North Dakota LLC vs New Mexico LLC (2026)
Written for owners based in North Dakota.
Verdict: for most owners, form where the business is based
New Mexico is $50 to form and then genuinely nothing: no annual report, no biennial report and no entity-level tax on a default-classified LLC, against $135 plus $50 every November in North Dakota. What replaces the invoice is silence. With no report there is no yearly nudge, and New Mexico law still allows administrative revocation of an LLC that quietly loses its registered agent or office. Registering an out-of-state LLC in New Mexico costs $100, double the domestic fee; the return trip into North Dakota costs $135.
Based in New Mexico? Read New Mexico LLC vs North Dakota LLC →
Compare North Dakota LLC vs New Mexico 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
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| Factor | North Dakota | New Mexico |
|---|---|---|
| Filing Fee | $135 | $50 |
| Processing Time | Not published by the state | Not published by the state |
| Annual Report Fee | $50 | None |
| Annual Report Due | November 15 | None required |
| State Income Tax | Yes | Yes |
| Anonymous LLC | No | Yes |
| 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 New Mexico LLC cost. Owner privacy options for either state: North Dakota anonymous LLC guide and New Mexico anonymous LLC guide.
Business Climate: North Dakota vs New Mexico
| Factor | North Dakota | New Mexico |
|---|---|---|
| 5-year business survival rate | 54.4% (#7 of 51) | 46.3% (#46 of 51) |
| Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months)) | +14% YoY (#50 of 51 by volume) | +12.6% YoY (#37 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: North Dakota vs New Mexico
North Dakota
New Mexico
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 New Mexico charges $50. New Mexico is $85 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in New Mexico 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 New Mexico (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the New Mexico route at roughly $335, versus $135 for simply forming in North Dakota. Speed isn't a basis for choosing between them: neither North Dakota nor New Mexico publishes a standard processing time, so any figure comparing the two is guesswork.
Taxes: North Dakota vs New Mexico
Both North Dakota and New Mexico 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 New Mexico doesn't change what a North Dakota-based owner pays. Neither state imposes a separate franchise or privilege tax on LLCs beyond standard filing fees.
Privacy & Asset Protection
New Mexico allows anonymous LLC formation. Member and manager names don't appear on routine public filings. New Mexico's Articles of Organization require only the organizer and registered agent, and LLCs file no annual report, so members and managers stay off public filings. North Dakota doesn't offer that same privacy. North Dakota's annual report lists the LLC's managers or members. 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. One important caveat: if you register your New Mexico LLC as a foreign LLC in North Dakota, that North Dakota registration is itself a public record, which can undercut much of the privacy benefit for a business that operates in North Dakota.
Annual Maintenance Costs
North Dakota LLCs file an annual report ($50, due November 15), and New Mexico LLCs file no annual report at all. If you form in New Mexico while operating in North Dakota, you maintain filings in both states, New Mexico asks for no report, but North Dakota still wants its equivalent for your foreign registration, and pay a New Mexico registered agent roughly $150 per year. Counting report fees, the agent and any entity-level tax, that brings the New Mexico route to roughly $200 a year, versus about $50 to keep a domestic North Dakota LLC in good standing.
When New Mexico Actually Makes Sense
Forming in New Mexico makes sense in a few specific situations: you need anonymous ownership. North Dakota puts owner or manager information on public filings and New Mexico doesn't (usually via a holding company, since operating in North Dakota still requires a public foreign registration there), your business genuinely operates in New Mexico, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to New Mexico in the near future. For a typical small business based in North Dakota, none of these usually apply. Registering a New Mexico LLC to do business back home means $135 in North Dakota foreign-registration fees, on top of New Mexico's $50 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
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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.
- New Mexico statute: NMSA 1978 Section 53-19-66.1 (revocation for agent lapse)
- 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
- sos.nm.gov/business-services/New Mexico 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.