New Mexico LLC vs Florida LLC (2026)
Written for owners based in New Mexico.
Verdict: for most owners, form where the business is based
Florida's advertised $100 filing fee does not exist in practice: a mandatory $25 registered agent designation makes the real formation cost $125. The annual report is $138.75 and becomes $538.75 the day after May 1, a flat $400 penalty Florida applies to LLCs by name. New Mexico charges $50 once and has no report, so there is no deadline to miss. Florida's lack of a personal income tax is a genuine draw, but it reaches Florida residents, not an owner based in New Mexico paying $100 to qualify a Florida LLC here.
Based in Florida? Read Florida LLC vs New Mexico LLC →
Compare New Mexico LLC vs Florida 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: September 23, 2026
Using a formation service? We compare the 4 formation services that pay us a commission, on three-year service cost, BBB rating and Trustpilot score.
Compare LLC formation services →Or by state: Best LLC services in New Mexico, Best LLC services in Florida
Ready to file? Our affiliate partner ZenBusiness files your LLC formation paperwork, from $0 + state fee.
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.
| Factor | New Mexico | Florida |
|---|---|---|
| Filing Fee | $50 | $125 |
| Processing Time | Not published by the state | Live queue, not fixed |
| Annual Report Fee | None | $138.75 |
| Annual Report Due | None required | May 1 |
| State Income Tax | Yes | No |
| Anonymous LLC | Yes | No |
| Publication Requirement | No | No |
| Foreign LLC Cost (if forming out-of-state) | N/A, you're in your home state | $100 + registered agent ~$150/yr |
Full fee breakdown for either state: New Mexico LLC cost and Florida LLC cost. Owner privacy options for either state: New Mexico anonymous LLC guide and Florida anonymous LLC guide.
Business Climate: New Mexico vs Florida
| Factor | New Mexico | Florida |
|---|---|---|
| 5-year business survival rate | 46.3% (#46 of 51) | 49.5% (#34 of 51) |
| Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months)) | +12.6% YoY (#37 of 51 by volume) | +15.5% YoY (#1 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: New Mexico vs Florida
New Mexico
Florida
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
New Mexico charges $50 to form an LLC, while Florida charges $125. New Mexico is $75 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Florida but operate in New Mexico, you must also register as a foreign LLC in New Mexico (a $100 filing) and maintain a registered agent in Florida (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the Florida route at roughly $375, versus $50 for simply forming in New Mexico. Speed isn't a basis for choosing between them: neither New Mexico nor Florida publishes a standard processing time, so any figure comparing the two is guesswork.
Taxes: New Mexico vs Florida
Florida has no personal income tax while New Mexico does, but forming your LLC in Florida won't change that. LLC profits pass through to you and are taxed where you live and operate (in New Mexico), not where the LLC is registered, so a Florida LLC offers no income-tax savings for a New Mexico-based business. Neither state imposes a separate franchise or privilege tax on LLCs beyond standard filing fees.
Privacy & Asset Protection
New Mexico, your home state, actually offers more formation privacy than Florida: New Mexico allows anonymous LLC formation, while Florida requires owner or manager information on public filings. An authorized person signs the Articles, and the annual report lists managers/authorized members on Sunbiz, so management is a public record. 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. From a privacy standpoint there's no reason for a New Mexico-based business to form in Florida.
Annual Maintenance Costs
New Mexico LLCs file no annual report at all, and Florida LLCs file an annual report ($138.75, due May 1). If you form in Florida while operating in New Mexico, you maintain filings in both states, Florida's report, though New Mexico asks for nothing on the foreign-registration side, and pay a Florida registered agent roughly $150 per year. Counting report fees, the agent and any entity-level tax, that brings the Florida route to roughly $288.75 a year, versus about $0 to keep a domestic New Mexico LLC in good standing.
When Florida Actually Makes Sense
Forming in Florida makes sense in a few specific situations: your business genuinely operates in Florida, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to Florida in the near future, which would also move you out of New Mexico's personal income tax. For a typical small business based in New Mexico, none of these usually apply. Registering a Florida LLC to do business back home means $100 in New Mexico foreign-registration fees, on top of Florida's $125 formation fee, while New Mexico itself never asks for an annual report at all. New Mexico already allows anonymous formation, so the privacy argument for Florida doesn't apply to a New Mexico-based owner. Trading New Mexico's no-annual-report status for Florida's filing calendar is a step backwards for most owners. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to form your LLC?
Using a formation service? We compare the 4 formation services that pay us a commission, on three-year service cost, BBB rating and Trustpilot score.
Compare LLC formation services →Or by state: Best LLC services in New Mexico, Best LLC services in Florida
Our affiliate partner ZenBusiness files your LLC formation paperwork, from $0 + state fee.
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.
More State Comparisons
Embed this comparison, free
Add the New Mexico vs Florida cost calculator to any page. Works in WordPress, Squarespace, Webflow, and any HTML site.
<iframe src="https://www.mystatellc.com/tools/compare-states?embed=1&stateA=NM&stateB=FL" width="100%" height="720" frameborder="0" style="border:0;max-width:900px;display:block;margin:0 auto;" title="New Mexico vs Florida LLC Cost Comparison" loading="lazy"></iframe> <p style="text-align:center;font-size:.8125rem;color:#6b7280">Source: <a href="https://www.mystatellc.com/llc/compare/new-mexico-llc-vs-florida-llc">MyStateLLC, New Mexico vs Florida LLC Comparison</a></p>
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.
- sos.nm.gov/business-services/New Mexico Secretary of State: business entity filings
- dos.fl.gov/sunbiz/Florida Secretary of State: business entity filings
- dos.fl.gov/sunbiz/forms/fees/Florida 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.