What it costs, what to file, and how Kentucky taxes an LLC.
Kentucky charges $40 to file the Articles of Organization, one of the cheapest filing fees of any state, and then keeps its recurring report fee light after that. The rest below covers the actual paperwork, the tax question everyone asks, and what Kentucky expects from an LLC once it is formed.
Filing document: Articles of Organization. State filing fee: $40. Recurring report fee: $15. Kentucky sets these amounts, and they can change year to year, so confirm the current fee on the Kentucky Secretary of State site before you file.
Add the $40 filing fee to a registered-agent service if you use one, and you have most of what it takes to get a Kentucky LLC on the books in year one. After formation, Kentucky keeps its recurring report fee light, which is the number to plan for every year after the first. Use the LLC cost calculator to plug in your state and get a real total for your Kentucky LLC's specific plans.
Kentucky sets its own flat filing fee rather than basing it on revenue or number of members, which is why the $40 charge applies the same way whether your Kentucky LLC has one owner or five. The recurring fee works the same way: a flat amount Kentucky 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 Kentucky's.
Kentucky keeps its recurring report fee light, currently $15 on the recurring schedule the state sets, on top of the original filing fee.
Usually not, unless you have a specific reason like Kentucky's legal system or tax treatment. If your business actually operates somewhere other than Kentucky, you will likely need to register as a foreign LLC there too, which means paying Kentucky and that other state instead of just one.
No. By default, a Kentucky LLC is taxed the same way a sole proprietorship or partnership would be. Any tax savings for a Kentucky LLC come from electing S-corp status once profit is high enough, which you can check with the LLC tax calculator.
Processing time depends on Kentucky's current workload and whether you file online or by mail; the Kentucky Secretary of State's site lists current turnaround times, since they change throughout the year.
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.