How to Form a Corporation in Utah
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 Utah
Incorporation filing
| Document | Articles of Incorporation (Domestic Profit Corporation), filed with the Utah Division of Corporations & Commercial Code. Utah does NOT assign a numeric form code to this document — it is a named form. There is no 'Form 25-1-1'; that string is a mangled Utah Code citation, not a form number. |
| Fee | $59 |
| Recurring report | Annual Report / Business Renewal (Utah Division of Corporations & Commercial Code); no numeric form code. — every year, $18 |
| First report due | Annually, by the end of the entity's registration anniversary month (Annual Report / Business Renewal filed with the Division of Corporations). The $18 renewal/annual report fee includes a $5 State of Utah single-sign-on portal surcharge. |
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 (Domestic Profit Corporation), filed with the Utah Division of Corporations & Commercial Code. Utah does NOT assign a numeric form code to this document — it is a named form. There is no 'Form 25-1-1'; that string is a mangled Utah Code citation, not a form number. | $59 | One time |
| Annual Report / Business Renewal (Utah Division of Corporations & Commercial Code); no numeric form code. | $18 | Every year |
| First-year state filing charges | $77 | — |
| Five-year state filing charges | $149 | — |
Utah is the 10th 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 Utah. 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 Utah before incorporating elsewhere to save on the filing fee.
Utah corporation vs Utah 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 | $59 | $59 |
| Report cadence | Every year | Every year |
| Report fee | $18 | $18 |
| Entity-level tax on the LLC side | — | Corporate Minimum Tax (only LLCs that elect corporate treatment) |
Both entities cost $59 to file in Utah, so the filing fee is not a reason to pick one over the other.
Full Utah LLC cost breakdown · LLC vs C-corp explained · LLC vs S-corp explained
State taxes a Utah corporation pays
Corporate income tax
| Applies | Yes |
| Rate | 4.5% for tax years beginning on or after Jan 1, 2025 (lowered from 4.55% by 2025 HB 106; 4.55% applied for tax year 2024). Utah levies both a corporate franchise tax (on corporations doing business in Utah) and a corporate income tax (on corporations with Utah-source income not qualified to do business), both at the same 4.5% rate. |
| Minimum tax | $100 |
Franchise or gross-receipts tax
Utah's corporate tax is a franchise/income tax at 4.5% (2025). Every C corporation that files Form TC-20 must pay a minimum tax (privilege tax) of $100 regardless of whether it is profitable or exercised its charter. The $100 minimum tax does NOT apply to S corporations (which file TC-20S). Confirmed in the official TC-20 instructions.
The $100 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 Utahlevies — 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: TC-20 (Utah Corporation Franchise and Income Tax Return)
Electing S-corporation status in Utah
Utah follows the federal S election. Full Utah S-corporation election guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where these numbers come from
This page covers the state filing required to incorporate in Utah and the charges that follow it. Every figure was checked against Utah'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.