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Iowa LLC Biennial Report: $30 Online, Due January 1 to April 1 in Odd Numbered Years

Every Iowa LLC files a biennial report with the Secretary of State between January 1 and April 1 of odd numbered years, at $30 online or $45 by paper. The first one is due in the first odd numbered year after formation, and the consequence of skipping it is administrative dissolution, curable with a $5 reinstatement application at any time.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

The biennial report, in one table

Item	Iowa rule
Who files	Domestic LLCs and registered foreign LLCs, under Iowa Code section 489.212.
When	Between January 1 and April 1 of odd numbered years. The first report is due in that window of the first odd numbered year following the calendar year in which the company was formed or registered.
Fee	$30 filed online, $45 by paper. Section 489.122 lets the Secretary of State set the biennial report fee, and the Secretary of State's forms and fees page lists $30 by online filing or $45 by paper.
Where	With the Secretary of State, through Fast Track Filing or on paper.
What it contains	The company name, the registered agent's name and street address, with the consent of any new agent, and the principal office street address. A foreign LLC also states its jurisdiction of formation and any alternate name registered under section 489.906.

Note the shape of the obligation: it is one filing every two years, not an annual report at half price, and no report is due in the formation year itself. An LLC formed in an even numbered year owes its first report in the odd numbered year that follows it, and an LLC formed in an odd numbered year owes its first report in the next odd numbered year after that.

What happens if you do not file

The grounds for administrative dissolution in section 489.708 include not delivering the biennial report within 60 days after it is due, fees or taxes unpaid 60 days after due, being without a registered agent, or the agent being without an Iowa place of business, for 60 or more days, not notifying the Secretary of State within 60 days of an agent or address change, an agent resignation, or discontinuation of the registered office, and expiration of a stated duration. The procedure in section 489.709 then controls: the Secretary of State gives notice, the company has 60 days to cure each ground, and a company that does not cure is dissolved. A dissolved company continues only to wind up, and dissolution does not terminate its registered agent's authority.

Reinstatement: a $5 application, at any time

Section 489.710 allows reinstatement to be applied for at any time after administrative dissolution. There is no reinstatement deadline or window. The application fee is $5 under section 489.122, and the certificate of reinstatement itself is no fee; the $50 figure in other guides is wrong. The application states the name the company had at dissolution and the dissolution's effective date, and that the grounds did not exist or have been eliminated, so delinquent biennial reports and fees needed to eliminate the grounds are owed alongside the $5. If the application is received more than five years after dissolution, the name must satisfy section 489.112; within five years, the company keeps its name. Reinstatement relates back and takes effect as if the dissolution had never occurred.

The other standing duty: the registered agent

Iowa's second ongoing record duty is the registered agent and registered office under section 489.115. The LLC must designate and maintain an agent with a place of business in Iowa, and several of the dissolution grounds above are agent failures measured at 60 days. Keeping the record current is a filing, and an unusually cheap one: a statement of change under section 489.116 costs no fee, and neither does the agent's own statement of change or a statement of resignation.

Closing an Iowa LLC on purpose

Ending the LLC deliberately starts with an event in section 489.701: an event the operating agreement states causes dissolution, the affirmative vote or consent of all members, 90 consecutive days with no members, a district court order, or the signing and filing of a statement of administrative dissolution. The dissolved company then winds up under section 489.702: it winds up its activities, discharges or settles debts, and distributes assets. In winding up it may file a statement of dissolution, $5 under section 489.122, which the Secretary of State's dissolve page describes as an instant filing in Fast Track Filing that is not reviewed by the Secretary of State, and, after winding up, a statement of termination stating the company is terminated. Section 489.122 names no separate fee line for the statement of termination, so this page prices only the $5 dissolution filing. No clearance condition appears in section 489.702 and no clearance filing appears for LLCs in the Secretary of State materials; closing the LLC's Department of Revenue tax accounts is a separate practical step, not a condition of the winding up filings. Our dissolution guide covers the wind up order.