Your Connecticut LLC Is Doing Business in Another State
The short answer. You keep one LLC. It stays registered in Connecticut, which charges $80 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 Connecticut's own first-year total of $200, 32 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 Connecticut
When the Annual Report is due. "after January first and before April first" of each calendar year (i.e. by March 31)
Every Connecticut fee behind these figures is broken out on what an LLC costs in Connecticut.
What a second state adds
These are the states closest to Connecticut’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 ($200) |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota | $750 | $55/yr | $550 more |
| Texas | $750 | None | $550 more |
| Massachusetts | $500 | $520/yr | $300 more |
| Georgia | $235 | $60/yr | $35 more |
| Delaware | $200 | $400/yr | the same |
| Minnesota | $185 | None | $15 less |
| Washington | at least $180 | $70/yr | not comparable, this is a floor |
| Vermont | $155 | $45/yr | $45 less |
| Alabama | $150 | None | $50 less |
| Arizona | $150 | None | $50 less |
| Illinois | $150 | $75/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 Connecticut's own costs
Our notes, from Connecticut's published fee schedules and statutes.
Connecticut's $120 Certificate of Organization is statutory (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 34-243u(a)(3)), so paper and online filings cost the same. The recurring cost is the $80 annual report, which by statute must be delivered "by electronic transmission". Paper filing requires a specific exemption from the Secretary of the State. That fee was only $20 for report years before July 1, 2020. The old $250 biennial Business Entity Tax was ended by Public Act 19-117 for tax periods beginning after 12/31/2018, so there is no separate Connecticut entity-level tax today. Expedited 24-hour service costs $50 per transaction and works only on online filings.
$80 annual report is one of the pricier in the region. Connecticut charges $80 per year for an LLC annual report, four times the $20 it charged for report years before July 1, 2020 (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 34-243u(a)(15)), and the full amount is due even if nothing about the company changed.
Annual report must be filed electronically. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 34-247k(a) requires the report to be delivered "by electronic transmission"; paper filing is only allowed if the Secretary of the State grants an exemption for lack of capability or other good cause.
Forfeiture after one year in default. Under § 34-267g, once you are more than one year in default the Secretary can send a forfeiture notice and dissolve the LLC three months later. Getting it back costs a $120 Certificate of Reinstatement plus the missed $80 reports.
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.