LLC reinstatement · Hawaii

How to Reinstate a Hawaii LLC

The short answer. If your Hawaii LLC has been administratively terminated, you restore it by filing an application for reinstatement with the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Business Registration Division. Hawaii allows reinstatement for up to 2 years after the LLC is administratively terminated.

Hawaii LLC Reinstatement at a Glance

What Hawaii calls the statusAdministratively terminated
What you fileApplication for Reinstatement
Filed withHawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Business Registration Division
How to fileNot confirmed
Reinstatement fee$25 (see Cost)
Time limit to reinstate2 years
Tax clearanceRequired (see Cost)
RetroactiveYes

Read from the government sources listed at the foot of this page, last checked September 29, 2026. See the sources.

Why Hawaii Would Terminate an LLC

Hawaii's Business Registration Division may terminate an LLC that does not pay fees required by law, has not filed its annual report for two years, does not keep an agent for service of process, or does not file a required statement of change for its agent.

The LLC has 60 days to fix the problem before it can be administratively terminated. The 60 days are counted after the director mails the notice of intention to terminate the LLC.

How Long You Have to Reinstate

Hawaii allows reinstatement for up to 2 years after the LLC is administratively terminated.

How to File

You file an application for reinstatement with the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Business Registration Division. Go to Hawaii's filing page.

What It Costs

The reinstatement fee is $25. The Business Registration Division also collects a $1 State Archives fee on permanent records.

The application must include every annual report that is due and unfiled, and payment of all delinquent fees and penalties.

Hawaii requires a tax clearance from the Hawaii Department of Taxation to reinstate. The certificate or other writing from the Department of Taxation must say that all taxes are paid, that a payment arrangement is in place, or that unpaid taxes are being contested in an appeal with the Department of Taxation.

Registered Agent Options

If your LLC's registered agent has changed, resigned or lapsed, ask the filing office named above whether Hawaiiwants that updated as part of reinstatement. You do not have to buy a service for it: in most states the LLC's owner, or another individual who qualifies, may serve as its registered agent themselves, generally subject to that state's rules on keeping a street address in the state and being available there during normal business hours. A paid service is one option and not the only one. The Hawaii registered agent requirements set out what Hawaii itself asks.

Registered agent services for Hawaii LLCs

Affiliate disclosure: Northwest Registered Agent, Bizee, ZenBusiness and LegalZoom pay us a commission if you sign up through our link, at no extra cost to you. We list only the registered agent services we have an affiliate relationship with, so this is not a survey of the whole market.

This list is not scored. The four are listed cheapest annual renewal first, and every claim below is about the services listed here rather than the whole market.

  • Best for: Privacy-focused owners and anyone who just needs an agent, not a formation bundle

  • Bizee$149/yr renewal

    Best for: A free first year on every plan, renewing at $149/yr, if you're comfortable with the BBB caveat

  • ZenBusiness$199/yr renewal

    Best for: First-time founders forming a new LLC who want phone, email and chat support

  • LegalZoom$249/yr renewal

    Best for: Complex structures that want attorney consultations, which come with LegalZoom's Pro and Premium formation plans rather than this renewal price

Note: Bizee holds a C rating from the BBB and is not accredited. BBB's profile carries a live alert describing a pattern of complaints about unexpected charges, difficulty canceling and filing delays, and Bizee has posted a response to it. We flag this so you can make an informed choice.

Annual renewal is each provider's own standard published rate. Check the current terms at each provider before you buy. The scored ranking, and the formula behind it, is in our full formation services review →

What Reinstatement Does

Under Hawaii's law, a reinstated LLC continues as if it had never been administratively terminated.

If another business has taken the LLC's name in the meantime, the LLC needs a name that is still available to reinstate.

More for Hawaii LLCs

Frequently Asked Questions

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state's law and filing office say about bringing back an LLC the state has dissolved, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you where your own LLC stands: that turns on why and when it was dissolved, what it still owes, and whether anyone has since taken its name, and fees and deadlines change between our reviews. Confirm your LLC's status and the current requirements with the filing office or tax agency named on this page, and ask a lawyer about anything the LLC did while it was dissolved. In many states a missed deadline ends the right to reinstate, so do not wait.

Sources

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Hawaii sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so.

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Edmond Hui

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.