The short answer, the exact fee, and the steps to file in New Jersey.
Forming an LLC in New Jersey costs $125 up front for the Articles of Organization, on the pricier side compared with most other states. New Jersey charges a moderate recurring fee that is easy to plan around, and the rest of the process is the same paperwork every state requires: a registered agent, an operating agreement, and a free EIN.
The New Jersey Secretary of State collects $125 when you file the Articles of Organization. Budget a registered-agent service on top of that if you want a local address on file without using your own; that typically runs a few hundred dollars a year nationally, separate from anything New Jersey itself charges. On the recurring side, New Jersey charges a moderate recurring fee that is easy to plan around ($75). Use the LLC cost calculator to plug in your state and get a real total for a New Jersey LLC.
| Filing document | Articles of Organization |
| State filing fee | $125 |
| Recurring report fee | $75 |
These are the figures New Jersey itself publishes for LLC formation; confirm the current amount on the New Jersey Secretary of State site before you file, since state fees change.
By default, New Jersey taxes an LLC the same way it would tax a sole proprietorship or partnership: profit passes through to your personal return and there is no separate LLC-level tax just for choosing the structure. Some New Jersey LLC owners later elect S-corp tax treatment once profit is consistently high enough to make the extra payroll paperwork worth it. Run your New Jersey numbers through the LLC tax calculator and the LLC vs sole proprietor calculator before you see whether S-corp election would save you money.
No. Most people file the Articles of Organization themselves directly with New Jersey's Secretary of State. A lawyer can help with a custom operating agreement for a New Jersey LLC or a more complex ownership setup, but New Jersey does not require one to form the LLC itself.
New Jersey charges a moderate recurring fee that is easy to plan around, currently $75 on the recurring schedule the state sets, on top of the original filing fee.
Usually not, unless you have a specific reason like New Jersey's legal system or tax treatment. If your business actually operates somewhere other than New Jersey, you will likely need to register as a foreign LLC there too, which means paying New Jersey and that other state instead of just one.
No. By default, a New Jersey LLC is taxed the same way a sole proprietorship or partnership would be. Any tax savings for a New Jersey 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 New Jersey's current workload and whether you file online or by mail; the New Jersey 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.