What it costs, what to file, and how West Virginia taxes an LLC.
West Virginia charges $100 to file the Articles of Organization, a fairly ordinary, middle-of-the-road filing fee, and then keeps its recurring report fee light after that. The rest below covers the actual paperwork, the tax question everyone asks, and what West Virginia expects from an LLC once it is formed.
Filing document: Articles of Organization. State filing fee: $100. Recurring report fee: $25. West Virginia sets these amounts, and they can change year to year, so confirm the current fee on the West Virginia Secretary of State site before you file.
Add the $100 filing fee to a registered-agent service if you use one, and you have most of what it takes to get a West Virginia LLC on the books in year one. After formation, West Virginia keeps its recurring report fee light, 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 West Virginia LLC's specific plans.
West Virginia sets its own flat filing fee rather than basing it on revenue or number of members, which is why the $100 charge applies the same way whether your West Virginia LLC has one owner or five. The recurring fee works the same way: a flat amount West Virginia 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 West Virginia's.
Processing time depends on West Virginia's current workload and whether you file online or by mail; the West Virginia Secretary of State's site lists current turnaround times, since they change throughout the year.
West Virginia does not require you to file an operating agreement with the state, but skipping one leaves your LLC governed by West Virginia's default LLC statute, which may not match how you actually want to run the business.
West Virginia charges $100 to file the Articles of Organization, which is a fairly ordinary, middle-of-the-road filing fee. After that, West Virginia keeps its recurring report fee light; use the LLC cost calculator for your full first-year number.
No. Most people file the Articles of Organization themselves directly with West Virginia's Secretary of State. A lawyer can help with a custom operating agreement for a West Virginia LLC or a more complex ownership setup, but West Virginia does not require one to form the LLC itself.
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.