How to Form a Corporation in New Hampshire
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 you file in New Hampshire
Incorporation filing
| Document | Articles of Incorporation (RSA 293-A:1.22) |
| Fee | $100 |
| Recurring report | Annual Report — every year, $100 |
| First report due | April 1 |
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 (RSA 293-A:1.22) | $100 | One time |
| Annual Report | $100 | Every year |
| First-year state filing charges | $200 | — |
| Five-year state filing charges | $600 | — |
New Hampshire is the 21st 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
A cheaper filing fee elsewhere rarely saves money if you actually operate in New Hampshire. 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 New Hampshire before incorporating elsewhere to save on the filing fee.
New Hampshire corporation vs New Hampshire 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 | $100 | $100 |
| Report cadence | Every year | Every year |
| Report fee | $100 | $100 |
| Entity-level tax on the LLC side | — | Business Profits Tax and Business Enterprise Tax |
Both entities cost $100 to file in New Hampshire, so the filing fee is not a reason to pick one over the other.
Full New Hampshire LLC cost breakdown · LLC vs C-corp explained · LLC vs S-corp explained
State taxes a New Hampshire corporation pays
Corporate income tax
| Applies | Yes |
| Rate | Business Profits Tax (BPT) 7.5% on taxable business profits (for tax periods ending on/after Dec 31, 2023). Return required when gross business income exceeds $92,000 (statutory base, biennially CPI-adjusted). |
Franchise or gross-receipts tax
New Hampshire also imposes the Business Enterprise Tax (BET) at 0.55% on the enterprise value tax base (compensation, interest, and dividends paid) for enterprises with gross business receipts or enterprise value tax base over $250,000 (statutory base, CPI-adjusted to roughly $298,000 for 2025). BET paid is creditable against BPT. New Hampshire has no general personal income tax or sales tax.
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 New Hampshirelevies — 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 NH-1120 (Corporate Business Profits Tax Return), filed with the BET return and BT-Summary
Electing S-corporation status in New Hampshire
New Hampshire does not follow the federal S election for its own tax — the corporation is taxed at the entity level regardless. Full New Hampshire S-corporation election guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where these numbers come from
This page covers the state filing required to incorporate in New Hampshire and the charges that follow it. Every figure was checked against New Hampshire'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.