Is it cheaper to form an LLC in Florida than New York?

Florida's filing fee is lower ($125 vs $200), but that's not the full picture: operating in New York means also registering as a foreign LLC there ($250) and paying a Florida registered agent. Realistic first-year cost is roughly $525 for the Florida route versus $200 for forming in New York.

Can I form my New York business in Florida?

Yes. Any New York business can form its LLC in Florida. But if the business operates in New York, it must also register there as a foreign LLC ($250 filing fee) and maintain a registered agent in Florida, so you take on two states' fees and filings instead of one.

Does Florida have better asset protection than New York?

Not meaningfully. Both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members, and neither offers a decisive asset-protection edge for a typical small business. Sound insurance and clean separation of business and personal finances matter more in practice.

State Comparison

New York LLC vs Florida LLC (2026)

Written for owners based in New York.

Based in Florida? Read Florida LLC vs New York LLC →

Compare New York 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 13, 2026

If your business is based in New York, a New York LLC needs no foreign registration there; a Florida LLC run from New York generally must also register in New York as a foreign LLC (New York's $250 filing fee). If your business is based in Florida, a Florida LLC needs no foreign registration there; a New York LLC run from Florida generally must also register in Florida as a foreign LLC (Florida's $125 filing fee). An LLC formed in one of these states and run from the other owes whatever filings, fees and taxes each state requires. A New York LLC runs $479.50 in year one and $29.50/yr after; a Florida LLC runs $263.75 and $138.75/yr. See the full breakdown below.

Verdict: for most owners, form where the business is based

Florida's advertised $100 filing fee is really $125, because the registered agent designation fee is mandatory, and its $138.75 annual report is almost five times the $29.50 New York collects. Florida's deadline is unforgiving: one day past May 1 and that report costs $538.75. New York's pressure is front-loaded instead, $200 to file plus notices running six weeks in two county-designated newspapers and a $50 Certificate of Publication. An owner based in New York adds $250 to register the Florida LLC back here.

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Factor	New York	Florida
Filing Fee	$200	$125
Processing Time	Not published by the state	Live queue, not fixed
Annual Report Fee	$9	$138.75
Annual Report Due	Anniversary month (biennial)	May 1
State Income Tax	Yes	No
Anonymous LLC	No	No
Publication Requirement	Yes	No
Foreign LLC Cost (if forming out-of-state)	N/A, you're in your home state	$250 + registered agent ~$150/yr

Full fee breakdown for either state: New York LLC cost and Florida LLC cost.

Business Climate: New York vs Florida

Factor	New York	Florida
5-year business survival rate	51.9% (#23 of 51)	49.5% (#34 of 51)
Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months))	+10.9% YoY (#4 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)

See the full 50-state survival ranking.

Compare LLC Costs: New York vs Florida

State A

State B

New York

✓ Cheaper Long-Term

Formation fee$200

Annual report fee$9 / 2 yrs

State entity tax$25/yr, Partnership, LLC and LLP Annual Filing Fee

Publication (one-time)From $250

Report dueAnniversary month (biennial)

Processing timeNot published by the state

Late penalty$0

Florida

✓ Cheaper Upfront

Formation fee$125

Annual report fee$138.75

State entity taxNone

Report dueMay 1

Processing timeLive queue - no fixed turnaround

Late penalty$400

Total Cost

New York

Florida

1 Year

$479.5

$263.75

3 Years

$538.5

$541.25

5 Years

$597.5

$818.75

Will you operate outside your home state?

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. Montana's annual report is free when filed by April 15 and $35 after, a waiver that applies to reports filed between January 1 and April 15. 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 York charges $200 to form an LLC, while Florida charges $125. Florida is $75 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Florida but operate in New York, you must also register as a foreign LLC in New York (a $250 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 $525, versus $200 for simply forming in New York. Note that New York also requires newly formed LLCs to publish a newspaper notice (New York requires publication of the LLC's formation once a week for six weeks in two county-designated newspapers (LLC Law §206)), which adds to the true formation cost. Speed isn't a basis for choosing between them: neither New York nor Florida publishes a standard processing time, so any figure comparing the two is guesswork.

Taxes: New York vs Florida

Florida has no personal income tax while New York 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 York), not where the LLC is registered, so a Florida LLC offers no income-tax savings for a New York-based business. New York LLCs treated as partnerships/with NY-source income owe an annual filing fee of $25-$4,500 based on NY gross income.

Privacy & Asset Protection

Neither New York nor Florida offers anonymous LLC formation: both states require 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. 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

New York LLCs file a biennial report ($9, due in the anniversary month, every two years), and Florida LLCs file an annual report ($138.75, due May 1). If you form in Florida while operating in New York, you maintain filings in both states, Florida's report plus New York's equivalent for your foreign registration, and pay a Florida registered agent roughly $150 per year. That brings ongoing costs of the Florida route to roughly $297.75 per year, versus about $9 to keep a domestic New York LLC in good standing. One more recurring cost to budget for: New York LLCs treated as partnerships/with NY-source income owe an annual filing fee of $25-$4,500 based on NY gross income.

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 York's personal income tax. For a typical small business based in New York, none of these usually apply. Registering a Florida LLC to do business back home means $250 in New York foreign-registration fees, on top of Florida's $125 formation fee, while New York's own biennial report runs $9 and is due in the anniversary month, every two years. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.

Frequently Asked Questions

: Florida's filing fee is lower ($125 vs $200), but that's not the full picture: operating in New York means also registering as a foreign LLC there ($250) and paying a Florida registered agent. Realistic first-year cost is roughly $525 for the Florida route versus $200 for forming in New York.
: Yes. Any New York business can form its LLC in Florida. But if the business operates in New York, it must also register there as a foreign LLC ($250 filing fee) and maintain a registered agent in Florida, so you take on two states' fees and filings instead of one.
: Not meaningfully. Both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members, and neither offers a decisive asset-protection edge for a typical small business. Sound insurance and clean separation of business and personal finances matter more in practice.
: It depends on where the business is based. For a New York-based business, New York: forming where the business is based keeps costs and compliance simple, and Florida is worth considering only if you actually do business there. For a Florida-based business, the same reasoning points to Florida.
: Speed isn't a basis for choosing between them: neither New York nor Florida publishes a standard processing time, so any figure comparing the two is guesswork. Only 19 of the 50 states publish anything about non-expedited turnaround at all. Whichever you pick, remember that forming in Florida while operating in New York means you're not fully set up until the New York foreign registration is also processed, so the out-of-state route is rarely the faster path end to end. If your timing is genuinely fixed, buy the state's expedite tier rather than relying on a standard turnaround.

Comparison chart of forming an LLC in New York versus Florida, contrasting filing fees, annual report cost and ongoing obligations across 8 factors. — New York and Florida side by side on the factors that decide where to form. Source: MyStateLLC 50-state cost dataset, verified against each Secretary of State's published fee schedule, July 2026.

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More State Comparisons

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New York LLC Guide →Florida LLC Guide →

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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.