LLC Annual Costs by State for Non-Residents

The three layers of an LLC's annual cost

Before the state-by-state numbers, it helps to see that a US LLC's yearly cost comes in three layers, and only the first varies much by state. The state layer is the annual report fee or franchise tax the state charges to keep your company in good standing. The registered-agent layer is the fee you pay a registered agent to maintain a required in-state address for official mail — typically $50 to $150 a year wherever you form. And the federal layer is the annual US filing a foreign-owned LLC owes regardless of state. People shopping for the "cheapest state" usually stare at the first layer and forget the other two, which is exactly backwards, because the federal layer carries the real money and the real risk.

State annual fees, compared

Here are the recurring state costs for the states non-residents ask about most, as of 2026. This is the state's own charge only — registered agent and federal filings are separate and covered below:

The spread is striking. New Mexico charges nothing at the state level; Wyoming's roughly $60 is the low end of "normal"; Florida sits in the middle at $138.75. Then it jumps: Delaware's flat $300 franchise tax applies to every LLC whether or not it earns a cent, and California's $800 minimum franchise tax is in a category of its own. California charges that $800 to any LLC formed in or doing business in the state, every year, regardless of income — which is why it belongs on this list mainly as a cautionary contrast rather than a formation choice for someone abroad.

The costs that apply everywhere

Now the layers the state table doesn't show — and where the numbers that matter actually live. Every LLC, in every state, also carries:

• Registered agent — about $50 to $150 per year. You must maintain a registered agent in your state of formation. There's no legal way around it for a non-resident with no US address, so budget this everywhere.
• Federal Form 5472 + pro-forma 1120 — every year. A foreign-owned single-member LLC must file Form 5472 with a pro-forma Form 1120 annually, even with zero activity. This is the same obligation in New Mexico as in Delaware. Preparing it properly is a real annual cost — and skipping it is far more expensive, because the penalty starts at $25,000 per form, as our Form 5472 penalty guide explains.
• Bookkeeping and tax preparation. Once the company transacts, you need books and correctly prepared returns. This scales with your activity, not with your state.

Line these up and the point becomes obvious: the difference between the cheapest and most expensive sensible state is a couple of hundred dollars a year, while a single missed federal filing is tens of thousands. Optimizing hard on the state fee while neglecting the federal filing is optimizing the wrong number.

What this means for choosing a state

If your only goal is the lowest recurring state cost, New Mexico ($0) and Wyoming (~$60) are the clear picks, and the choice between them usually comes down to Wyoming's stronger track record with banks versus New Mexico's zero fee and privacy — a trade we weigh in Delaware vs Wyoming vs New Mexico. Florida makes sense when you actually have a presence there. Delaware is worth its $300 only if you're raising venture capital or converting to a C-corp. California, at $800 a year, is a state you form in because you operate there, never as a remote default. The broader logic of that decision is in our guide to the best state for a non-resident LLC.

The healthiest way to hold all of this is to stop treating the state fee as the headline number. It's a small, predictable line item. Choose a low-cost state to keep it small, then put your attention where the cost and the risk really are — the federal filings and clean books.

A worked example: a Wyoming LLC's first two years

Numbers in a table can feel abstract, so it helps to walk through what an actual founder pays. Take the common case: a non-resident forms a single-member Wyoming LLC to sell on Amazon, with no US employees and no US office. Here's the honest arithmetic, using round 2026 figures.

Year one carries the one-time setup plus the first year of recurring items. The Wyoming filing fee to form is about $100. A registered agent runs, say, $100 for the year. The company needs an EIN, and once it starts trading it will owe its first federal Form 5472 with a pro-forma Form 1120 after year-end. The state and agent portion is roughly $200; the professional preparation of that first federal filing is a separate cost that depends on the company's activity. Notice already that the $100 state fee — the number the "cheapest state" articles obsess over — is the smallest piece.

Year two onward drops the formation fee and settles into the steady state: the Wyoming annual report at about $60, the registered agent at about $100, and the annual federal 5472/1120 filing again. The state's own charge is $60 — genuinely trivial — while the meaningful recurring costs are the registered agent and, above all, the correctly prepared federal return. If that same founder had chosen Delaware instead, only one line would change: the $60 annual report becomes a $300 franchise tax. Everything else — agent, EIN, the federal filing, the books — is identical. That's the whole point: switching states moves a small number, not the big ones.

The lesson from the arithmetic is the same one the tables show: budget for all three layers from the start, and don't let a $240 difference between the cheapest and priciest sensible state distract you from the filing whose penalty is measured in the tens of thousands.

Frequently asked questions

What's the cheapest state to keep an LLC in each year?

New Mexico, with no annual report or state renewal fee. Wyoming is a close second at about $60 a year. Both still require a registered agent, and both still owe the same federal filings as any other state.

Why is California $800?

California levies an $800 minimum annual franchise tax on LLCs formed in or doing business in the state, charged even in a no-income year. It's the reason California is a "form here because you operate here" state, not a remote formation choice.

Do the state fees include my US taxes?

No. State fees keep the company in good standing at the state level only. They don't cover the federal Form 5472 filing, and they have nothing to do with any US income tax you might owe, which is a separate question decided by your US activity and treaty position.

How do I see my full annual number?

Use our US company cost calculator, which combines state fees, registered agent, banking, and compliance into one realistic annual figure so you're not caught out by the layers a "cheapest state" list leaves off.

How we help

We keep your LLC in good standing on every layer — the state annual report or franchise payment, the registered agent, and the federal Form 5472 filing that carries the real exposure — so nothing lapses and no penalty sneaks up on a dormant company. It's part of our US market-entry and e-commerce work, where formation, compliance, and books are handled together rather than left as loose ends. If you want a clear picture of what your company will cost to run each year, talk to us.