Your Massachusetts LLC Is Doing Business in Another State
The short answer. You keep one LLC. It stays registered in Massachusetts, which charges $520 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. All 47 other states that have one figure to compare cost less in year-one registration than Massachusetts's own first-year total of $1040. 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 Massachusetts
When the Annual Report is due. "Every limited liability company must file an annual report with the Corporations Division on or before the anniversary date of the filing of its original certificate of organization."
Every Massachusetts fee behind these figures is broken out on what an LLC costs in Massachusetts.
What a second state adds
These are the states closest to Massachusetts’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 ($1040) |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota | $750 | $55/yr | $290 less |
| Texas | $750 | None | $290 less |
| Nevada | $425 | $350/yr | $615 less |
| Alaska | $350 | $50/yr | $690 less |
| Oklahoma | $300 | $25/yr | $740 less |
| Tennessee | at least $300 | from $400/yr | not comparable, this is a floor |
| Oregon | $275 | $100/yr | $765 less |
| Arkansas | $270 | $150/yr | $770 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.
Nevada's figure is the mandatory first-year bundle (filing fee, initial list and state business licence), not the $75 filing fee alone.
What we verified about Massachusetts's own costs
Our notes, from Massachusetts's published fee schedules and statutes.
Massachusetts is the most expensive state in the country to keep an LLC: $500 to file the Certificate of Organization and $500 every single year for the annual report, which is due on the anniversary of the date the original certificate was filed rather than on a fixed calendar date. Filing either document online or by fax adds a mandatory $20 expedite fee, so the real online cost is $520 each time. The Division's expedite table charges $20 on a $500.00 transaction. There is no entity-level Massachusetts tax on a default pass-through LLC; the $456 minimum corporate excise applies only if the LLC is classified as a corporation. Certificates are comparatively cheap: $12 for Legal Existence, $25 for Good Standing, $30 for a name reservation.
$500 a year, forever, the highest annual report fee in the US. The Massachusetts LLC annual report costs $500, the same as forming the company. Over five years that is $2,500 in annual reports alone, before any registered agent or tax cost.
Filing online costs $20 more, not less. Massachusetts charges $500 by mail but $500 plus a mandatory $20 expedite fee for fax or electronic filing, so the online Certificate of Organization and the online annual report are each $520. Most states discount online filing; Massachusetts surcharges it.
Two missed reports triggers dissolution and a four-figure cure. Under 950 CMR 112.20, failing for two consecutive years to file annual reports lets the Division administratively dissolve the LLC 90 days after notice. Reinstatement is $100 but every owed annual report must be filed first, at $500 apiece.
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.