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

The Illinois filing fee for Articles of Organization (Form LLC-5.5) is $150 under Illinois law. If you organize the LLC with the ability to establish series, the fee is $400. Expedited handling of the articles adds $100.

How much is the Illinois LLC annual report fee?

$75 per year, due before the first day of your LLC's anniversary month. Series LLCs pay $75 plus $50 for each series.

What is the penalty for filing an Illinois LLC annual report late?

If you have not filed by the first day of the second month after your anniversary month, Illinois adds a $100 penalty, and another $100 for each year or fraction of a year beginning with the second year of delinquency. Reinstating an administratively dissolved Illinois LLC costs $200.

Does an Illinois LLC pay franchise tax?

No. Illinois has no LLC franchise tax, but an LLC taxed as a partnership pays Personal Property Replacement Tax at 1.5% of its net Illinois income to the Illinois Department of Revenue. That is in addition to the $75 annual report and the members' own Illinois income tax.

Illinois LLC Cost (2026)

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

In Illinois, the first-year state cost of an LLC is $225, before any registered-agent service. Forming an LLC in Illinois costs $150 to file the Articles of Organization with the state, the Annual Report costs $75 every year.

Bar chart of LLC costs in Illinois: $225 in unavoidable state charges in the first year and $75 a year after that. Illinois charges $75 for its annual report. — The recurring figure covers the annual report plus any flat state entity tax. Source: Illinois's published filing fee schedule, verified July 2026.

Articles of Organization$150

Annual Report$75

First-year state cost$225

Five-year state cost$525

How much does it cost to form an LLC in Illinois?

Illinois charges $150 to file Articles of Organization (Form LLC-5.5), 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 of a year 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.

Which fees does an Illinois LLC pay, and how often?

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	N/A	N/A
Registered agent service (optional)	$50 to $300	Every year	Commercial provider
Expedite and special handling fees in our record: Expedited articles of organization ($100), Expedited all other filings and copies ($50)	$50 to $100, by option	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

Illinois law 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. For what formation services charge on top of these state fees, see the best LLC services in Illinois.

Next steps for an LLC in Illinois

What does an 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/yr	$200/yr
Five-year total	$525	$1,150

Is Illinois expensive compared with other states?

Illinois ranks 35th cheapest of 50 states on first-year cost , $7.16 below the $232.16 national average. On ongoing annual cost it ranks 34th.

Cheaper state	First-year cost	You would save
Montana	$35	$190
Arizona	$50	$175
Missouri	$50	$175

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.

When is the Illinois filing deadline, and what happens if you miss it?

Annual Report

Frequency	every year
Due	Before the first day of the LLC's anniversary month in the year in which it is due. Illinois law sets the filing duty and its window, requiring delivery within 60 days immediately preceding that first day; the statute's penalty section states the same deadline as the trigger for delinquency.
Fee	$75
Late penalty	$100

Under Illinois law, 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 Illinois law. The statutory number of months before dissolution was not confirmed in this pass.

Full Illinois annual report filing guide · Deadline calculator

What cost traps are specific to Illinois?

Late annual report penalty compounds by year

Illinois law 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 Illinois law 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

: The Illinois filing fee for Articles of Organization (Form LLC-5.5) is $150 under Illinois law. If you organize the LLC with the ability to establish series, the fee is $400. Expedited handling of the articles adds $100.
: $75 per year, due before the first day of your LLC's anniversary month. Series LLCs pay $75 plus $50 for each series.
: If you have not filed by the first day of the second month after your anniversary month, Illinois adds a $100 penalty, and another $100 for each year or fraction of a year beginning with the second year of delinquency. Reinstating an administratively dissolved Illinois LLC costs $200.
: No. Illinois has no LLC franchise tax, but an LLC taxed as a partnership pays Personal Property Replacement Tax at 1.5% of its net Illinois income to the Illinois Department of Revenue. That is in addition to the $75 annual report and the members' own Illinois income tax.

Where do 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 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). Processing time was later confirmed from Internet Archive captures of the LLC page and organizing guide (2026-09-23: no standard turnaround published). That leaves any online-portal surcharge, first-report timing, and the administrative-dissolution timeline unverified.

Sources

12 documents

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Illinois 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.

ilga.gov/legislation/ILCS/details?ActName=Limited+Liability+Company+Act.&ActID=2290&ChapterID=65&ChapAct=805+ILCS+180%2F&SeqStart=14450000&SeqEnd=15800000
ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Articles?ActID=2290&ChapterID=65
tax.illinois.gov/questionsandanswers/answer.83.html
tax.illinois.gov/research/taxinformation/income/partnership.html
Illinois statute: 805 ILCS 180/50-10 (LLC filing fees)
Illinois statute: 805 ILCS 180/50-1(b) (annual report filing window)
Illinois statute: 805 ILCS 180/50-15(a)(1) (annual report delinquency)
Illinois statute: 805 ILCS 180/50-15(b)(1) (late annual report penalty)
Illinois statute: 805 ILCS 180/50-10 (reinstatement fee)
Illinois law: 805 ILCS 180/50-10, 50-15, 50-50 (data confidence)
Illinois statute: 805 ILCS 180/50-10 (series LLC fees)
Illinois law: 805 ILCS 180/50-15(b)(1) (FAQ)

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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.

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