Where the filing-fee numbers on this site come from, and what happens when one turns out to be wrong.
Every state filing fee, annual or biennial fee, and filing document name referenced across this site traces back to a dataset we maintain ourselves, the 2026 LLC Filing Fees by State table and its downloadable CSV. Each row starts from the fee schedule published by that state's Secretary of State or equivalent filing office, not a third-party aggregator.
Before a fee goes into the calculators, we check it against the state's own filing-office page rather than a formation company's marketing site. Formation companies have a reason to make filing look complicated or to quote a stale number, so we go to the primary source: the Secretary of State, Division of Corporations, or equivalent agency page that publishes the Articles of Organization fee directly.
The LLC Cost Calculator, LLC Tax Calculator, and LLC vs Sole Proprietor Calculator pull the filing fee and annual fee for whichever state you pick from that same dataset, then run standard tax math, self-employment tax and federal income brackets, against the profit figure you enter. The formula behind each result is disclosed on the calculator page itself.
State legislatures and filing offices change fees more often than most people expect, sometimes mid-year. We recheck the full 50-state dataset at least once a year and sooner whenever a reader flags a number that looks off. State guide pages note when they were last checked for accuracy.
Found a fee, a tax figure, or an explanation that looks wrong? Tell us through the contact page, naming the page and the specific number. We check it against the state's own source and correct it, usually within a few business days, and the page is simply updated rather than the correction being hidden.
Guides are written primarily by Priya Raman; see the authors page for details. The site is owned and edited by Chris Terry, who is responsible for what gets published and how corrections are handled.
Editorial independence: some outbound links on this site are affiliate links, mainly to registered-agent and formation services. They do not influence which fee we report or how a calculator works.