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What Does an LLC Cost in Hawaii?

Hawaii: $51 paid to form, a $50 filing fee for Form LLC-1 plus the $1 State Archives fee BREG adds to the filing, and then $12.50 a year online for the annual report, with no report due in the year of organization. The one charge most Hawaii businesses also pay, the one-time $20 General Excise Tax license fee on Form BB-1, is triggered by actually doing business in Hawaii rather than by forming the LLC, so it is disclosed on this page and in the calculator note and kept out of the flat totals, exactly as the GET itself is.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Year one: what you pay to exist

Year-one cost in Hawaii	Amount
Articles of Organization, BREG (Form LLC-1)	$50
State Archives fee, added by BREG to the filing	$1
Annual report in the year of organization	$0. None is due in that year under Section 428-210
EIN from the IRS	$0
Operating agreement (you write it, not filed)	$0
Total state cost, year one	$51

That $51 is the complete required state charge BREG collects to form, and it is the same total in every channel, online through Hawaii Business Express or by email, mail, or fax, because the $1 is a State Archives fee stated as an additional fee on the filing, not a paper surcharge. Nothing else is owed to BREG in year one: no annual report falls due in the year of organization, and no publication is required. One conditional year one charge belongs in plain sight rather than in the total. An LLC that actually engages in Hawaii business activity registers with the Department of Taxation on Form BB-1 and pays a one-time $20 General Excise Tax license fee; the license then stays active until closed, surrendered, or revoked for abandonment, and a branch license for each additional location or business name is obtained on Form G-50 at no additional charge. Because that fee is activity triggered and not a formation charge, it is excluded from the $51 and disclosed here and in the calculator note. The optionals are priced plainly. Expedited review is $25 more on the BREG pages and fee schedule consulted. A name reservation is $10 for 120 days. A trade name registration on Form T-1 is $50 plus the $1 archives fee for a five year term. A certificate of good standing is $5. Serving as your own registered agent, or naming another eligible individual or entity, costs nothing; hiring a commercial agent service is a market purchase, not a state fee.

Every year after: the cost of staying alive

Recurring cost in Hawaii	Amount
Annual report, due by the last day of the formation quarter	$12.50 online, $15 paper
Flat entity tax on a default LLC	$0. None was found in the Department of Taxation materials; income tax is income based and excluded, see below
General Excise Tax	Activity based percentage tax on the business's own gross income; excluded from the flat total, see below
State business license renewal	$0. Hawaii has no BREG general license renewal; the GET license is a one-time $20 on Form BB-1
Typical recurring total	$12.50/yr online

The $12.50 a year average is steady, but the deadline moves with the company, not with the calendar year. Under Section 428-210 the report may be filed at any time during the quarter in which it is due and must be filed by midnight Hawaii Standard Time on the last day of that quarter, reflecting affairs as of the first day of the quarter. The sanction structure has two layers. BREG assesses a $10.00 late fee per year delinquent on a delinquent online filing, and Form LLC-INFO states the statutory ceiling behind it: a penalty not exceeding $100.00 for each thirty day period that the delinquency continues, under Section 428-1302. Under Section 428-809 the director may commence administrative termination if the company fails to pay any fees prescribed by law, fails to file its annual report for a period of two years, or fails to appoint and maintain a registered agent, and under Section 428-810 the company then has sixty days after the notice is mailed to correct each ground or demonstrate that it does not exist before the director signs a decree of termination. Reinstatement under Section 428-811 is set out on the report page: within two years, for a $25 application fee, with all reports due and unfiled, all delinquent fees and penalties paid, and the tax writing from the director of taxation.

What drives the Hawaii total, year one vs. later

Year one is a single payment of $51: the $50 Form LLC-1 filing fee plus the $1 State Archives fee, with no annual report due in the year of organization and no publication step. Later years are a single small filing: the annual report at $12.50 online, or $15 on paper, due by the last day of the formation quarter. So the Hawaii state total is driven by staying current, not by the fee level, and the cheapest habit in this state is filing online, which saves $2.50 every year on the report and is also the channel where a delinquency is priced at a $10 late fee per year delinquent. What does not drive the flat total is the tax most Hawaii businesses actually notice. The General Excise Tax is a percentage tax on the business itself, on its gross income from Hawaii activity, at a 4 percent state rate for retail and most activity with a 0.5 percent county surcharge built into the Department's 4.5 percent retail presentation, 0.50 percent for wholesale activity, and 0.15 percent for insurance commissions. It varies with what the business does, where it does it, and how much it takes in, so it is explained below and excluded, and the only flat GET related charge, the one-time $20 license fee on Form BB-1, is conditional on actually engaging in Hawaii business and is disclosed rather than totaled. Hawaii income tax on the members is likewise income based and excluded. The expensive Hawaii outcomes are lapses: two years without an annual report is a ground for administrative termination, and reinstatement then costs the $25 application fee plus every unfiled report, delinquent fee, and penalty, and requires a tax writing from the director of taxation.

The Hawaii fees around the formation

BREG's Chapter 428 fee schedule prices most event driven LLC filings at $25, with formation, foreign authority, and merger or conversion carved out. Expedited review adds $25 on most filings where the schedule lists it, $75 on Articles of Merger or Conversion, and $10 on a Certificate of Good Standing. These are the lines a Hawaii LLC is most likely to meet:

Hawaii filing	Fee
Application for Reservation of Name (120 days)	$10
Transfer of Name Reservation	$10
Statement of Change or Resignation of Registered Agent	$25
Commercial Registered Agent Listing Statement	$100
Commercial Registered Agent Termination Statement	$25
Articles of Amendment	$25
Restated Articles of Organization	$25
Articles of Merger or Conversion	$100
Statement of Dissociation	$25
Correction, and any other statement or document	$25
Certificate of Authority, foreign LLC (Form FLLC-1)	$50, plus the $1 State Archives fee, $51 in total
Application for Certificate of Cancellation, foreign LLC (Form FLLC-2)	$25
Articles of Termination (Form LLC-11)	$25
Application for Reinstatement after administrative termination	$25, plus unfiled reports, delinquent fees and penalties, and the Section 428-811(a)(4) tax writing
Certificate of Good Standing (certificate of compliance)	$5
Trade Name Registration (Form T-1, five years)	$50, plus the $1 State Archives fee, $51 in total. Renewal $50
General Excise Tax license (Form BB-1, one-time, conditional on Hawaii business activity)	$20

The Hawaii taxes that are not in the flat total

The General Excise Tax, in the Department of Taxation's own framing. The Department states: the General Excise Tax is Hawaii's tax on business activity, imposed on the gross income or gross receipts of virtually all business activity conducted in Hawaii, including sales of goods, services, rents, commissions, construction, and other business transactions. It states expressly that GET is not a sales tax: a sales tax is a tax on the customer, which businesses must collect, while GET is a tax on the business itself, and businesses may choose to pass the GET on to customers but are not required to do so. It is not an income tax either, because gross income is the total of all business income before deducting business expenses, and the same receipts are also counted for the separate Hawaii income tax. The statutory rate is 4 percent for retail and most other activity; the Department's rate table shows 4.5 percent for those activities, footnoted as including a 0.5 percent county surcharge under Section 237-8.6 HRS, and shows 0.50 percent for wholesaling, producing, wholesale services, and business activities of disabled people, and 0.15 percent for insurance commissions, with the surcharge not applying to the 0.5 percent activities or insurance commissions. If GET is passed on to customers it must be included in gross receipts, so the maximum amount a business may visibly add is higher than the rate, about 4.166 percent recovering a 4 percent tax and about 4.712 percent recovering a 4.5 percent tax; those pass-on figures are arithmetic, not tax rates, and must never be quoted as the GET rate. Registration follows activity: a person must register if engaging in business activities in Hawaii, with physical nexus, or meeting the economic nexus threshold of $100,000 or more of gross income or receipts, or 200 or more transactions, in the current or preceding calendar year. Periodic returns are on Form G-45 and the annual return on Form G-49, and a return must be filed even with no income. Because GET is a percentage tax on the business's own gross activity, varying by activity type and county surcharge, it is excluded from the flat totals, as New Mexico's gross receipts tax is treated on that state's pages.

Hawaii income tax is a separate tax, on net income. Pass-through treatment is the default, following the federal classification. The Department's Form N-20 instructions state that every partnership, including limited liability companies treated as partnerships for federal income tax purposes, shall make a return of income on Form N-20, whose Schedule K reports the partners' pro rata share items; an LLC that has elected S corporation taxation files Form N-35, and one that has elected C corporation taxation files Form N-30. A disregarded single member LLC files no separate entity income tax return of its own in this system; its owner reports the income, on Form N-11 for resident individuals or Form N-15 for part-year and nonresidents. For taxable years beginning after December 31, 2022, partnerships and S corporations may elect to pay Hawaii income taxes at the entity level, on Form N-362E with the tax calculated on Schedule PTE and the member credit claimed on Form N-362; the election is elective and income based, so it is excluded. No annual flat income tax, minimum tax, or franchise style charge on a pass-through or disregarded LLC was found in the Department's materials.

Run your own version, with an optional registered agent added, in the LLC cost calculator. Every state's year-one and recurring totals sit in one table on the national cost hub, and if a service would act as your agent, the registered agent price tracker follows what that costs at each tracked provider. If you would rather a service handled the filing, the services comparison prices that honestly, renewals included.