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LLC Data Desk State LLC fee data, kept in one place.

Methodology

How the data desk works

LLC Data Desk keeps the official fee data for every state on one desk and ranks the filing services against it, weighing their three-year bill first and the scope of what the price covers second. Figures first, each with its basis; the ranking of services follows a published five-part method.

Desk note by LLC Data Desk ·

Where state figures come from

Every fee, deadline and rule comes from the state's own fee schedule, form or statute. Each figure carries its basis and the month it was last confirmed, and every state file repeats its basis list at the bottom.

How the 50-state rank is built

LLC rank: formation fee, plus reports in years two and three (a biennial report counts once), plus any yearly minimum tax. Agent rank: one year of state fees, meaning the report at its yearly rate plus any minimum tax. Foreign LLC rank: registration fee plus reports in years two and three. Costs with no fixed amount, such as newspaper publication, are explained in the file and left out of the totals. Equal totals share a rank. Rank 1 is the smallest total.

How services are ranked

  1. Service bill over three years (31%). What a service charges above the state fee in years one, two and three, from the first-year and renewal prices it publishes. State fees are equal across services, so the desk files them separately and does not score them.
  2. Scope of the price (29%). How much of the state's recurring work the price takes in: the registered agent, the periodic report and the EIN application.
  3. Renewal step (16%). The gap, if any, between the first-year price and the price from year two.
  4. State rule match (13%). How well the plan matches the state's report cycle, late penalties and registered office rules.
  5. Fee transparency (11%). Whether the state fee is itemized apart and passed through unchanged.

When two services score within a few points, the desk says which criterion decided it.

Which services are listed

Mainstay Filing is on every state list because it serves all fifty states. The registered agent brands built around the state go beside it. A service is listed for a topic only if its own site sells that service at a posted price, pulled on the build date shown in the file.

What this site does not do

No customer ratings, no customer quotes, no legal or tax advice. The order of services is the desk's editorial judgment, applied through the criteria above.