Arizona LLC vs Nevada LLC (2026)
Written for owners based in Arizona.
Verdict: for most owners, form where the business is based
The $75 Nevada filing fee is the smallest part of the bill. A $150 Initial List must be filed with the articles and a $200 State Business License with that list, so year one is $425 and every year after is $350, with no exemption for a dormant or zero-revenue company. Arizona is $50 once and $0 after, its only follow-on step being the newspaper notice, posted free by the Commission for Maricopa and Pima statutory agents. Nevada levies no personal income tax; registering its LLC in Arizona costs $150.
Based in Nevada? Read Nevada LLC vs Arizona LLC →
Compare Arizona LLC vs Nevada 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 | Nevada |
|---|---|---|
| Filing Fee | $50 | $75 ($425 with the required initial list and business license) |
| Processing Time | Live queue, not fixed | Same day (online) |
| Annual Report Fee | None | $150 annual list ($350 with the business license renewal) |
| Annual Report Due | None required | Anniversary month |
| State Income Tax | Yes | No |
| 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 Nevada LLC cost. Owner privacy options for either state: Arizona anonymous LLC guide and Nevada anonymous LLC guide.
Business Climate: Arizona vs Nevada
| Factor | Arizona | Nevada |
|---|---|---|
| 5-year business survival rate | 52.1% (#22 of 51) | 47.6% (#41 of 51) |
| Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months)) | +23.9% YoY (#13 of 51 by volume) | +10.8% YoY (#30 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 Nevada
Arizona
Nevada
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 Nevada charges $425. Arizona is $375 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Nevada but operate in Arizona, you must also register as a foreign LLC in Arizona (a $150 filing) and maintain a registered agent in Nevada (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the Nevada route at roughly $725, versus $50 for simply forming in Arizona. Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Nevada publishes a standard turnaround (same day, online), while Arizona posts a rolling queue of the dates it's currently working through rather than a turnaround, so the two can't be ranked against each other on speed. 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 Nevada
Nevada has no personal income tax while Arizona does, but forming your LLC in Nevada won't change that. LLC profits pass through to you and are taxed where you live and operate (in Arizona), not where the LLC is registered, so a Nevada LLC offers no income-tax savings for an Arizona-based business. Arizona levies a personal income tax (flat 2.5%). Every LLC must hold a State Business License at $200/year (corporations pay $500) and file a $150 Annual List, $350/year total recurring. The Commerce Tax applies only to businesses with Nevada gross revenue over $4 million.
Privacy & Asset Protection
Neither Arizona nor Nevada offers anonymous LLC formation: both states require owner or manager information on public filings. Confirmed not anonymous despite marketing: both the domestic Initial/Annual List and the foreign LLC list must state the names, titles, and addresses of all managers or, if none, all managing members, and these lists are public record filed at formation and annually. 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 Nevada LLCs file an annual report ($150, due in the anniversary month). If you form in Nevada while operating in Arizona, you maintain filings in both states, Nevada's report, though Arizona asks for nothing on the foreign-registration side, and pay a Nevada registered agent roughly $150 per year. Counting report fees, the agent and any entity-level tax, that brings the Nevada route to roughly $500 a year, versus about $0 to keep a domestic Arizona LLC in good standing. The tax inside those totals: Every LLC must hold a State Business License at $200/year (corporations pay $500) and file a $150 Annual List, $350/year total recurring. The Commerce Tax applies only to businesses with Nevada gross revenue over $4 million.
When Nevada Actually Makes Sense
Forming in Nevada makes sense in a few specific situations: your business genuinely operates in Nevada, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to Nevada in the near future, which would also move you out of Arizona's personal income tax. For a typical small business based in Arizona, none of these usually apply. Registering a Nevada LLC to do business back home means $150 in Arizona foreign-registration fees, on top of Nevada's $425 formation fee, while Arizona itself never asks for an annual report at all. Trading Arizona's no-annual-report status for Nevada'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)
- Nevada statute: NRS 76.100 (state business license)
- Nevada statute: NRS 86.263/86.5461 (annual list)
- Nevada statute: NRS ch. 363C (Commerce Tax)
- Nevada statute: NRS 86.263(1) (domestic initial and annual list)
- Nevada statute: NRS 86.5461(1) (foreign LLC list)
- azcc.gov/corporationsArizona Corporation Commission: business entity filings
- azcc.gov/docs/default-source/corps-files/fee-schedules/fee-schedule-llcs.pdfArizona LLC filing fees
- nvsos.gov/sos/businesses/start-a-business/limited-liability-companyNevada Secretary of State: business entity filings
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.