How to Form an LLC in Kentucky
Kentucky charges $40 to form an LLC, one of the lowest filing fees in this guide, and then charges $190 a year to keep a typical small LLC alive: a $15 Annual Report due between January 1 and June 30, and the $175 minimum Limited Liability Entity Tax. The traps are structural. Most Kentucky entity mechanics live in KRS Chapter 14A, not Chapter 275, the annual report does not follow your anniversary, and a vendor claim of a $100,000 exemption from the entity tax does not exist in the codified statute.
Kentucky at a glance
Filing fee: $40 for the Articles of Organization (Form KLC), filed with the Kentucky Secretary of State. Recurring: An Annual Report for $15, due between January 1 and June 30 each year, plus the Limited Liability Entity Tax minimum of $175, for a recurring floor of $190 a year. The annual report window is a fixed calendar window, not your formation anniversary. Registered agent: required, with a physical address in Kentucky. Every figure on this page was checked against the Kentucky Secretary of State's, Department of Revenue's, and Kentucky Revised Statutes' official sites on November 8, 2026.
The Kentucky filing steps
Check your name on the state's own search
Search the Secretary of State's online Organization Search before you file, or check availability in writing or by phone at (502) 564-3490. A Kentucky LLC name must be distinguishable from any name of record with the Secretary of State and must end with the phrase "limited liability company" or "limited company" or the abbreviation "LLC" or "LC", under KRS 14A.3-010. "Limited" may be abbreviated "Ltd." and "Company" as "Co." A professional LLC uses "professional limited liability company," "professional limited company," "PLLC," or "PLC." A search does not reserve the name. If you want to hold a name while you prepare, Kentucky offers an optional name reservation on Form RES for $15, good for 120 days, but most founders who are ready to file skip it and file the Articles directly.
Choose your registered agent
Kentucky calls this role the registered agent, and every LLC and every qualified foreign LLC must continuously maintain one in Kentucky, along with a registered office, under KRS 14A.4-010. The agent may be an individual who resides in Kentucky whose business address is identical with the registered office, or an entity or foreign entity qualified to transact business in Kentucky whose business address is identical with the registered office. The registered office must be a Kentucky street address. Form KLC states it plainly: street address only, no post office box numbers. Unless the agent signs the document making the appointment, the appointment is not effective until the agent delivers a written statement to the Secretary of State accepting it, and Form KLC carries that consent line and signature on its face. Changing the agent or office later takes a Statement of Change, Form RAC, for $10, and the change cannot be made on the annual report.
File the Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State
File the Articles of Organization, Form KLC, with the Secretary of State under KRS 275.020 and KRS 275.025. The fee is $40 online and on paper. File online through the FastTrack system, where no copies are required, or by mail or in person with one exact or conformed copy and the fee. The Articles state the name, the registered office and initial registered agent, the mailing address of the initial principal office, and whether the LLC is manager-managed or member-managed. Duration is perpetual unless the Articles state otherwise. The Secretary of State states that documents are usually processed the same day they are received, but it may take up to three business days, and no expedited tier appears on the fee schedule. Under KRS 275.020(2), the LLC's existence begins when the Articles are filed, unless you specify a delayed effective date under KRS 14A.2-070. One real exception to the $40: under KRS 14A.2-165, the filing fee is waived for a veteran-owned business that is at least 51 percent unconditionally veteran-owned, as Form KLC itself states.
Get an EIN from the IRS
Free, online, and takes minutes once your Kentucky 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.
Write your operating agreement
Under KRS 275.015(21), an operating agreement in Kentucky is any agreement, written or oral, among all of the members, as to the conduct of the business and affairs of the LLC. For a single-member LLC it also includes a writing the member executes about the company's affairs, whether or not it is an agreement. Note the definition carefully: it says written or oral, and the word implied does not appear in it. The agreement is a private document, not filed with the Secretary of State, and where it does not provide, the defaults in KRS Chapter 275 govern. An oral agreement is legally possible in Kentucky and practically unwise for a multi-member company, so write it down at formation.
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. Kentucky has no single statewide general business license issued by the Secretary of State; the Secretary of State system covers entity formation and registration only. The Secretary of State's own post-formation checklist points new entities to the Kentucky Department of Revenue to establish state tax accounts, to local occupational license fee information by county and city, to the county clerk in the county where the business transacts business for local permit requirements, and to city officials for additional permit or license requirements. Budget your time for the local step, not a second state license.
Filing details that trip people up
- Most Kentucky mechanics live in KRS Chapter 14A, not Chapter 275. Formation sits at KRS 275.020, but name rules are KRS 14A.3-010, the registered agent rule is KRS 14A.4-010, annual reports are KRS 14A.6-010, and administrative dissolution and reinstatement are KRS 14A.7-010 to 14A.7-030. A guide that cites Chapter 275 for those topics is usually copying another guide, not the statute.
- Foreign LLCs pay $90 in Kentucky, and no home-state certificate is required. Register on the Certificate of Authority, Form FBE, for $90. Neither the form nor its instructions list a home-state certificate of existence or good standing among the items to submit. Instead, the application itself self-certifies existence: item 10 has the applicant certify that the entity validly exists under the laws of its home jurisdiction, tracking KRS 14A.9-030(2). Transacting business unregistered costs $2 per day in civil penalties and bars the LLC from maintaining a court proceeding in Kentucky until it obtains a certificate of authority, under KRS 14A.9-020.
- No publication requirement. Nothing in KRS 275.020, KRS 275.025, Chapter 14A's filing provisions, or Form KLC imposes a newspaper publication or advertising step. Formation is complete on filing.
- Trading under a different name takes two filings in Kentucky, and it lasts five years. An LLC files a Certificate of Assumed Name, Form ASN, with the Secretary of State for $20, and then files the copy stamped filed by the Secretary of State with the county clerk of the county where the LLC maintains its registered agent, under KRS 365.015(3). The county clerk's fee is set by cross-reference to KRS 64.012, and no county dollar figure is stated in KRS 365.015 itself, so this page prints none. Individuals file county-only; entities file with both offices. The assumed name is effective for five years and renews on a renewal certificate filed within six months before expiration. Our DBA guide covers when you need one and when you do not.
- Closing a Kentucky LLC costs $40, and no tax clearance is required to file. File Articles of Dissolution, Form LLD, under KRS 275.315 for $40. No Department of Revenue clearance certificate appears in the form, its instructions, or the Secretary of State's Voluntary Dissolution page, which recommends contacting Revenue to check for other obligations as a recommendation, not a filing precondition. Keep the two paths separate in your mind: tax clearance is a hard requirement on reinstatement, described on the report page, not on voluntary dissolution. Your LLET and other tax accounts still must be settled with Revenue as a tax matter.
After your Kentucky LLC is approved
Get the EIN, open the business bank account, and establish your tax accounts with the Kentucky Department of Revenue, including the Limited Liability Entity Tax account, plus any local occupational license for your county and city. Then set two recurring reminders, not one. The first is the $15 Annual Report, filed between January 1 and June 30, with the first report due in that window in the year after your formation year. The second is the LLET return, due on or before the fifteenth day of the fourth month after your tax year closes, April 15 for a calendar-year LLC, on Form 725 for a single-member LLC owned by an individual or on the pass-through return for other LLCs. Keep the registered agent record current on Form RAC for $10 whenever it changes, because an agent gap of 60 days or more is itself a ground for administrative dissolution.
The full recurring picture for Kentucky, with fees and due dates, is on the Kentucky annual report and compliance page, and the money view is on the Kentucky LLC cost page.
Kentucky LLC questions
When is the Kentucky LLC annual report due?
Between January 1 and June 30 each year, for $15. It is a fixed calendar window, not your formation anniversary. The first report is due in that window in the year following the calendar year in which the LLC was formed, under KRS 14A.6-010(3). See the Kentucky compliance page.
Is there a $100,000 exemption from Kentucky's Limited Liability Entity Tax?
No. No $100,000 gross receipts exemption appears in the codified KRS 141.0401, read end to end. That figure appeared only in an introduced 2026 bill draft that was not enacted in that form. What the statute actually does is compute the tax so that an LLC with gross receipts or gross profits from all sources at or under $3 million owes exactly $175.
What happens if I miss the June 30 annual report deadline?
There is no late fee, and the report fee stays $15. Missing June 30 puts the LLC in bad standing at once, and failure to deliver the report is a ground for administrative dissolution. Before dissolving the LLC, the Secretary of State must advise it, and it then has 60 days from the date the notice was mailed to correct the ground, under KRS 14A.7-020(2).
Does a Kentucky LLC file a BOI report?
No. US-formed companies are exempt under the federal final rule of August 14, 2026. See the BOI tracker.
General Information Only
LLCForming publishes general information about forming and running an LLC. It is not legal, tax, or accounting advice, and it does not create an attorney or advisor relationship. Rules vary by state and by your situation. For a decision that matters, talk to a licensed attorney or tax professional in your state.