Schedule of charges

What the state charges, and when it charges it

A formation fee is one payment among several. The schedule below sets out the charges a business entity actually meets — at formation, every year after, and at the points where a filing is late.

The schedule About Us

The charges

Kinds of fee, in the order they arrive

No amounts are published here yet. Each line below is a charge that exists in most states; the figures stay blank until they can be taken from a state's own published schedule and dated.

Charge When it falls due

Articles of organisation The filing that creates the entity. Charged once, by the state, whoever submits it. At formation —

Expedited handling Optional in most states. Buys processing time, not a different outcome. At formation —

Annual or biennial report The recurring filing that keeps the entity in good standing. The cadence varies by state. Yearly or every two years —

Franchise or privilege tax A charge for existing rather than for filing. Some states levy it, some do not. Yearly, where levied —

Registered agent Not a state charge. Free if you serve as your own and meet the address requirement. Yearly, if bought —

Late penalty and reinstatement What a missed report costs, and what it costs to bring a dissolved entity back. On default —

A schedule with invented figures would be worse than an empty one. These stay blank until each is cited to the state that publishes it.

On the figures

How amounts are handled here

Quoted and dated, or not at all

Every amount is taken from the state's published schedule and carries the date it was read. Fees change; an undated figure is not information.

State charges are kept separate

What a state charges and what a service charges are different things. They are never added into a single number.

Nothing is estimated

No averages, no "typically around". A figure is either published by the state or it is a dash.

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