LLC is $10 cheaper to file here. That is a one-off charge, so it should not decide the entity type on its own.

Full Arizona LLC cost breakdown · LLC vs C-corp explained · LLC vs S-corp explained

State taxes a Arizona corporation pays

Corporate income tax

Applies	Yes
Rate	4.9% of Arizona taxable income (flat rate, A.R.S. § 43-1111), computed on Form 120
Minimum tax	$50

Arizona publishes no corporate franchise or gross-receipts tax.

The $50 minimum tax is deliberately left out of the filing-charge totals on this page. A minimum tax is owed to the state tax authority on a tax return, not to the business filing office — but unlike an income-based tax it is a floor, so treat it as a recurring cost of keeping the corporation alive here.

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 Arizonalevies — 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 120 (Arizona Corporation Income Tax Return), due the 15th day of the 4th month after year-end (April 15 for calendar-year filers); Form 120A is the short form

Electing S-corporation status in Arizona

Arizona follows the federal S election. Full Arizona S-corporation election guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

: $60 to file the Articles of Incorporation - For-Profit, Form C010 (filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission; must be accompanied by a Certificate of Disclosure, Form C003, and Arizona requires newspaper publication of the filing except in Maricopa and Pima counties). Adding the first report brings the first-year state filing charges to $105.
: On the filing fee alone, Arizona is the 11th cheapest of 49 states to incorporate in. Filing fees across the states run from $35 in Montana to $300 in Texas — a one-off charge that is usually dwarfed by the recurring report fee and any annual franchise or minimum tax, which is where the real long-run difference between states sits.
: An LLC is cheaper to file in Arizona — $50 against $60 for a corporation, a $10 difference on a one-off charge.
: 4.9% of Arizona taxable income (flat rate, A.R.S. § 43-1111), computed on Form 120. The minimum tax is $50.

Where these numbers come from

This page covers the state filing required to incorporate in Arizona and the charges that follow it. Every figure was checked against Arizona'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: