Your Arkansas LLC Is Doing Business in Another State
The short answer. You keep one LLC. It stays registered in Arkansas, which charges $150 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, 14 cost more in year-one registration than Arkansas's own first-year total of $195, and 33 cost less. 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 Arkansas
When the Annual Report is due. On or before May 1 for the preceding calendar year; the report must be received by close of business May 1 or carry a USPS postmark no later than midnight May 1 (postage meter dates are not accepted)
Every Arkansas fee behind these figures is broken out on what an LLC costs in Arkansas.
What a second state adds
These are the states closest to Arkansas’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 ($195) |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota | $750 | $55/yr | $555 more |
| Texas | $750 | None | $555 more |
| Massachusetts | $500 | $520/yr | $305 more |
| Georgia | $235 | $60/yr | $40 more |
| Delaware | $200 | $400/yr | $5 more |
| Minnesota | $185 | None | $10 less |
| Washington | at least $180 | $70/yr | not comparable, this is a floor |
| Vermont | $155 | $45/yr | $40 less |
| Alabama | $150 | None | $45 less |
| Arizona | $150 | None | $45 less |
| Illinois | $150 | $75/yr | $45 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 Arkansas's own costs
Our notes, from Arkansas's published fee schedules and statutes.
Arkansas has one of the cheapest formation fees in the country - $45 online or $50 on paper for the Certificate of Organization (form LL-01) - but every LLC then owes a flat $150 franchise tax every year, so year two onward costs more than three times as much as forming. The franchise tax report doubles as the annual report and is due May 1; paying online adds a $5.00 credit-card processing fee for a $155 total. Name reservation (form RN-06) is $22.50 online or $25 on paper, and foreign LLC registration (FL-01) is $270 online or $300 on paper. A Certificate of Good Standing is $25.00, the same price online or by mail, with a $3.00 processing fee added when you buy it online. The separate Certificate of Existence is $15.00, and certified copies are $0.50 per page plus a $5.00 certification fee.
$150 flat franchise tax dwarfs the $45 filing fee. Every Arkansas LLC owes $150 a year no matter how little it earns, and paying online adds $5.00, so recurring state cost is roughly 3.4 times the cost of forming.
Unpaid franchise tax freezes all other filings. Under A.C.A. 26-54-114 the Secretary of State will not accept any further BCS filings from an entity with unpaid franchise tax, and the tax keeps accruing after revocation until you formally dissolve.
Paper filing costs $5 more at every step. Formation is $45 online versus $50 by mail, and amendments, name reservations and fictitious-name filings are $22.50 online versus $25 by mail.
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.