Your New York LLC Is Doing Business in Another State
The short answer. You keep one LLC. It stays registered in New York, which charges at least $29.50 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, 3 cost more in year-one registration than New York's own first-year total of at least $479.50, and 44 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 New York
When the Biennial Report is due. Every two years, during the calendar month in which the original Articles of Organization were filed with the Department of State
Every New York fee behind these figures is broken out on what an LLC costs in New York.
What a second state adds
These are the states closest to New York’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 (from $479.50) |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota | $750 | $55/yr | $270.50 more |
| Texas | $750 | None | $270.50 more |
| Massachusetts | $500 | $520/yr | $20.50 more |
| Nevada | $425 | $350/yr | $54.50 less |
| Alaska | $350 | $50/yr | $129.50 less |
| Oklahoma | $300 | $25/yr | $179.50 less |
| Tennessee | at least $300 | from $400/yr | not comparable, this is a floor |
| Oregon | $275 | $100/yr | $204.50 less |
| Arkansas | $270 | $150/yr | $209.50 less |
| Maine | $250 | $85/yr | $229.50 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.
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 New York's own costs
Our notes, from New York's published fee schedules and statutes.
The New York Articles of Organization filing fee is $200, per the Department of State's own fee schedule and its LLC formation guidance. What makes New York expensive is not that fee but LLC Law Section 206: publication in two county-clerk-designated newspapers once a week for six successive weeks within 120 days, plus a $50 Certificate of Publication filing fee, and the newspaper charges themselves are set by the newspapers rather than the State. The recurring Department of State cost is only a $9 Biennial Statement every two years, but the Department of Taxation and Finance separately collects a graduated annual filing fee on Form IT-204-LL running from $25 to $4,500 on New York source gross income. Expedited handling is $25 for 24-hour, $75 for same-day and $150 for 2-hour service, and is not available for Biennial Statements.
Publication can cost several times the filing fee, and nobody will quote you a rate. LLC Law Section 206 requires six weeks in two county-designated newspapers. Rates are set by the newspapers, not the State or the county clerk, and the designated Manhattan daily publishes no rate card - so a Manhattan LLC's publication bill can dwarf the $200 filing fee while being impossible to price in advance from any official source.
Miss the 120-day window and your LLC is suspended. If proof of publication is not filed with the Department of State within 120 days after the articles take effect, LLC Law Section 206 suspends the LLC's authority to carry on, conduct or transact business in New York, though it does not invalidate existing contracts or impose personal liability on members.
The $9 Biennial Statement is not your only recurring cost. Most New York LLCs also owe the Department of Taxation and Finance's annual filing fee on Form IT-204-LL, $25 to $4,500 depending on New York source gross income, due the 15th day of the third month after the tax year closes with no extension available.
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.