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

Filing the Articles of Organization (form CSCL/CD-700) with LARA's Corporations Division costs $50, online through the MiBusiness Registry Portal or on paper. Expedited service is extra and stacks on top of the filing fee: $50 for 24-hour, $100 for same day, $500 for two-hour, $1,000 for one-hour. Registering an out-of-state LLC in Michigan is also $50 (form 760), but that one cannot be filed online.

How much is the Michigan LLC annual statement?

$25 a year for an LLC, due February 15, filed with LARA rather than the Secretary of State. Professional LLCs pay $75 instead. If your LLC was formed after September 30, you skip the February 15 immediately following formation — your first annual statement is due the February 15 after that.

Is there a late fee for a Michigan LLC annual statement?

No. MCL 450.4207 imposes no penalty on a late LLC annual statement, and LARA's fee schedule attaches the $50 late fee only to professional LLCs. The real cost of ignoring it is structural: after a two-year grace period LARA dissolves the LLC, and restoring good standing costs $50 (form 770) plus all the missed $25 fees.

Does a Michigan LLC pay a franchise tax?

No. Michigan imposes no franchise tax or minimum entity-level tax on an LLC taxed as a partnership or disregarded entity, so the only recurring state filing cost is the $25 annual statement each February 15. Members pay Michigan income tax on their share of the profits.

LLC Costs · MI

How Much Does an LLC Cost in Michigan?

By Edmond Hui · Fees verified July 29, 2026 against the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations Division 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 Michigan costs $50 to file the Articles of Organization with the state, the Annual Statement costs $25 every year. That puts the first-year state cost at $75, before any registered-agent service.

Articles of Organization$50

Annual Statement$25

First-year state cost$75

Five-year state cost$175

What you actually pay in Michigan

Michigan is cheap to start and cheap to keep: $50 for the CSCL/CD-700 Articles of Organization and $25 for the annual statement each February 15. The expedite ladder is unusually wide — $50 for 24-hour or $100 for same-day service on a formation filing, rising to $500 for two-hour and $1,000 for one-hour service, all on top of the filing fee. Ancillary costs: $25 to reserve a name (form 540), $10 for a good-standing certificate (or $12.50 expedited), and certified copies at a $16 minimum for the first six pages plus $1 per additional page. Professional LLCs pay $75 rather than $25 for the annual statement and are the only LLC type exposed to the $50 late fee. Registering a foreign LLC costs $50 (form 760), which cannot be filed online.

Michigan LLC fee breakdown

Cost	Amount	How often	Charged by
Articles of Organization (CSCL/CD-700)	$50	One time	Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations Division
Annual Statement	$25	Every year	Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations Division
Required state cost, first year	$75	—	—
Registered agent service (optional)	$50–$300	Every year	Commercial provider
Expedited processing (optional) — 24 hours for formation/qualification documents $50, Same day for formation/qualification documents $100, 2 hour, same day $500, 1 hour, same day $1,000	$50+	One time	Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations Division
Name reservation (optional)	$25	One time	Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations Division
Certificate of good standing (optional)	$10	Per copy	Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations Division

$50 either way — the LARA fee schedule lists a single $50 fee for form 700 and marks it submittable online through the MiBusiness Registry Portal.

No newspaper publication requirement for LLC formation under the Michigan Limited Liability Company Act (Act 23 of 1993).

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.

Michigan 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)	$75	$200
Each year after	$25	$150
Five-year total	$175	$800

First filing timing: MCL 450.4207 and LARA both state that an LLC formed (or a foreign LLC qualified) after September 30 need not file an annual statement on the February 15 immediately succeeding its formation. Online filing for the upcoming year opens October 15.

Is Michigan expensive compared with other states?

Michigan ranks 9th cheapest of 50 states on first-year cost — $159.53 below the $234.53 national average. On ongoing annual cost it ranks 19th.

Cheaper state	First-year cost	You would save
Montana	$35	$40
Arizona	$50	$25
Missouri	$50	$25

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

Michigan filing deadline and late penalties

Annual Statement

Frequency	every year
Due	February 15 each year after organization/qualification
Fee	$25

There is no late penalty on an ordinary LLC annual statement. The $50 late fee that is widely misreported as applying to Michigan LLCs is PLLC-only: the LARA fee schedule prints it as "(PLLC $50 late fee if received after 2/15 of year due)" against form 2700, and MCL 450.4207 imposes no penalty on LLCs.

LARA: "Failing to file an annual will result in the dissolution, revocation or not good standing status of your business after a two-year grace period or one year for foreign corporations." Getting back in requires a Certificate of Restoration of Good Standing (form CSCL/CD-770), $50, plus the delinquent annual statement fees.

Full Michigan annual report filing guide · Deadline calculator

Cost traps specific to Michigan

Michigan business filings are not at the Secretary of State

LLC formation and annual statements go to LARA's Corporations Division (Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing Bureau), not the Michigan Secretary of State. Filings and fee schedules live under michigan.gov/lara, and the annual statement is filed through the MiBusiness Registry Portal.

Two-year grace period, then dissolution

LARA dissolves or revokes a business that stops filing annual statements after a two-year grace period (one year for foreign corporations). Coming back costs $50 for a Certificate of Restoration of Good Standing (form 770) plus every missed $25 statement fee.

PLLCs pay triple and face a $50 late fee

A professional limited liability company pays $75 rather than $25 for the annual statement, and the fee schedule's $50 late fee applies to PLLCs received after February 15 — ordinary LLCs have no late fee at all, which is the opposite of what most fee tables show.

Frequently Asked Questions

: Filing the Articles of Organization (form CSCL/CD-700) with LARA's Corporations Division costs $50, online through the MiBusiness Registry Portal or on paper. Expedited service is extra and stacks on top of the filing fee: $50 for 24-hour, $100 for same day, $500 for two-hour, $1,000 for one-hour. Registering an out-of-state LLC in Michigan is also $50 (form 760), but that one cannot be filed online.
: $25 a year for an LLC, due February 15, filed with LARA rather than the Secretary of State. Professional LLCs pay $75 instead. If your LLC was formed after September 30, you skip the February 15 immediately following formation — your first annual statement is due the February 15 after that.
: No. MCL 450.4207 imposes no penalty on a late LLC annual statement, and LARA's fee schedule attaches the $50 late fee only to professional LLCs. The real cost of ignoring it is structural: after a two-year grace period LARA dissolves the LLC, and restoring good standing costs $50 (form 770) plus all the missed $25 fees.
: No. Michigan imposes no franchise tax or minimum entity-level tax on an LLC taxed as a partnership or disregarded entity, so the only recurring state filing cost is the $25 annual statement each February 15. Members pay Michigan income tax on their share of the profits.

Where these numbers come from

Every fee above was checked against Michigan's own published sources on July 29, 2026 — the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations Division 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: All fees, the due date, the September 30 exception, the PLLC-only late fee and the two-year dissolution grace period are confirmed from the LARA fee schedule PDF, LARA's annual statements page and MCL 450.4207. Two soft spots: processing_standard is null because LARA publishes no standard turnaround; and the entity_tax note is a negative statement (no LLC franchise tax) that was not re-verified against a Michigan Treasury page this pass, so it should not be extended into any specific rate claim.

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