What happens if I miss the April 1st annual report deadline in New Hampshire?

If you miss the April 1 annual report deadline, New Hampshire law adds an additional late filing fee of $50, so the report costs $150 instead of $100. That is a single flat fee. New Hampshire does not charge a daily accrual or a rising cap. The filing itself is the annual report submitted to the New Hampshire Secretary of State's Division of Corporations, and the window it belongs to runs from January 1 to April 1. Your LLC's good standing is at risk while the report is outstanding, which can jeopardize contracts, licenses, and the entity's liability protection. An LLC that keeps not filing is subject to administrative dissolution, after which reinstatement costs $135, or $500 for late reinstatement. File the overdue report at sos.nh.gov as soon as you realize it is late, since the cost only escalates if the LLC lapses into dissolution.

Do I need to publish my LLC formation in New Hampshire newspapers?

No, New Hampshire doesn't require LLC publication in newspapers. New Hampshire's LLC Act contains no newspaper publication requirement, and formation is complete on the Secretary of State's receipt and filing of the Certificate of Formation. That saves you the cost and the administrative burden that publication states impose: selecting approved newspapers, coordinating publication timelines, and obtaining affidavits of publication to file with the state. New Hampshire has none of it. You still file your Certificate of Formation (form LLC-1) with the New Hampshire Secretary of State and pay the $100 fee. Your recurring Secretary of State obligation is the $100 annual report, due between January 1 and April 1. Separately, the Department of Revenue Administration collects Business Profits Tax and Business Enterprise Tax if your LLC clears their thresholds. Next step: file your Certificate of Formation with the NH Secretary of State's business services division to complete your LLC formation, with no newspaper requirement to satisfy.

Can I be my own registered agent for my New Hampshire LLC?

Yes, you can serve as your own registered agent for your New Hampshire LLC if you maintain a physical street address (not a PO box) within the state and are consistently available during normal business hours to receive legal documents. You list your name and address on the Certificate of Formation filed with the New Hampshire Secretary of State. This approach carries practical risks. As your own agent, you are personally responsible for receiving and promptly forwarding all legal documents, tax notices, and compliance deadlines. Missing service of process could result in a default judgment against your LLC. Your address also becomes public record, accessible through the Secretary of State's database. Many New Hampshire LLC owners instead hire a professional registered agent service, which typically costs $100 to $300 annually. These services maintain a stable address, ensure documents are received, and send compliance reminders ahead of the January 1 to April 1 annual report window. To proceed, decide whether you will self-serve or retain an agent before filing your Certificate of Formation, and remember to confirm the agent's details on each annual report.

How does New Hampshire's tax structure benefit my LLC?

New Hampshire levies no general sales tax and no broad-based tax on wages, which is a real advantage for members taking distributions from an LLC. But it is a mistake to call New Hampshire a no-tax state for LLCs, because it taxes business organizations at the entity level. The Business Profits Tax is 7.5% of taxable business profits and is owed by organizations with gross business income above the filing threshold, $109,000 for taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, a figure adjusted biennially for inflation from the $92,000 base in state law. The Business Enterprise Tax is 0.55% of the taxable enterprise value tax base for enterprises with gross business receipts or an enterprise value tax base above $298,000, adjusted biennially from the $250,000 base in state law. Neither tax has a flat minimum, so below the thresholds the tax is zero and no return is required. That is what makes the structure genuinely favorable for a small LLC: it pays $100 a year to the Secretary of State and nothing to the Department of Revenue Administration until it grows past those thresholds, at which point the tax dwarfs the filing fee. Model your projected gross business income against the $109,000 and $298,000 thresholds with a New Hampshire tax professional before you assume either tax does or does not reach you.

Compliance · NH

New Hampshire LLC Annual Compliance Requirements (2026)

Everything your New Hampshire LLC must do to stay in good standing, annual report deadlines, registered agent rules, and state-specific obligations.

First-Year Total$200

Annual Ongoing$100/yr

vs National Avg- $32.13

By Edmond Hui · Last updated: August 22, 2026

New Hampshire has one of the tidiest LLC fee structures in the country. New Hampshire sets a flat $100 for the Certificate of Formation (form LLC-1), with no online or paper split, and the annual report is a flat $100 due between January 1 and April 1 each year. That puts first-year cost at $200, roughly $32 below the national average. There is a first-year quirk worth knowing before you file anything: under New Hampshire law, an LLC formed between December 1 and April 1 is not required to file an annual report that year, so a December formation legally skips a $100 report. Miss April 1 and New Hampshire law adds a flat $50 late filing fee, taking the report to $150; let the LLC lapse into administrative dissolution and reinstatement is $135, or $500 for late reinstatement. The real New Hampshire cost is tax rather than filing fees. The state levies no general sales tax and no broad-based tax on wages, but it does tax business organizations at the entity level: Business Profits Tax at 7.5% of taxable business profits once gross business income exceeds $109,000, and Business Enterprise Tax at 0.55% of the enterprise value tax base once gross receipts or that base exceeds $298,000. Below those thresholds the tax is zero. New Hampshire requires no newspaper publication, and Manchester and Portsmouth anchor a diverse economy spanning technology, advanced manufacturing and healthcare.

Stat card for New Hampshire LLC compliance costs: $200 in unavoidable first-year charges and $100 a year after that, −$32.13 against the $232.13 national first-year average. Its annual report costs $100. — First-year total bundles the state filing fee with any report or entity tax due in year one; the recurring figure is what New Hampshire costs every year after that. Source: New Hampshire's published filing requirements and fee schedule, verified July 2026; national average from MyStateLLC's 50-state compliance dataset.

Annual Report Requirements

Due: April 1

Fee: $100

Frequency: annual

How: Online or mail

Full New Hampshire Annual Report Guide →

Registered Agent Requirements

Understand the legal requirements, compare your options, and choose the right registered agent for your New Hampshire LLC, whose name and address you confirm on every annual report.

Before you compare paid services: in most states the LLC's owner, or another individual who qualifies, may serve as its registered agent themselves, generally subject to that state's rules on keeping a street address in the state and being available there during normal business hours. A paid service is one way to meet the requirement and not the only one. The New Hampshire registered agent requirements set out what New Hampshire itself asks.

Registered agent services for New Hampshire LLCs

Affiliate disclosure: Northwest Registered Agent, Bizee, ZenBusiness and LegalZoom pay us a commission if you sign up through our link, at no extra cost to you. We list only the registered agent services we have an affiliate relationship with, so this is not a survey of the whole market.

This list is not scored. The four are listed cheapest annual renewal first, and every claim below is about the services listed here rather than the whole market.

Northwest Registered Agent$125/yr renewal
Best for: Privacy-focused owners and anyone who just needs an agent, not a formation bundle
Bizee$149/yr renewal
Best for: A free first year on every plan, renewing at $149/yr, if you're comfortable with the BBB caveat
ZenBusiness$199/yr renewal
Best for: First-time founders forming a new LLC who want phone, email and chat support
LegalZoom$249/yr renewal
Best for: Complex structures that want attorney consultations, which come with LegalZoom's Pro and Premium formation plans rather than this renewal price

Note: Bizee holds a C rating from the BBB and is not accredited. BBB's profile carries a live alert describing a pattern of complaints about unexpected charges, difficulty canceling and filing delays, and Bizee has posted a response to it. We flag this so you can make an informed choice.

Annual renewal is each provider's own standard published rate. Check the current terms at each provider before you buy. The scored ranking, and the formula behind it, is in our full formation services review →

New Hampshire Registered Agent Requirements →

Late Filing Penalties

Penalty: $50 additional late filing fee, making a late report $150. An LLC that stops filing is also subject to administrative dissolution

New Hampshire Late Fee Guide →

New Hampshire-Specific Compliance Considerations

Forming in December Can Skip a Whole Annual Report

New Hampshire law makes your first annual report due between January 1 and April 1 of the year after the calendar year you formed, but exempts an LLC formed between December 1 and April 1 from filing that year. An LLC formed in December 2026 skips 2027 and first files in the January 1 to April 1, 2028 window. It is a genuine $100 saving, and it also means a first-year founder should not assume a report is due.

Flat $100 Fees, No Online or Paper Split

New Hampshire sets a flat $100 for the Certificate of Formation and a flat $100 annual report, with no surcharge for filing on paper. Certificates are cheap too: $5 for a certificate of good standing, $6 for a certified copy of a single document, and $15 for a name reservation.

The $50 Late Fee Is Statutory, Not Discretionary

New Hampshire law adds an additional $50 late filing fee for failure or refusal to file the annual report or pay the fee on or before April 1, taking the report from $100 to $150. It is a single flat amount rather than a daily or monthly accrual, and it is not a matter of Secretary of State discretion. Let the LLC lapse into administrative dissolution and reinstatement is $135, or $500 for late reinstatement.

New Hampshire Taxes the LLC Itself

New Hampshire is unusual in taxing LLCs at the entity level. An LLC with gross business income over $109,000 files a Business Profits Tax return at 7.5% of taxable business profits, and one with gross receipts or an enterprise value tax base over $298,000 owes Business Enterprise Tax at 0.55%. Both dwarf the $100 annual report, and both are administered by the Department of Revenue Administration rather than the Secretary of State. Below the thresholds the tax is zero.

Registered Agent Requirement

All New Hampshire LLCs must maintain a registered agent with a New Hampshire address. You can serve as your own registered agent if you have a physical address in the state, or hire a professional service. The agent's name and address are confirmed on every annual report.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state publishes about filing deadlines, fees, and the consequences of missing them, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you what your own company owes: the date turns on when and where you formed, states change these rules between our reviews, and in several states an entity-level tax falls due in a year when no report does. Confirm your own dates with the filing office named on this page before you rely on one here, because the penalty for missing a deadline can be administrative dissolution of the company.

Frequently Asked Questions

: If you miss the April 1 annual report deadline, New Hampshire law adds an additional late filing fee of $50, so the report costs $150 instead of $100. That is a single flat fee. New Hampshire does not charge a daily accrual or a rising cap. The filing itself is the annual report submitted to the New Hampshire Secretary of State's Division of Corporations, and the window it belongs to runs from January 1 to April 1. Your LLC's good standing is at risk while the report is outstanding, which can jeopardize contracts, licenses, and the entity's liability protection. An LLC that keeps not filing is subject to administrative dissolution, after which reinstatement costs $135, or $500 for late reinstatement. File the overdue report at sos.nh.gov as soon as you realize it is late, since the cost only escalates if the LLC lapses into dissolution.
: No, New Hampshire doesn't require LLC publication in newspapers. New Hampshire's LLC Act contains no newspaper publication requirement, and formation is complete on the Secretary of State's receipt and filing of the Certificate of Formation. That saves you the cost and the administrative burden that publication states impose: selecting approved newspapers, coordinating publication timelines, and obtaining affidavits of publication to file with the state. New Hampshire has none of it. You still file your Certificate of Formation (form LLC-1) with the New Hampshire Secretary of State and pay the $100 fee. Your recurring Secretary of State obligation is the $100 annual report, due between January 1 and April 1. Separately, the Department of Revenue Administration collects Business Profits Tax and Business Enterprise Tax if your LLC clears their thresholds. Next step: file your Certificate of Formation with the NH Secretary of State's business services division to complete your LLC formation, with no newspaper requirement to satisfy.
: Yes, you can serve as your own registered agent for your New Hampshire LLC if you maintain a physical street address (not a PO box) within the state and are consistently available during normal business hours to receive legal documents. You list your name and address on the Certificate of Formation filed with the New Hampshire Secretary of State. This approach carries practical risks. As your own agent, you are personally responsible for receiving and promptly forwarding all legal documents, tax notices, and compliance deadlines. Missing service of process could result in a default judgment against your LLC. Your address also becomes public record, accessible through the Secretary of State's database. Many New Hampshire LLC owners instead hire a professional registered agent service, which typically costs $100 to $300 annually. These services maintain a stable address, ensure documents are received, and send compliance reminders ahead of the January 1 to April 1 annual report window. To proceed, decide whether you will self-serve or retain an agent before filing your Certificate of Formation, and remember to confirm the agent's details on each annual report.
: New Hampshire levies no general sales tax and no broad-based tax on wages, which is a real advantage for members taking distributions from an LLC. But it is a mistake to call New Hampshire a no-tax state for LLCs, because it taxes business organizations at the entity level. The Business Profits Tax is 7.5% of taxable business profits and is owed by organizations with gross business income above the filing threshold, $109,000 for taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, a figure adjusted biennially for inflation from the $92,000 base in state law. The Business Enterprise Tax is 0.55% of the taxable enterprise value tax base for enterprises with gross business receipts or an enterprise value tax base above $298,000, adjusted biennially from the $250,000 base in state law. Neither tax has a flat minimum, so below the thresholds the tax is zero and no return is required. That is what makes the structure genuinely favorable for a small LLC: it pays $100 a year to the Secretary of State and nothing to the Department of Revenue Administration until it grows past those thresholds, at which point the tax dwarfs the filing fee. Model your projected gross business income against the $109,000 and $298,000 thresholds with a New Hampshire tax professional before you assume either tax does or does not reach you.

Sources

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified New Hampshire 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 Hampshire statute: RSA 304-C:194, III(b) (first-year report exemption)
New Hampshire statute: RSA 304-C:191, II(f) (annual report late fee)
New Hampshire statute: RSA 304-C:191, II(c) (certificate of formation fee)
New Hampshire statute: RSA 304-C:194, III(a) (first annual report due date)
New Hampshire statute: RSA 304-C:191 (filing fees)
New Hampshire statute: RSA 304-C:138, I (reinstatement fee)
New Hampshire statute: RSA 304-C:145, I (late reinstatement fee)
New Hampshire statute: RSA 304-C (LLC Act)
New Hampshire statute: RSA 304-C:31 (formation)
New Hampshire statute: RSA 77-A:2 (business profits tax rate)
New Hampshire statute: RSA 77-A:6 (business profits tax threshold)
New Hampshire statute: RSA 77-E:2, II (business enterprise tax rate)
New Hampshire statute: RSA 77-E:5 (business enterprise tax threshold)
sos.nh.gov/corporations-0New Hampshire Secretary of State: business entity filings
gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XXVIII/304-C/304-C-194.htmNew Hampshire statute: Annual Report

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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.