How Much Does an LLC Cost in New Hampshire?
By Edmond Hui · Fees verified July 29, 2026 against the New Hampshire Secretary of State fee schedule
What you actually pay in New Hampshire
New Hampshire is the tidiest fee structure of these five: RSA 304-C:191 sets a flat $100 for the Certificate of Formation (LLC-1), a flat $100 annual report due between January 1 and April 1, and a $50 additional late fee if the report or fee is not in by April 1 - so a late report costs $150. Reinstatement is $135, or $500 for late reinstatement. Certificates are cheap: $5 for a certificate of good standing, $10 for a certificate reciting all of an LLC's filings, and $1 per document plus $5 for a certified copy. A name reservation is $15. The genuine New Hampshire cost is tax, not filing fees: the Business Profits Tax is 7.5% once gross business income exceeds $109,000 and the Business Enterprise Tax is 0.55% once gross receipts or the enterprise value tax base exceeds $298,000.
New Hampshire LLC fee breakdown
| Cost | Amount | How often | Charged by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Formation (LLC-1) | $100 | One time | New Hampshire Secretary of State |
| Annual Report | $100 | Every year | New Hampshire Secretary of State |
| Required state cost, first year | $200 | N/A | N/A |
| Registered agent service (optional) | $50, $300 | Every year | Commercial provider |
| Name reservation (optional) | $15 | One time | New Hampshire Secretary of State |
| Certificate of good standing (optional) | $5 | Per copy | New Hampshire Secretary of State |
RSA 304-C:191, II(c) sets a flat $100 on receipt of a certificate of formation, with no online/paper distinction in the statute.
Business Profits Tax and Business Enterprise Tax: Business Profits Tax is 7.5% of taxable business profits (RSA 77-A:2, rate effective for taxable periods ending on or after December 31, 2023) and is owed by business organizations with gross business income above the filing threshold - $109,000 for taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, CPI-adjusted biennially from the $92,000 base in RSA 77-A:6. Business Enterprise Tax is 0.55% of the taxable enterprise value tax base (RSA 77-E:2, II, effective for periods ending on or after December 31, 2022) for enterprises with gross business receipts or an enterprise value tax base above $298,000, CPI-adjusted biennially from the $250,000 base in RSA 77-E:5. Neither has a flat minimum - below the thresholds the tax is $0.
RSA 304-C contains no newspaper publication requirement; formation is complete on the Secretary of State's receipt and filing of the Certificate of Formation under RSA 304-C:31.
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 New Hampshire.
New Hampshire 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) | $200 | $325 |
| Each year after | $100 | $225 |
| Five-year total | $600 | $1,225 |
First filing timing: RSA 304-C:194, III(a): the first annual report is due between January 1 and April 1 of the year following the calendar year in which the LLC was formed. But under III(b), an LLC formed between December 1 of the preceding year and April 1 of the current year is not required to file an annual report that year - so an LLC formed in December 2026 skips 2027 and first files in 2028.
Is New Hampshire expensive compared with other states?
New Hampshire ranks 30th cheapest of 50 states on first-year cost , $32.03 below the $232.03 national average. On ongoing annual cost it ranks 38th.
A cheaper filing fee elsewhere rarely saves money if you live and operate in New Hampshire. Doing business here with an out-of-state LLC generally means registering it as a foreign LLC in New Hampshire anyway. Paying both states. See foreign qualification in New Hampshire before forming elsewhere to save on fees.
New Hampshire filing deadline and late penalties
Annual Report
| Frequency | every year |
| Due | Between January 1 and April 1 of each year |
| Fee | $100 |
| Late penalty | $50 |
RSA 304-C:191, II(f) adds "an additional late filing fee in the amount of $50" for failure or refusal to file the annual report or pay the fee on or before April 1, making a late report $150.
An LLC that stops filing is subject to administrative dissolution; RSA 304-C:191, II(f) sets reinstatement under RSA 304-C:138, I at $135 and late reinstatement under RSA 304-C:145, I at $500.
Full New Hampshire annual report filing guide · Deadline calculator
Cost traps specific to New Hampshire
New Hampshire taxes the LLC itself, not just the members
An LLC with gross business income over $109,000 must file a Business Profits Tax return at 7.5%, and one with gross receipts or an enterprise value tax base over $298,000 owes Business Enterprise Tax at 0.55%. Both apply at the entity level and dwarf the $100 annual report.
The $50 late fee is automatic on April 2
RSA 304-C:191, II(f) adds a $50 late filing fee for failure to file the annual report or pay the fee on or before April 1, taking the report from $100 to $150. Let it lapse into dissolution and reinstatement is $135, or $500 for late reinstatement.
Forming in December can legally skip a whole annual report
Under RSA 304-C:194, III(b), an LLC formed between December 1 and April 1 is not required to file an annual report that year - a genuine $100 saving that also means a first-year founder should not assume a report is due.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where these numbers come from
Every fee above was checked against New Hampshire's own published sources on July 29, 2026 , the New Hampshire 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 Formation 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 Secretary of State fee is quoted verbatim from RSA 304-C:191 and the report timing from RSA 304-C:194, so the filing-cost side is solid. Two reasons for medium rather than high: (a) sos.nh.gov and revenue.nh.gov both return HTTP 403 to automated fetches, so I could not directly confirm the CPI-adjusted BPT/BET thresholds of $109,000 and $298,000 on the DRA page - the statutory bases ($92,000 in RSA 77-A:6, $250,000 in RSA 77-E:5) and the biennial CPI-adjustment mechanism ARE confirmed from the statute, and the adjusted figures come from the DRA's own threshold-adjustment notice, but I read that notice only through a search excerpt; (b) for the same reason I could not verify whether New Hampshire charges an in-person expedited service fee (reported on sos.nh.gov as an additional $25) or a QuickStart online payment surcharge, so expedite is [] and no surcharge is asserted. certified_copy is recorded as 6 because RSA 304-C:191, II(g) charges "$1 per document and $5 for the certificate"; a multi-document request costs more.
Primary sources:
- https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXVIII/304-C/304-C-191.htm
- https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXVIII/304-C/304-C-194.htm
- https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/V/77-A/77-A-2.htm
- https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/V/77-A/77-A-6.htm
- https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/V/77-E/77-E-2.htm
- https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/V/77-E/77-E-5.htm
- https://www.revenue.nh.gov/news-and-media/business-enterprise-tax-and-business-profits-tax-filing-threshold-adjustment
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.