Your Utah LLC Is Doing Business in Another State
The short answer. You keep one LLC. It stays registered in Utah, which charges $18 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, 43 cost more in year-one registration than Utah's own first-year total of $77, and 4 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 Utah
When the Annual Report is due. During the month containing the anniversary date on which the LLC's certificate of organization became effective (Utah Code § 48-3a-212(3)(a)).
Every Utah fee behind these figures is broken out on what an LLC costs in Utah.
What a second state adds
These are the states closest to Utah’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 ($77) |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota | $750 | $55/yr | $673 more |
| Texas | $750 | None | $673 more |
| Massachusetts | $500 | $520/yr | $423 more |
| Colorado | $100 | $25/yr | $23 more |
| Iowa | $100 | $15/yr | $23 more |
| Idaho | $100 | None | $23 more |
| Maryland | $100 | $300/yr | $23 more |
| Ohio | $99 | None | $22 more |
| Kentucky | $90 | from $190/yr | $13 more |
| California | $70 | $810/yr | $7 less |
| Montana | $70 | None | $7 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 Utah's own costs
Our notes, from Utah's published fee schedules and statutes.
Utah is the cheapest state in this batch: $59 to file a certificate of organization and $18 a year to renew, per the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code's FY2026 fee schedule effective July 1, 2025. The $18 renewal figure already includes a $5 surcharge for the state's single sign-on portal, and a late renewal adds $10. Expedited processing costs $75 per filing, more than the $59 filing fee itself. A 120-day name reservation is $22, a short-form certificate of existence is $12 (long form $20), certified copies are $12 plus $0.30 per page, and reinstating an expired LLC costs $54.
Expedited processing costs more than the filing itself. Utah's expedited processing fee is $75 per filing while the certificate of organization is only $59, and all processing fees are nonrefundable even if the filing is rejected.
Renewal processing is running 7-10 business days. The Division's own renewal page says "Our processing times are currently 7-10 business days," even though the Division home page says most filings are instant. Do not leave an anniversary-month renewal to the last day.
Utah is recodifying its LLC statute. Utah Code § 48-3a-212, the section that sets the anniversary-month annual report deadline, is marked "Repealed by Chapter 93, 2026 General Session," and neighbouring sections are marked renumbered as of 10/1/2026. Recheck the section citation after the recodification takes effect.
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.