Iowa LLCs report every two years, not every year. The report is due between January 1 and April 1 of each odd-numbered year and costs $30 filed electronically or $45 on paper.
Iowa LLC annual reports are due Between January 1 and April 1 of each odd-numbered year (biennial) and cost $30 online, $45 paper (biennial) to file. See details below.
Filing the Iowa annual report, with the state's own fee and deadline. Source: Iowa Secretary of State.
Annual Report at a Glance
Due Date
Between January 1 and April 1 of each odd-numbered year (biennial)
Fee
$30 online, $45 paper (biennial)
Filing Method
Online or mail
Late Penalty
No late fee. Iowa Code 489.708(2) lets the secretary of state begin administrative dissolution once the report is 60 days overdue
Sos Filing Url
https://sos.iowa.gov/business/formsandfees.html
How to File
1
Confirm Your Filing Year
Iowa LLCs file a biennial report in odd-numbered years only, and the window is January 1 to April 1 (Iowa Code 489.212(3)). Your first report is due in that window in the first odd-numbered year following the calendar year your LLC was formed, so an LLC formed at any point in 2026 files its first report between January 1 and April 1, 2027, and one formed in 2027 does not file until 2029.
2
Access the Iowa Secretary of State Portal
Iowa takes the report electronically through the Secretary of State's Fast Track Filing system, reached from the business forms and fees page at https://sos.iowa.gov/business/formsandfees.html. A paper report is also accepted, at a higher fee.
3
Complete Required Information
Confirm your LLC's name, the registered agent and registered office on file, and the address of the principal office, and correct anything that has changed since your last filing. The report is a confirmation of record information rather than a financial statement, so no revenue or asset figures are collected.
4
Pay the Filing Fee
The biennial report costs $30 filed electronically and $45 on paper (Iowa Administrative Code 721 to 40.7(2)), and the paper fee is the only one payable by check. Averaged over the two-year cycle, the electronic fee works out to about $15 a year, which is among the lowest recurring state costs in the country.
5
Submit and Retain Confirmation
Review your information carefully before submitting. Save your confirmation receipt and any filing number provided. This serves as proof of timely filing and compliance.
Ready to file your annual report?
Go directly to the Iowa Secretary of State portal.
This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state publishes about filing deadlines, fees, and the consequences of missing them, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you what your own company owes: the date turns on when and where you formed, states change these rules between our reviews, and in several states an entity-level tax falls due in a year when no report does. Confirm your own dates with the filing office named on this page before you rely on one here, because the penalty for missing a deadline can be administrative dissolution of the company.
Frequently Asked Questions
Iowa charges no late fee. Iowa Code 489.122, the statute that sets every Secretary of State filing fee for LLCs, attaches no monetary penalty to a delinquent biennial report, so filing on April 2 costs exactly what filing on March 2 would have cost: $30 electronically or $45 on paper.
The consequence is procedural instead. Under Iowa Code 489.708(2) the secretary of state may commence a proceeding to administratively dissolve an LLC that has not delivered its biennial report within 60 days after it is due, which in a filing year is roughly the end of May. The same 60-day rule applies to unpaid fees, taxes, interest or penalties, and to a lapsed registered agent. Dissolution is a proceeding the state may begin, not something that happens automatically on the 61st day, and an administratively dissolved LLC continues to exist for the purpose of winding up its business rather than vanishing outright.
Getting back to good standing is cheap: reinstatement after administrative dissolution costs $5 under Iowa Code 489.122(1)(q), on top of the report you still owe.
The practical step is to calendar January 1 of every odd-numbered year and file early in the window, and to check your entity's status through the Secretary of State's business pages at https://sos.iowa.gov/business/formsandfees.html if you think a filing was missed.
Iowa LLCs file a biennial report with the Iowa Secretary of State every two years, between January 1 and April 1 of each odd-numbered year (Iowa Code 489.212(3)). The report is filed electronically through the Secretary of State's Fast Track Filing system, reached from https://sos.iowa.gov/business/formsandfees.html, and a paper report is also accepted.
The fee depends on the channel: $30 filed electronically, $45 on paper (Iowa Administrative Code 721 to 40.7(2)). The paper route costs 50 percent more and is the only one payable by check, so most owners file online.
Have your LLC's registered agent and registered office, principal office address, and any changes since the last filing ready before you start. Iowa does not ask for financial information.
Missing the April 1 close of the window carries no dollar penalty, but under Iowa Code 489.708(2) the secretary of state may begin an administrative dissolution proceeding once the report is 60 days past due. Filing electronically gives you immediate proof of filing, which is the simplest way to keep that clock from ever starting.
Iowa's report is biennial, not annual, and it costs $30 filed electronically or $45 on paper (Iowa Administrative Code 721 to 40.7(2)). Because it comes due only in odd-numbered years, the electronic fee averages about $15 a year, which makes Iowa one of the cheapest states in the country in which to keep an LLC alive.
There is no late fee to add to that. Iowa Code 489.122 sets no monetary penalty for a delinquent biennial report, so a late filing costs the same $30 or $45 as an on-time one.
Iowa also imposes no LLC franchise tax and no minimum entity tax, so the report fee is the whole of your recurring Secretary of State cost. If the LLC has already been administratively dissolved, reinstatement adds $5 under Iowa Code 489.122(1)(q).
To keep the cost at its floor, file electronically through Fast Track Filing at https://sos.iowa.gov/business/formsandfees.html early in the January 1 to April 1 window.
Between January 1 and April 1 of each odd-numbered year. Iowa Code 489.212(3) sets a window rather than a single deadline, and the cadence is the same for every LLC: the year you formed does not shift you onto an even-year schedule, it only determines which odd year is your first.
Your first biennial report is due in that window in the first odd-numbered year following the calendar year in which the LLC was formed. An LLC formed at any point in 2026 files its first report between January 1 and April 1, 2027; one formed in 2027 does not file until 2029. That two-year gap is what catches owners out, since nothing is due in the intervening year to remind them.
The fee is $30 electronically or $45 on paper, and filing after April 1 carries no dollar penalty. What it does start is the clock in Iowa Code 489.708(2), which lets the secretary of state commence an administrative dissolution proceeding once the report is 60 days past due.
To confirm your own status and filing history, use the business search on the Iowa Secretary of State's site at https://sos.iowa.gov/business/formsandfees.html.
No. Iowa Code 489.212 requires the biennial report from every LLC on the register, and from every foreign LLC registered to do business in Iowa, on the same odd-year schedule. There is no exemption for a small LLC, a single-member LLC, an inactive LLC, or an LLC with no revenue, and no out-of-state exemption either.
The only entities outside the requirement are ones that have left the register: an LLC that has been administratively dissolved, and one that has formally dissolved and completed winding up. Neither of those is a status you want to reach by accident, and reinstating an administratively dissolved LLC costs $5 under Iowa Code 489.122(1)(q) plus the report still owed.
Because there is no dollar penalty for late filing, the risk of treating the report as optional is not a fee, it is the administrative dissolution proceeding the secretary of state may commence under Iowa Code 489.708(2) once the report is 60 days past due.
To verify your LLC's filing status and next due year, check the Iowa Secretary of State's business records at https://sos.iowa.gov/business/formsandfees.html.
Sources
Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Iowa 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.
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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.
