Is it cheaper to form an LLC in Illinois than North Dakota?

No. Illinois costs more upfront ($150 vs $135), and if you operate in North Dakota you must also register there as a foreign LLC ($135) plus pay an Illinois registered agent. Realistic first-year cost is roughly $435 versus $135 for forming locally.

Can I form my North Dakota business in Illinois?

Yes. Any North Dakota business can form its LLC in Illinois. But if the business operates in North Dakota, it must also register there as a foreign LLC ($135 filing fee) and maintain a registered agent in Illinois, so you take on two states' fees and filings instead of one.

Does Illinois have better asset protection than North Dakota?

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

North Dakota LLC vs Illinois LLC (2026)

Written for owners based in North Dakota.

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

Illinois costs $40 more in year one, $225 against North Dakota's $185, and $75 a year against $50. Two Illinois charges sit outside those figures. The delinquency penalty compounds: $100 once you pass the first day of the second month after your anniversary month, then another $100 for each further year late. And an LLC taxed as a partnership owes Personal Property Replacement Tax at 1.5% of net Illinois income, an entity-level charge owners miss precisely because Illinois has no LLC franchise tax. Registering an Illinois LLC here costs $135.

Based in Illinois? Read Illinois LLC vs North Dakota LLC →

Compare North Dakota LLC vs Illinois 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

If your business is based in North Dakota, a North Dakota LLC needs no foreign registration there; an Illinois LLC run from North Dakota generally must also register in North Dakota as a foreign LLC (North Dakota's $135 filing fee). If your business is based in Illinois, an Illinois LLC needs no foreign registration there; a North Dakota LLC run from Illinois generally must also register in Illinois as a foreign LLC (Illinois's $150 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 North Dakota LLC runs $185 in year one and $50/yr after; an Illinois LLC runs $225 and $75/yr. See the full breakdown below.

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Factor	North Dakota	Illinois
Filing Fee	$135	$150
Processing Time	Not published by the state	Not published by the state
Annual Report Fee	$50	$75
Annual Report Due	November 15	Before 1st of anniversary month
State Income Tax	Yes	Yes
Anonymous LLC	No	No
Publication Requirement	No	No
Foreign LLC Cost (if forming out-of-state)	N/A, you're in your home state	$135 + registered agent ~$150/yr

Full fee breakdown for either state: North Dakota LLC cost and Illinois LLC cost. Owner privacy options for either state: North Dakota anonymous LLC guide and Illinois anonymous LLC guide.

Business Climate: North Dakota vs Illinois

Factor	North Dakota	Illinois
5-year business survival rate	54.4% (#7 of 51)	55.6% (#3 of 51)
Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months))	+14% YoY (#50 of 51 by volume)	+7.7% YoY (#7 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: North Dakota vs Illinois

State A

State B

North Dakota

✓ Cheaper Upfront✓ Cheaper Long-Term

Formation fee$135

Annual report fee$50

State entity taxNone

Report dueNovember 15

Processing timeNot published by the state

Late penalty$50

Illinois

Formation fee$150

Annual report fee$75

State entity taxNone

Report dueBefore 1st of anniversary month

Processing timeNot published by the state

Late penalty$100

Total Cost

North Dakota

Illinois

1 Year

$185

$225

3 Years

$285

$375

5 Years

$385

$525

Will you operate outside your home state?

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

North Dakota charges $135 to form an LLC, while Illinois charges $150. North Dakota is $15 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Illinois but operate in North Dakota, you must also register as a foreign LLC in North Dakota (a $135 filing) and maintain a registered agent in Illinois (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the Illinois route at roughly $435, versus $135 for simply forming in North Dakota. Speed isn't a basis for choosing between them: neither North Dakota nor Illinois publishes a standard processing time, so any figure comparing the two is guesswork.

Taxes: North Dakota vs Illinois

Both North Dakota and Illinois 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 Illinois doesn't change what a North Dakota-based owner pays. Illinois levies a flat 4.95% personal income tax. Neither state imposes a separate franchise or privilege tax on LLCs beyond standard filing fees.

Privacy & Asset Protection

Neither North Dakota nor Illinois offers anonymous LLC formation: both states require owner or manager information on public filings. Illinois doesn't permit anonymous LLC formation; management is disclosed on public filings. 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

North Dakota LLCs file an annual report ($50, due November 15), and Illinois LLCs file an annual report ($75, due in the anniversary month). If you form in Illinois while operating in North Dakota, you maintain filings in both states, Illinois's report plus North Dakota's equivalent for your foreign registration, and pay an Illinois registered agent roughly $150 per year. Counting report fees, the agent and any entity-level tax, that brings the Illinois route to roughly $275 a year, versus about $50 to keep a domestic North Dakota LLC in good standing.

When Illinois Actually Makes Sense

Forming in Illinois makes sense in a few specific situations: your business genuinely operates in Illinois, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to Illinois in the near future. For a typical small business based in North Dakota, none of these usually apply. Registering an Illinois LLC to do business back home means $135 in North Dakota foreign-registration fees, on top of Illinois's $150 formation fee, while North Dakota's own annual report runs $50 a year and is due November 15. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.

Frequently Asked Questions

: No. Illinois costs more upfront ($150 vs $135), and if you operate in North Dakota you must also register there as a foreign LLC ($135) plus pay an Illinois registered agent. Realistic first-year cost is roughly $435 versus $135 for forming locally.
: Yes. Any North Dakota business can form its LLC in Illinois. But if the business operates in North Dakota, it must also register there as a foreign LLC ($135 filing fee) and maintain a registered agent in Illinois, 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 North Dakota-based business, North Dakota: forming where the business is based keeps costs and compliance simple, and Illinois is worth considering only if you actually do business there. For an Illinois-based business, the same reasoning points to Illinois.
: Speed isn't a basis for choosing between them: neither North Dakota nor Illinois publishes a standard processing time, so any figure comparing the two is guesswork. Whichever you pick, remember that forming in Illinois while operating in North Dakota means you're not fully set up until the North Dakota 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 North Dakota versus Illinois, contrasting filing fees, annual report cost and ongoing obligations across 8 factors. — North Dakota and Illinois 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

North Dakota vs Indiana →North Dakota vs Iowa →North Dakota vs Kansas →North Dakota vs Delaware →Illinois vs Delaware →

North Dakota LLC Guide →Illinois LLC Guide →

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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.

sos.nd.gov/business/business-services/business-structures/limited-liability-company-llcNorth Dakota Secretary of State: business entity filings
ndlegis.gov/cencode/t10c32-1.pdfNorth Dakota LLC filing fees
ilsos.gov/departments/business-services/limited-liability-companies.htmlIllinois Secretary of State: business entity filings
ilga.gov/legislation/ILCS/details?ActName=Limited+Liability+Company+Act.&ActID=2290&ChapterID=65&ChapAct=805+ILCS+180%2F&SeqStart=14450000&SeqEnd=15800000Illinois 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.