Is it cheaper to form an LLC in Ohio than Tennessee?

Ohio's filing fee is lower ($99 vs at least $300), but that's not the full picture: operating in Tennessee means also registering as a foreign LLC there ($300) and paying a Ohio registered agent. Realistic first-year cost is roughly $549 for the Ohio route versus at least $300 for forming in Tennessee.

Can I form my Tennessee business in Ohio?

Yes. Any Tennessee business can form its LLC in Ohio. But if the business operates in Tennessee, it must also register there as a foreign LLC ($300 minimum filing fee) and maintain a registered agent in Ohio, so you take on two states' fees and filings instead of one.

Does Ohio have better asset protection than Tennessee?

Ohio offers more formation privacy. It allows anonymous LLCs while Tennessee doesn't. Core asset protection is similar, though: both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members. For most small businesses the practical difference is modest.

State Comparison

Tennessee LLC vs Ohio LLC (2026)

Written for owners based in Tennessee.

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

Ohio has no annual or biennial report, so $99 opens the company and the Secretary of State asks for nothing after that, and members need not appear on the filing. The Commercial Activity Tax only reaches taxable gross receipts above a $6 million annual exclusion, which most LLCs never touch. Tennessee's franchise tax has no exclusion at the bottom, just a $100 minimum for any registered LLC, and its annual report starts at $300 and adds $50 per member, giving a $400 yearly floor after $700 in year one. Qualifying an Ohio LLC here costs $300 or more.

Based in Ohio? Read Ohio LLC vs Tennessee LLC →

Compare Tennessee LLC vs Ohio 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 Tennessee, a Tennessee LLC needs no foreign registration there; an Ohio LLC run from Tennessee generally must also register in Tennessee as a foreign LLC (a filing fee of at least $300). If your business is based in Ohio, an Ohio LLC needs no foreign registration there; a Tennessee LLC run from Ohio generally must also register in Ohio as a foreign LLC (Ohio's $99 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 Tennessee LLC runs from $700 in year one and from $400/yr after; an Ohio LLC runs $99 and $0/yr. See the full breakdown below.

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Factor	Tennessee	Ohio
Filing Fee	$300	$99
Processing Time	Not published by the state	3 to 7 business days (paper)
Annual Report Fee	$300	None
Annual Report Due	April 1	None required
State Income Tax	No	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	$300 + registered agent ~$150/yr

Full fee breakdown for either state: Tennessee LLC cost and Ohio LLC cost. Owner privacy options for either state: Tennessee anonymous LLC guide and Ohio anonymous LLC guide.

Business Climate: Tennessee vs Ohio

Factor	Tennessee	Ohio
5-year business survival rate	46.4% (#45 of 51)	54.4% (#8 of 51)
Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months))	+19.9% YoY (#16 of 51 by volume)	+16.1% YoY (#8 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: Tennessee vs Ohio

State A

State B

Tennessee

Formation feefrom $300

Annual report feefrom $300

State entity taxfrom $100/yr, Franchise and Excise Tax

Report dueApril 1

Processing timeNot published by the state

Late penalty$0

Ohio

✓ Cheaper Upfront✓ Cheaper Long-Term

Formation fee$99

Annual report feeNo report required

State entity taxNone

Report dueNone required

Processing time3 to 7 business days (paper)

Late penaltyNo report to file late

Total Cost

Tennessee

Ohio

1 Year

from $700

$99

3 Years

from $1,500

$99

5 Years

from $2,300

$99

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

Tennessee charges at least $300 to form an LLC, while Ohio charges $99. Ohio is $201 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Ohio but operate in Tennessee, you must also register as a foreign LLC in Tennessee (a $300 minimum filing) and maintain a registered agent in Ohio (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the Ohio route at roughly $549, versus at least $300 for simply forming in Tennessee. Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Ohio publishes a standard turnaround (3 to 7 business days, paper), while Tennessee publishes no standard processing time, so the two can't be ranked against each other on speed.

Taxes: Tennessee vs Ohio

Tennessee has no personal income tax, while Ohio taxes individual income. Since pass-through LLC profits are taxed where you live and operate, a Tennessee-based owner keeps Tennessee's no-income-tax benefit either way. Forming in Ohio adds no tax advantage. Ohio levies a personal income tax, but the Business Income Deduction exempts the first $250,000 and taxes business income above it at a flat 3%. Tennessee imposes a franchise & excise tax on LLCs: $100 minimum franchise tax plus 6.5% excise tax on net earnings. Ohio's Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) applies only to taxable gross receipts above $6 million (0.26%); smaller businesses owe no CAT.

Privacy & Asset Protection

Ohio allows anonymous LLC formation. Member and manager names don't appear on routine public filings. Ohio's Articles of Organization require only the organizer and statutory agent (no members/managers), and Ohio LLCs file no annual report. Tennessee doesn't offer that same privacy. Tennessee's annual report (a per-member filing) discloses the LLC's members/managers. 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 Ohio LLC as a foreign LLC in Tennessee, that Tennessee registration is itself a public record, which can undercut much of the privacy benefit for a business that operates in Tennessee.

Annual Maintenance Costs

Tennessee LLCs file an annual report (at least $300, due April 1), and Ohio LLCs file no annual report at all. If you form in Ohio while operating in Tennessee, you maintain filings in both states, Ohio asks for no report, but Tennessee still wants its equivalent for your foreign registration, and pay an Ohio registered agent roughly $150 per year. Counting report fees, the agent and any entity-level tax, that brings the Ohio route to roughly $450 a year, versus at least $400 to keep a domestic Tennessee LLC in good standing. The taxes inside those totals: Tennessee imposes a franchise & excise tax on LLCs: $100 minimum franchise tax plus 6.5% excise tax on net earnings. Ohio's Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) applies only to taxable gross receipts above $6 million (0.26%); smaller businesses owe no CAT.

When Ohio Actually Makes Sense

Forming in Ohio makes sense in a few specific situations: you need anonymous ownership. Tennessee puts owner or manager information on public filings and Ohio doesn't (usually via a holding company, since operating in Tennessee still requires a public foreign registration there), your business genuinely operates in Ohio, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to Ohio in the near future and accept taking on Ohio's personal income tax, which Tennessee doesn't levy. For a typical small business based in Tennessee, none of these usually apply. Registering an Ohio LLC to do business back home means at least $300 in Tennessee foreign-registration fees, on top of Ohio's $99 formation fee, while Tennessee's own annual report runs at least $300 a year and is due April 1. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.

Frequently Asked Questions

: Ohio's filing fee is lower ($99 vs at least $300), but that's not the full picture: operating in Tennessee means also registering as a foreign LLC there ($300) and paying a Ohio registered agent. Realistic first-year cost is roughly $549 for the Ohio route versus at least $300 for forming in Tennessee.
: Yes. Any Tennessee business can form its LLC in Ohio. But if the business operates in Tennessee, it must also register there as a foreign LLC ($300 minimum filing fee) and maintain a registered agent in Ohio, so you take on two states' fees and filings instead of one.
: Ohio offers more formation privacy. It allows anonymous LLCs while Tennessee doesn't. Core asset protection is similar, though: both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members. For most small businesses the practical difference is modest.
: It depends on where the business is based. For a Tennessee-based business, Tennessee: forming where the business is based keeps costs and compliance simple, and Ohio is worth considering only if you actually do business there or want an anonymous holding company there. For an Ohio-based business, the same reasoning points to Ohio.
: Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Ohio publishes a standard turnaround (3 to 7 business days, paper), while Tennessee publishes no standard processing time, so the two can't be ranked against each other on speed. Whichever you pick, remember that forming in Ohio while operating in Tennessee means you're not fully set up until the Tennessee 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 Tennessee versus Ohio, contrasting filing fees, annual report cost and ongoing obligations across 8 factors. — Tennessee and Ohio 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

Tennessee vs Oklahoma →Tennessee vs Oregon →Tennessee vs Pennsylvania →Tennessee vs Delaware →Ohio vs Delaware →

Tennessee LLC Guide →Ohio 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.tn.gov/businessesTennessee Secretary of State: business entity filings
sos.tn.gov/businesses/services/business-forms-feesTennessee LLC filing fees
ohiosos.gov/businesses/Ohio Secretary of State: business entity filings
codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-111.16Ohio 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.