Your Alaska LLC Is Doing Business in Another State
The short answer. You keep one LLC. It stays registered in Alaska, which charges $50 a year to keep it in good standing, and a state that finds you are doing business there adds its own registration and its own filings on top. Whether your activity counts is decided by that state's own rule, not by this page. Of the 47 other states that have one figure to compare, 4 cost more in year-one registration than Alaska's own first-year total of $300, 42 cost less, and 1 costs the same. Tennessee and Washington are outside those figures: Tennessee's fee scales with member count from $300, and Washington's $180 is before back fees, so neither has one figure to compare.
What you keep paying in Alaska
When the Biennial Report is due. January 2; reporting opens October 2 of the preceding year, and reports postmarked after February 1 incur a late penalty
Every Alaska fee behind these figures is broken out on what an LLC costs in Alaska.
What a second state adds
These are the states closest to Alaska’s own cost line, plus the three dearest to enter. Each figure is that state’s first-year registration cost for an out-of-state LLC, beside what it charges every year after. Whether your activity counts as doing business there depends on the facts, and each state defines it differently.
| State | Year one to register | State charges, each year after | Against your year one ($300) |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota | $750 | $55/yr | $450 more |
| Texas | $750 | None | $450 more |
| Massachusetts | $500 | $520/yr | $200 more |
| Oklahoma | $300 | $25/yr | the same |
| Tennessee | at least $300 | from $400/yr | not comparable, this is a floor |
| Oregon | $275 | $100/yr | $25 less |
| Arkansas | $270 | $150/yr | $30 less |
| Maine | $250 | $85/yr | $50 less |
| Mississippi | $250 | None | $50 less |
| North Carolina | $250 | $200/yr | $50 less |
| New York | $250 | from $29.50/yr | $50 less |
A state charge of None is not a tax of none. The column is the recurring charge our fee dataset records, and a state that asks for no recurring filing may still levy an entity-level tax that sits outside it.
What we verified about Alaska's own costs
Our notes, from Alaska's published fee schedules and statutes.
Alaska's $250 Articles of Organization fee (form 08-484) is the same online or on paper and is among the highest formation fees in the country. Ongoing state cost is a $100 Biennial Report every two years due January 2, preceded by a free Initial Report that may be due within 6 months of formation. Separately, every business must buy a statewide Alaska business license for $50 per year (form 08-4181) before engaging in business activity, which most first-year estimates omit. A Certificate of Compliance, which serves as the certificate of good standing, is $10 online, and name reservation is $25.
$50/year state business license on top of SOS fees. Alaska requires a separate statewide business license at $50 per year before you engage in business activity. It is issued by the same division but is not covered by the $250 formation fee.
Free Initial Report is easy to miss. A no-charge Initial Report may be due within 6 months of formation; skipping it puts the LLC into non-compliant status even though no money is owed.
Late biennial report costs 37.5% more. A domestic LLC biennial report postmarked on or after February 2 jumps from $100 to $137.50, and missing reports altogether leads to involuntary dissolution plus reinstatement fees.
Frequently Asked Questions
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.