What it costs, what to file, and how Alabama taxes an LLC.
Alabama charges $200 to file the Articles of Organization, on the pricier side compared with most other states, and then charges a moderate recurring fee that is easy to plan around after that. The rest below covers the actual paperwork, the tax question everyone asks, and what Alabama expects from an LLC once it is formed.
Filing document: Articles of Organization. State filing fee: $200. Recurring report fee: $50. Alabama sets these amounts, and they can change year to year, so confirm the current fee on the Alabama Secretary of State site before you file.
Add the $200 filing fee to a registered-agent service if you use one, and you have most of what it takes to get a Alabama LLC on the books in year one. After formation, Alabama charges a moderate recurring fee that is easy to plan around, which is the number to plan for every year after the first. Use the LLC cost calculator to work out your full first-year total for your Alabama LLC's specific plans.
Alabama sets its own flat filing fee rather than basing it on revenue or number of members, which is why the $200 charge applies the same way whether your Alabama LLC has one owner or five. The recurring fee works the same way: a flat amount Alabama bills on its own schedule, not tied to how much the business makes. That predictability is one of the few upsides of a flat-fee system like Alabama's.
Alabama charges $200 to file the Articles of Organization, which is on the pricier side compared with most other states. After that, Alabama charges a moderate recurring fee that is easy to plan around; use the LLC cost calculator for your full first-year number.
No. Most people file the Articles of Organization themselves directly with Alabama's Secretary of State. A lawyer can help with a custom operating agreement for a Alabama LLC or a more complex ownership setup, but Alabama does not require one to form the LLC itself.
Alabama charges a moderate recurring fee that is easy to plan around, currently $50 on the recurring schedule the state sets, on top of the original filing fee.
Usually not, unless you have a specific reason like Alabama's legal system or tax treatment. If your business actually operates somewhere other than Alabama, you will likely need to register as a foreign LLC there too, which means paying Alabama and that other state instead of just one.
Priya covers tax, regulation, and compliance: the rules that decide what you can and cannot do, usually filed in an obscure subsection that most people skip. She reads federal register notices in her spare time and is at peace with that being unusual.