Home › State Guides

How to Form an LLC in Connecticut

Connecticut charges $120 to form an LLC and $80 a year to keep it, for an Annual Report due January 1 through March 31. Almost every common Connecticut claim in older guides is now wrong in a specific way: they give LLCs an anniversary-month report deadline that belongs to other entity types, they bill a Business Entity Tax that was repealed for periods after 2018, they call the Pass-Through Entity Tax mandatory years after it became elective, and they price dissolution at $120 when the filing itself is free.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

The Connecticut filing steps

1. Check your name on the state's own search

   Check your name against the Secretary of the State's records with the Business Search tool, linked from business.ct.gov, before you file. A Connecticut LLC name must contain the words "limited liability company" or the abbreviation "L.L.C." or "LLC", under section 34-243k(a). "Limited" may be abbreviated as "Ltd." and "company" as "Co." The name must be distinguishable on the records of the Secretary of the State, and in that comparison entity-type words and abbreviations such as "LLC," "Limited," and "Inc." may not be taken into account. The name may not contain language stating or implying the LLC is organized for a purpose not permitted by section 34-243h. A search does not reserve the name. If you want to hold a name while you prepare, Connecticut offers an optional name reservation for $60, good for 120 days under section 34-243l, but most founders who are ready to file skip it and file the Certificate directly.

2. Choose your registered agent

   Connecticut's statute calls this role the registered agent, under section 34-243n, while the Secretary of the State's forms list describes the formation filing as including appointment of a Statutory Agent. Both phrases mean the same section 34-243n appointment. Each LLC and each registered foreign LLC shall designate and maintain a registered agent in Connecticut, designation is an affirmation that the agent has consented to serve, and the agent shall have a place of business in this state. For a domestic LLC the agent may be a natural person who is a resident of Connecticut, a Connecticut corporation, a foreign corporation with a Connecticut certificate of authority, an LLC, a registered foreign LLC, a registered LLP, or a statutory trust, among the types listed in section 34-243n(b). The appointment states the agent's name and, for a natural person, the agent's business and residence addresses, including the street and number, and it must be signed by the agent appointed unless the agent is the Secretary of the State. Changing the agent or the agent's address later takes a change certificate for $50, and an agent resignation is also $50.

3. File the Certificate of Organization with the Secretary of the State

   File the Certificate of Organization with the Secretary of the State under section 34-247. The fee is $120 online and on paper, and it includes appointment of the registered agent, under section 34-243u(a)(3). The Certificate states the LLC name, the street and mailing address of the principal office, the name and Connecticut street and mailing address of the registered agent, the name, business address, and residence address of at least one manager or member, and the LLC's email address, if any. File online from the Business.CT.gov dashboard, which the Secretary of the State strongly encourages, or on paper through the digital mail feature, by mail, or by hand delivery. Mail is the slowest option, requires a check or money order with no credit cards, and expedited service is not available for mailed filings. Expedited service costs an extra $50 per transaction, is online only, and is offered at the end of the online filing process where available; the Secretary of the State publishes no guaranteed turnaround time for it, and states that most filings made on Business.CT.gov are automatically accepted, so expedited service is unnecessary in the ordinary case. Under sections 34-247(d) and 34-247f, the LLC is formed on the date and at the time its Certificate is filed by the Secretary of the State.

4. Get an EIN from the IRS

   Free, online, and takes minutes once your Connecticut filing is approved. Never pay a service for this. See EIN for an LLC for the walkthrough and the one IRS rule (a real person as responsible party) that surprises people.

5. Write your operating agreement

   Under section 34-243a(20), a Connecticut operating agreement is the agreement, whether or not referred to as an operating agreement and whether oral, implied, in a record or in any combination thereof, of all the members, including a sole member. Section 34-243d provides that the agreement governs relations among the members and between the members and the LLC, manager rights and duties, and the company's activities and affairs, and that to the extent it does not provide for a matter, the Connecticut Uniform Limited Liability Company Act governs by default, subject to the matters in section 34-243d(c) and (d) that an agreement may not vary. The agreement is not filed with the Secretary of the State, and no operating agreement filing or fee appears in section 34-243u. Connecticut allows an oral or implied agreement, which is exactly why a written one matters: the parts you leave unwritten will be decided by defaults and by arguments about what was implied.

6. Open the business bank account and handle licenses

   Bring your approved formation document and EIN letter. Then check your city and county for a general business license and your industry for state permits. Connecticut has no formation-step general business license issued by the Secretary of the State as part of filing the Certificate of Organization; the Secretary of the State system covers entity formation and registration and trade name information. State tax registration runs through the Department of Revenue Services, including the composite return filing described on the cost page for pass-through entities, and industry and local permits come from the relevant state agency and the town where the business operates. Check your industry board and your town clerk, because Connecticut licensing is specific to the activity and the place.

Filing details that trip people up

• Many guides say anniversary month. For Connecticut LLCs, that is wrong. Section 34-247k(c) requires every LLC, domestic and registered foreign, to file its Annual Report after January first and before April first, meaning January 1 through March 31, of the year following formation and of each calendar year thereafter. The anniversary-month rule is the rule Connecticut applies to other entity types, such as corporations. Applying it to an LLC is the common guide error, and this page follows the statute for LLCs.
• The Business Entity Tax is repealed. Do not budget the old $250. The Department of Revenue Services states that the Business Entity Tax no longer exists, and that Public Act 19-117 ended it for any tax period beginning after December 31, 2018. The stale $250 every two years figure in old guides is the historical version of that dead tax. It is $0 for every current period, and it appears on this site's Connecticut pages only to be buried, explicitly, as repealed.
• Foreign LLCs pay $120 in Connecticut, and face a $300 per month penalty if they skip registration. Register by delivering a foreign registration certificate, filed as the Foreign Registration Statement, for $120 under sections 34-275b and 34-243u(a)(12). On a home-state certificate, the hedged and accurate answer is this: the statute's list does not include one; check the current filing instructions before filing. Section 34-275b lists the certificate's contents in full, items (1) through (7), and no certificate of existence or good standing appears in it. An unregistered foreign LLC may not maintain an action or proceeding in Connecticut, is liable for back fees and taxes plus $300 for each month or part of a month unregistered, and the monthly penalty does not apply if it registers not later than 90 days after commencing business here, under section 34-275a(g). A registered foreign LLC owes the same $80 Annual Report in the same January 1 to March 31 window.
• Trade names in Connecticut are a new law, a town filing, and a five-year term. Former section 35-1 was repealed effective January 1, 2025, and replaced by sections 35-1a to 35-1e. File the trade name certificate with the town clerk in the town where the business is or will be principally transacted, in one town only, for a statewide fee of $20 under section 7-34a, payable to the town clerk. The certificate is valid for five years. Certificates issued before January 1, 2025 expire December 31, 2029 unless renewed. No certificate is needed at all if a Secretary of the State registered LLC simply trades under the name in its formation document, under section 35-1d(b). Our DBA guide covers the details.
• Dissolution in Connecticut is free. The $120 figure belongs to reinstatement. The Secretary of the State's forms list prices the domestic LLC Certificate of Dissolution at $0, and section 34-243u contains no charge for it. The $120 fees nearby are reinstatement, under sections 34-267b and 34-243u(a)(11), and amendment or restatement. An LLC that files the wrong expectation here overbudgets its closing by the full $120.

After your Connecticut LLC is approved

Get the EIN and open the business bank account, then handle Department of Revenue Services registration for the taxes your activity triggers. If your LLC is taxed as a partnership, understand the separate composite return, Form CT-1065/CT-1120SI, which remains a mandatory filing for a pass-through entity doing business in Connecticut or with Connecticut-source income, and decide with your tax adviser whether electing the Pass-Through Entity Tax helps your members, because since January 1, 2024 that election is optional, annual, and irrevocable for the year. Then set one recurring reminder above all others: the $80 Annual Report, filed electronically between January 1 and March 31, first in that window in the calendar year after formation. Keep the registered agent appointment current, filing a $50 change certificate whenever the agent or the agent's address changes, and file the $20 interim notice if the member or manager named in your most recent annual report changes, within the window in section 34-247k(f).

The full recurring picture for Connecticut, with fees and due dates, is on the Connecticut annual report and compliance page, and the money view is on the Connecticut LLC cost page.

Connecticut LLC questions