Arizona LLC vs California LLC (2026)
Written for owners based in Arizona.
Verdict: for most owners, form where the business is based
California's $70 filing fee is the least important number on this page. The Franchise Tax Board's $800 annual tax now applies in year one for an LLC formed today, putting first-year state cost at $880 and every later year at $810 once the biennial Statement of Information is counted. Arizona's first year is the $50 filing plus a publication step that costs nothing only where the Commission posts the notice for a Maricopa or Pima statutory agent. Qualifying a California LLC to do business in Arizona costs a further $150.
Based in California? Read California LLC vs Arizona LLC →
Compare Arizona LLC vs California LLC on filing fees, taxes, privacy laws, and annual costs. Find out which state is actually better for your business.
By Edmond Hui · Last updated: October 5, 2026
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| Factor | Arizona | California |
|---|---|---|
| Filing Fee | $50 | $70 |
| Processing Time | Live queue, not fixed | Live queue, not fixed |
| Annual Report Fee | None | $20 (biennial) |
| Annual Report Due | None required | Anniversary month |
| State Income Tax | Yes | Yes |
| Anonymous LLC | No | No |
| Publication Requirement | Yes (Commission posts it free in Maricopa & Pima counties) | No |
| Foreign LLC Cost (if forming out-of-state) | N/A, you're in your home state | $150 + registered agent ~$150/yr |
Full fee breakdown for either state: Arizona LLC cost and California LLC cost. Owner privacy options for either state: Arizona anonymous LLC guide and California anonymous LLC guide.
Business Climate: Arizona vs California
| Factor | Arizona | California |
|---|---|---|
| 5-year business survival rate | 52.1% (#22 of 51) | 53.7% (#12 of 51) |
| Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months)) | +23.9% YoY (#13 of 51 by volume) | +14.7% YoY (#2 of 51 by volume) |
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics · U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics (BFS)
Compare LLC Costs: Arizona vs California
Arizona
California
A figure shown as "from" is the least the state can charge, not a price. Tennessee's report is $300 for up to six members and $50 for each member above six, its franchise tax is the greater of $100 or 0.25% of Tennessee net worth, Wyoming's report is the greater of $60 or $.0002 per dollar of in-state assets, Kentucky's entity tax is $175 up to $3 million of gross receipts and graduated above it, and New York's annual filing fee is graduated on New York source gross income. A total that contains one of those is shown as "from" for the same reason. Costs include every mandatory state charge: the filing fee, the report fee (annualised where a state files biennially), any state entity-level tax shown in its own row above, a one-time publication cost where the state publishes a rate for it, and any one-time registration charge a state requires before the LLC may trade. Two exclusions follow from that wording. Arizona and Nebraska require publication and publish no rate, so no newspaper cost is carried for either and their totals are not the whole cost. Alaska's $50 annual state business licence is a separate charge from the Secretary of State fees and is not carried here either. Annualising makes the 1, 3 and 5 year rows a cost of ownership rather than a payment schedule: a biennial state charges its whole report fee in the years it falls due and nothing in between. Entity-level taxes that only apply after a corporate election, or above an owner or income threshold, are excluded and flagged on the state's own cost page. New York's publication cost is carried at a $250 floor, roughly $200 of newspaper cost in a low-cost county plus the $50 Certificate of Publication fee. No county-clerk-designated New York City newspaper publishes a rate card, so the four-figure NYC estimates in wide circulation cannot be traced to a primary source and are not asserted here; budget for materially more than the floor if you file in a NYC county. Every fee was verified against the state's own fee schedule, statute, or revenue authority on 29 July 2026. Excludes registered agent and legal fees. For informational purposes only, not legal or tax advice.
Filing Fees & Formation Costs
Arizona charges $50 to form an LLC, while California charges $70. Arizona is $20 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in California but operate in Arizona, you must also register as a foreign LLC in Arizona (a $150 filing) and maintain a registered agent in California (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the California route at roughly $370, versus $50 for simply forming in Arizona. Speed isn't a basis for choosing between them: neither Arizona nor California publishes a standard processing time, so any figure comparing the two is guesswork. Note that Arizona also requires the formation notice to be published within 60 days after the Commission files the Articles. If the statutory agent's street address is in a county of more than 800,000 people (currently Maricopa and Pima), the Corporation Commission posts the notice in its own database instead, free of charge. Everywhere else, the notice must run three consecutive times in a newspaper in that county, at a rate the newspaper sets (the state publishes no cost figure), which adds to the true formation cost.
Taxes: Arizona vs California
Both Arizona and California levy a personal income tax on pass-through business income, and your LLC's profits will be taxed where you live and operate. Forming in California doesn't change what an Arizona-based owner pays. Arizona levies a personal income tax (flat 2.5%). California LLCs owe an $800 minimum annual franchise tax to the Franchise Tax Board, plus an LLC gross-receipts fee above $250,000 of California income.
Privacy & Asset Protection
Neither Arizona nor California offers anonymous LLC formation: both states require owner or manager information on public filings. The biennial Statement of Information (Form LLC-12) discloses managers or, if member-managed, at least one member, all public. Business owners who prioritize privacy typically form a holding company in a state like Wyoming or New Mexico instead. Both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members, and for most small businesses the practical difference in asset protection between the two is minimal.
Annual Maintenance Costs
Arizona LLCs file no annual report at all, and California LLCs file a biennial report ($20, due in the anniversary month, every two years). If you form in California while operating in Arizona, you maintain filings in both states, California's report, though Arizona asks for nothing on the foreign-registration side, and pay a California registered agent roughly $150 per year. Counting report fees, the agent and any entity-level tax, that brings the California route to roughly $970 a year, versus about $0 to keep a domestic Arizona LLC in good standing. The tax inside those totals: California LLCs owe an $800 minimum annual franchise tax to the Franchise Tax Board, plus an LLC gross-receipts fee above $250,000 of California income.
When California Actually Makes Sense
Forming in California makes sense in a few specific situations: your business genuinely operates in California, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to California in the near future. For a typical small business based in Arizona, none of these usually apply. Registering a California LLC to do business back home means $150 in Arizona foreign-registration fees, on top of California's $70 formation fee, while Arizona itself never asks for an annual report at all. Trading Arizona's no-annual-report status for California's filing calendar is a step backwards for most owners. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Start your LLC with ZenBusiness →Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no cost to you. MyStateLLC is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
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Sources
Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so. Where we hold the citation but no stable public link, the citation is printed on its own rather than pointed at a guessed address.
- Arizona statute: A.R.S. 29-3201(G) (newspaper publication of notice)
- azcc.gov/corporationsArizona Corporation Commission: business entity filings
- azcc.gov/docs/default-source/corps-files/fee-schedules/fee-schedule-llcs.pdfArizona LLC filing fees
- sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entitiesCalifornia Secretary of State: business entity filings
- sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/forms/limited-liability-companies-california-domesticCalifornia LLC filing fees
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.