How Much Does an LLC Cost in Illinois?
By Edmond Hui · Fees verified July 29, 2026 against the Illinois 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.
What you actually pay in Illinois
Illinois charges $150 to file Articles of Organization (Form LLC-5.5) under 805 ILCS 180/50-10 — but $400 if the LLC is organized with the ability to establish series. The annual report is $75, due before the first day of the anniversary month, and the delinquency penalty is steep: $100 once you pass the first day of the second month after the anniversary month, plus another $100 for each year or fraction thereof starting with the second year late. Expedited service costs $100 for articles of organization and $50 for other filings; reinstatement after administrative dissolution is $200 and a certified copy or certificate is $25.
Illinois LLC fee breakdown
| Cost | Amount | How often | Charged by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Articles of Organization (Form LLC-5.5) | $150 | One time | Illinois Secretary of State |
| Annual Report | $75 | Every year | Illinois Secretary of State |
| Required state cost, first year | $225 | — | — |
| Registered agent service (optional) | $50–$300 | Every year | Commercial provider |
| Expedited processing (optional) — Expedited articles of organization $100, Expedited all other filings and copies $50 | $50+ | One time | Illinois Secretary of State |
| Name reservation (optional) | $25 | One time | Illinois Secretary of State |
| Certificate of good standing (optional) | $25 | Per copy | Illinois Secretary of State |
805 ILCS 180/50-10 sets $150 for articles of organization (domestic), an application for admission (foreign), or restated articles; an LLC organized with the ability to establish series costs $400 instead.
Personal Property Replacement Tax: Not flat: partnerships (including LLCs taxed as partnerships), trusts and S corporations pay replacement tax at 1.5% of net Illinois income. There is no minimum dollar amount, so an LLC with no net income owes nothing.
The Illinois Limited Liability Company Act imposes no newspaper publication requirement for LLC formation.
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.
Illinois 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) | $225 | $350 |
| Each year after | $75 | $200 |
| Five-year total | $525 | $1,150 |
Is Illinois expensive compared with other states?
Illinois ranks 34th cheapest of 50 states on first-year cost — $9.53 below the $234.53 national average. On ongoing annual cost it ranks 34th.
A cheaper filing fee elsewhere rarely saves money if you live and operate in Illinois. Doing business here with an out-of-state LLC generally means registering it as a foreign LLC in Illinois anyway — paying both states. See foreign qualification in Illinois before forming elsewhere to save on fees.
Illinois filing deadline and late penalties
Annual Report
| Frequency | every year |
| Due | Before the first day of the LLC's anniversary month in the year in which it is due (805 ILCS 180/50-15(a)) |
| Fee | $75 |
| Late penalty | $100 |
Under 805 ILCS 180/50-15(b)(1), failure to file before the first day of the SECOND month after the anniversary month triggers a $100 penalty, plus another $100 for each year or fraction of a year beginning with the second year of delinquency.
An Illinois LLC that remains delinquent can be administratively dissolved; reinstatement costs $200 under 805 ILCS 180/50-10. The statutory number of months before dissolution was not confirmed in this pass.
Full Illinois annual report filing guide · Deadline calculator
Cost traps specific to Illinois
Late annual report penalty compounds by year
805 ILCS 180/50-15(b)(1) adds $100 once the report is past the first day of the second month after your anniversary month, then another $100 for each additional year of delinquency — so a three-years-late LLC can owe $300 in penalties on top of $225 in report fees.
Series LLCs cost $400 to form, not $150
Under 805 ILCS 180/50-10 the articles-of-organization fee jumps to $400 for an LLC with the ability to establish series, and each series adds $50 to every annual report.
1.5% replacement tax applies at the entity level
Illinois LLCs taxed as partnerships pay Personal Property Replacement Tax at 1.5% of net Illinois income to the Department of Revenue — an entity-level tax many owners do not budget for because Illinois has no LLC franchise tax.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where these numbers come from
Every fee above was checked against Illinois's own published sources on July 29, 2026 — the Illinois 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 Articles of Organization 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. Confidence on this state is medium: Every fee and the penalty structure come from the statute itself (805 ILCS 180/50-10, 50-15, 50-50) on the Illinois General Assembly site, so the dollar amounts are solid. Confidence is held at medium because no Illinois Secretary of State page could be reached (repeated ilsos.gov timeouts, apps.ilsos.gov HTTP 403), leaving processing times, any online-portal surcharge, first-report timing, and the administrative-dissolution timeline unverified.
Primary sources:
- https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ILCS/details?ActName=Limited+Liability+Company+Act.&ActID=2290&ChapterID=65&ChapAct=805+ILCS+180%2F&SeqStart=14450000&SeqEnd=15800000
- https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Articles?ActID=2290&ChapterID=65
- https://tax.illinois.gov/questionsandanswers/answer.83.html
- https://tax.illinois.gov/research/taxinformation/income/partnership.html