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What Does an LLC Cost in Iowa?

Iowa: $50 to form, then $30 every two years. The biennial report is the only recurring state charge, it is $30 online and $45 by paper, and a default pass-through LLC owes no Iowa franchise tax. The cost traps are the ones in other guides: a $50 reinstatement that is really $5, and a county DBA filing that does not apply to LLCs at all.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Year one: what you pay to exist

Year-one cost in Iowa	Amount
Certificate of Organization, Secretary of State	$50
EIN from the IRS	$0
Operating agreement (you write it, not filed)	$0
Registered agent (you or another eligible person serves)	$0
Total state cost, year one	$50

That is the complete required state charge to form, and there is nothing else owed in year one: no publication, no initial report, and no report fee in the formation year, because the first biennial report falls in the first odd numbered year after the formation year. The optionals are priced plainly. A name reservation is $10 for 120 days, and transferring a reserved name is $10. A fictitious name filing, the LLC version of a DBA, is $5. A statement of change for the registered agent or registered office is $0. If you want the filing back faster, expedited service adds $15 for five business days, $50 for two business days, $125 for same business day service, or $200 for one hour service, on top of the $50. Hiring a commercial registered agent service is a market purchase, not a state fee.

Every year after: the cost of staying alive

Recurring cost in Iowa	Amount
Biennial report, due January 1 to April 1 in odd numbered years	$30 online, $45 by paper, per report
Franchise tax on a default pass-through LLC	$0. Iowa imposes no flat entity or franchise charge on one
Pass-through entity tax (PTET)	Elective and income based; excluded from the flat total
Typical recurring total	$30 every 2 years online

Spread over time, the online report averages $15 a year, and the paper report averages $22.50 a year, but budget for the lumpy version: $30 or $45 in the due year and $0 in the off year. The risk in Iowa is not price, it is the two year gap, because a report due every other year is easy to forget precisely because it is rare. The verified consequence of missing it is structural. Not delivering the biennial report within 60 days after it is due is a ground for administrative dissolution under section 489.708, the Secretary of State gives notice and the company has 60 days to cure under section 489.709, and a company that does not cure is dissolved. Bringing it back is a $5 application under section 489.710, available at any time, plus whatever delinquent reports and fees are needed to eliminate the grounds.

What drives the Iowa total, year one vs. later

Iowa's year one is a single $50 filing fee, and later years are a single filing fee on a two year cycle: the $30 online biennial report, due in odd numbered years, with nothing due in the year between. So the Iowa total is driven by the calendar and by channel choice, not by revenue. File the report by paper and the same report costs $45. Let it slip past the statutory cure path and the year stops being cheap: the company is administratively dissolved, and while reinstatement itself is only a $5 application, the delinquent reports and fees that caused the dissolution still have to be cleared. Elect the pass-through entity tax and an income based charge appears, but that is an election, explained below and kept out of the flat total. Nothing in Iowa scales with the size of the business.

The Iowa fees around the formation

Section 489.122 prices the whole LLC life cycle, and the Secretary of State's forms and fees page confirms the figures an Iowa LLC is most likely to meet:

Iowa filing	Fee
Name reservation (120 days)	$10
Transfer of a reserved name	$10
Biennial report	$30 online, $45 by paper
Statement of change of registered agent or registered office	$0
Fictitious name filing (the LLC DBA, state level)	$5
Foreign Registration Statement (foreign LLC registering)	$100
Amended foreign registration statement	$100
Foreign LLC withdrawal of registration	$10
Statement of Dissolution	$5
Application for reinstatement after administrative dissolution	$5
Expedited service, per document (optional)	+$15 five business days, +$50 two business days, +$125 same business day, +$200 one hour

The pass-through entity tax is an election, not a fee

Iowa taxes a default LLC the way it taxes a partnership: the entity files Form IA 1065, it is generally not a taxable entity itself, and the members are taxed on their distributive shares. There is no flat entity or franchise charge for a default LLC, which is why the recurring total above is the report alone. The pass-through entity tax is separate and elective. Partnerships and S corporations, a category that may include an LLC taxed one of those ways, could elect to pay tax at the entity level, with a portion of the tax paid provided to the owners as a refundable credit. The Department of Revenue publishes these rates for the election: 8.53% for 2022, 6% for 2023, 5.7% for 2024, and 3.8% for 2025. The election is voluntary, is made separately for each tax year, and once made is irrevocable and binding on all owners; a single member or disregarded LLC is not eligible to make its own election, and publicly traded partnerships are not eligible. The Revenue pages this research verified frame the election for tax years 2022 through 2025, so this page publishes no 2026 rate and treats the tax as an income based election outside the flat totals.

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.