Your Illinois LLC Is Doing Business in Another State
The short answer. You keep one LLC. It stays registered in Illinois, which charges $75 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 Illinois's own first-year total of $225, 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 Illinois
When the Annual Report is due. Before the first day of the LLC's anniversary month in the year in which it is due. The filing duty and its window are at 805 ILCS 180/50-1(b), which requires delivery within 60 days immediately preceding that first day; 805 ILCS 180/50-15(a)(1) is the Penalty section and states the same deadline as the trigger for delinquency.
Every Illinois fee behind these figures is broken out on what an LLC costs in Illinois.
What a second state adds
These are the states closest to Illinois’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 ($225) |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota | $750 | $55/yr | $525 more |
| Texas | $750 | None | $525 more |
| Massachusetts | $500 | $520/yr | $275 more |
| Maine | $250 | $85/yr | $25 more |
| Mississippi | $250 | None | $25 more |
| North Carolina | $250 | $200/yr | $25 more |
| New York | $250 | from $29.50/yr | $25 more |
| Pennsylvania | $250 | $7/yr | $25 more |
| Georgia | $235 | $60/yr | $10 more |
| Delaware | $200 | $400/yr | $25 less |
| Minnesota | $185 | None | $40 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 Illinois's own costs
Our notes, from Illinois's published fee schedules and statutes.
Illinois charges $150 to file Articles of Organization (Form LLC-5.5) under 805 ILCS 180/50-10, but $400 if the LLC is organized with the ability to establish series. The annual report is $75, due before the first day of the anniversary month, and the delinquency penalty is steep: $100 once you pass the first day of the second month after the anniversary month, plus another $100 for each year or fraction thereof starting with the second year late. Expedited service costs $100 for articles of organization and $50 for other filings; reinstatement after administrative dissolution is $200 and a certified copy or certificate is $25.
Late annual report penalty compounds by year. 805 ILCS 180/50-15(b)(1) adds $100 once the report is past the first day of the second month after your anniversary month, then another $100 for each additional year of delinquency, so a three-years-late LLC can owe $300 in penalties on top of $225 in report fees.
Series LLCs cost $400 to form, not $150. Under 805 ILCS 180/50-10 the articles-of-organization fee jumps to $400 for an LLC with the ability to establish series, and each series adds $50 to every annual report.
1.5% replacement tax applies at the entity level. Illinois LLCs taxed as partnerships pay Personal Property Replacement Tax at 1.5% of net Illinois income to the Department of Revenue, an entity-level tax many owners do not budget for because Illinois has no LLC franchise tax.
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.