What it costs, what to file, and how Florida taxes an LLC.
Florida charges $125 to file the Articles of Organization, on the pricier side compared with most other states, and then charges a recurring fee substantial enough to budget for every year after that. Florida has no state personal income tax, which is part of why it is a common choice for LLC owners who already live and work there. The rest below covers the actual paperwork, the tax question everyone asks, and what Florida expects from an LLC once it is formed.
Filing document: Articles of Organization. State filing fee: $125. Recurring report fee: $138. Florida sets these amounts, and they can change year to year, so confirm the current fee on the Florida Secretary of State site before you file.
Add the $125 filing fee to a registered-agent service if you use one, and you have most of what it takes to get a Florida LLC on the books in year one. After formation, Florida charges a recurring fee substantial enough to budget for every year, which is the number to plan for every year after the first. Use the LLC cost calculator to total up filing, agent, and report costs together for your Florida LLC's specific plans, or check the line-by-line Florida fee schedule for the exact deadlines.
Florida sets its own flat filing fee rather than basing it on revenue or number of members, which is why the $125 charge applies the same way whether your Florida LLC has one owner or five. The recurring fee works the same way: a flat amount Florida 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 Florida's.
No. Most people file the Articles of Organization themselves directly with Florida's Secretary of State. A lawyer can help with a custom operating agreement for a Florida LLC or a more complex ownership setup, but Florida does not require one to form the LLC itself.
Florida charges a recurring fee substantial enough to budget for every year, currently $138 on the recurring schedule the state sets, on top of the original filing fee.
Usually not, unless you have a specific reason like Florida's legal system or tax treatment. If your business actually operates somewhere other than Florida, you will likely need to register as a foreign LLC there too, which means paying Florida and that other state instead of just one.
No. By default, a Florida LLC is taxed the same way a sole proprietorship or partnership would be. Any tax savings for a Florida LLC come from electing S-corp status once profit is high enough, which you can check with the LLC tax calculator.
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.