How much does it cost to start an LLC in Arkansas?

Arkansas charges $45 to file the Certificate of Organization (form LL-01) online, or $50 to mail or deliver it. Name reservation is optional at $22.50 online / $25 on paper. A foreign LLC registering in Arkansas pays $270 online or $300 on paper.

How much is the Arkansas LLC franchise tax?

Every Arkansas LLC pays a flat $150 annual franchise tax, due on or before May 1 for the preceding calendar year. Filing and paying online adds a $5.00 credit-card processing fee for a $155 total; mailing the report carries no processing fee.

What happens if I don't pay Arkansas franchise tax?

Late filing adds a $25 penalty plus interest of 0.000274 per day on the combined tax and penalty. Continued non-payment can lead to revocation of your authority to do business, the tax keeps accruing until you dissolve, and the Secretary of State will refuse any other filings for your LLC while franchise tax is owed.

Does Arkansas require an annual report for an LLC?

Yes, but it is the same document as the tax: the Annual LLC Franchise Tax Report, filed with the Secretary of State by May 1 with the $150 payment, so there is no separate annual report fee. An LLC organized in 2026 files its first report by May 1, 2027, because each report covers the preceding calendar year.

LLC Costs · AR

How Much Does an LLC Cost in Arkansas?

By Edmond Hui · Fees verified July 29, 2026 against the Arkansas Secretary of State fee schedule

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.

Forming an LLC in Arkansas costs $45 to file the Certificate of Organization for a Domestic Limited Liability Company with the state, the Annual LLC Franchise Tax Report costs $150 every year, and the Arkansas Franchise Tax adds at least $150 a year. That puts the first-year state cost at $345, before any registered-agent service.

Certificate of Organization for a Domestic Limited Liability Company$45

Annual LLC Franchise Tax Report$150

Arkansas Franchise Tax$150/yr

First-year state cost$345

Five-year state cost$1,545

What you actually pay in Arkansas

Arkansas has one of the cheapest formation fees in the country - $45 online or $50 on paper for the Certificate of Organization (form LL-01) - but every LLC then owes a flat $150 franchise tax every year, so year two onward costs more than three times as much as forming. The franchise tax report doubles as the annual report and is due May 1; paying online adds a $5.00 credit-card processing fee for a $155 total. Name reservation (form RN-06) is $22.50 online or $25 on paper, and foreign LLC registration (FL-01) is $270 online or $300 on paper. A Certificate of Good Standing can be bought and printed online for a $3.00 processing fee, while certificates ordered by mail are $25 each ($15 for a Certificate of Existence) and certified copies are $0.50 per page plus a $5.00 certification fee.

Arkansas LLC fee breakdown

Cost	Amount	How often	Charged by
Certificate of Organization for a Domestic Limited Liability Company (LL-01)	$45	One time	Arkansas Secretary of State
Same filing, submitted on paper	$50	One time	Arkansas Secretary of State
Annual LLC Franchise Tax Report	$150	Every year	Arkansas Secretary of State
Arkansas Franchise Tax (minimum)	$150	Every year	Arkansas Secretary of State, Business and Commercial Services (A.C.A. 26-54-101 et seq.)
Required state cost, first year	$345	—	—
Registered agent service (optional)	$50–$300	Every year	Commercial provider
Name reservation (optional)	$22.50	One time	Arkansas Secretary of State
Certificate of good standing (optional)	$3	Per copy	Arkansas Secretary of State

Filing online costs $45; the identical filing by mail or in person costs $50.

Arkansas Franchise Tax: Flat $150 for every LLC regardless of size or income; the annual report and the tax are a single filing.

Registered agent is listed separately because it is a commercial service, not a state charge. Commercial registered-agent services, not a state charge. Range and $125 midpoint match the assumption used by /tools/llc-true-cost. Most states let you serve as your own registered agent at no cost if you have a physical in-state address. Run your own numbers in the true-cost calculator.

Arkansas LLC cost over five years

State charges only in the first column; the second adds a registered-agent service at the $125/yr market midpoint.

Period	State cost only	With registered agent
Year 1 (formation + first filing)	$345	$470
Each year after	$300	$425
Five-year total	$1,545	$2,170

First filing timing: Each report covers the preceding calendar year - the 2026 form is captioned "For the year ending 12/31/2025" - so an LLC organized in 2026 files its first franchise tax report by May 1, 2027. The Secretary of State does not state this first-year timing explicitly.

Is Arkansas expensive compared with other states?

Arkansas ranks 42nd cheapest of 50 states on first-year cost — $110.47 above the $234.53 national average. On ongoing annual cost it ranks 43rd.

Cheaper state	First-year cost	You would save
Montana	$35	$310
Arizona	$50	$295
Missouri	$50	$295

A cheaper filing fee elsewhere rarely saves money if you live and operate in Arkansas. Doing business here with an out-of-state LLC generally means registering it as a foreign LLC in Arkansas anyway — paying both states. See foreign qualification in Arkansas before forming elsewhere to save on fees.

Arkansas filing deadline and late penalties

Annual LLC Franchise Tax Report

Frequency	every year
Due	On or before May 1 for the preceding calendar year; the report must be received by close of business May 1 or carry a USPS postmark no later than midnight May 1 (postage meter dates are not accepted)
Fee	$150
Late penalty	$25

Late filing adds a $25 penalty plus interest of 0.000274 per day applied to the tax-plus-penalty total.

Failure to pay franchise tax can result in revocation of the authority to do business; the tax keeps accruing after revocation until the entity is dissolved, withdrawn or merged, and A.C.A. 26-54-114 bars any further BCS filings while franchise tax is unpaid.

Full Arkansas annual report filing guide · Deadline calculator

Cost traps specific to Arkansas

$150 flat franchise tax dwarfs the $45 filing fee

Every Arkansas LLC owes $150 a year no matter how little it earns, and paying online adds $5.00, so recurring state cost is roughly 3.4 times the cost of forming.

Unpaid franchise tax freezes all other filings

Under A.C.A. 26-54-114 the Secretary of State will not accept any further BCS filings from an entity with unpaid franchise tax, and the tax keeps accruing after revocation until you formally dissolve.

Paper filing costs $5 more at every step

Formation is $45 online versus $50 by mail, and amendments, name reservations and fictitious-name filings are $22.50 online versus $25 by mail.

Frequently Asked Questions

: Arkansas charges $45 to file the Certificate of Organization (form LL-01) online, or $50 to mail or deliver it. Name reservation is optional at $22.50 online / $25 on paper. A foreign LLC registering in Arkansas pays $270 online or $300 on paper.
: Every Arkansas LLC pays a flat $150 annual franchise tax, due on or before May 1 for the preceding calendar year. Filing and paying online adds a $5.00 credit-card processing fee for a $155 total; mailing the report carries no processing fee.
: Late filing adds a $25 penalty plus interest of 0.000274 per day on the combined tax and penalty. Continued non-payment can lead to revocation of your authority to do business, the tax keeps accruing until you dissolve, and the Secretary of State will refuse any other filings for your LLC while franchise tax is owed.
: Yes, but it is the same document as the tax: the Annual LLC Franchise Tax Report, filed with the Secretary of State by May 1 with the $150 payment, so there is no separate annual report fee. An LLC organized in 2026 files its first report by May 1, 2027, because each report covers the preceding calendar year.

Where these numbers come from

Every fee above was checked against Arkansas's own published sources on July 29, 2026 — the Arkansas Secretary of State fee schedule, the governing statute, and where a state-level tax applies, the state tax authority. Commercial formation-service pages were not used.

The first-year total is the Certificate of Organization for a Domestic Limited Liability Company fee plus the first year of any recurring state charge. Where a state's first report is not due until the following year, that is noted above. The five-year total is the filing fee plus five years of recurring charges, which avoids the timing question entirely. Registered-agent service is excluded from all state figures.

Primary sources: