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What Does an LLC Cost in Kentucky?

Kentucky: $40 to form, then $190 a year. That recurring total is two items, a $15 Annual Report and the $175 minimum Limited Liability Entity Tax, and for most small LLCs the $175 is not just the floor, it is the whole entity tax. Here is the whole state bill, with the phase-in math for larger companies kept where it belongs, outside the flat total.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Year one: what you pay to exist

Year-one cost in Kentucky	Amount
Articles of Organization (Form KLC), Secretary of State	$40
EIN from the IRS	$0
Operating agreement (you write it, not filed)	$0
Registered agent (you or another individual serves)	$0
Total state cost, year one	$40

That $40 is the complete required state charge to form, the same online through FastTrack as on paper, and it is waived entirely for a veteran-owned business that is at least 51 percent unconditionally veteran-owned, under KRS 14A.2-165. There is no publication charge and no initial report in year one. The one common extra is optional: a name reservation on Form RES is $15 for 120 days, if you choose to hold a name before filing. Hiring a commercial registered agent service is a market purchase, separate from state charges, and naming an individual costs nothing.

Every year after: the cost of staying alive

Recurring cost in Kentucky	Amount
Annual Report, due January 1 to June 30	$15
Limited Liability Entity Tax, minimum (KRS 141.0401)	$175
Typical recurring total	$190

Budget $190 a year, and calendar both halves of it, because they run on different clocks. The $15 Annual Report is due between January 1 and June 30, first in that window in the year after formation. The LLET return is due on or before the fifteenth day of the fourth month after the tax year closes. Missing the report deadline costs no late fee, but it puts the LLC in bad standing immediately and starts the path to administrative dissolution, curable in the 60-day notice period under KRS 14A.7-020(2). Coming back after a dissolution is the expensive version of the same filing: a $100 reinstatement penalty plus $15 for each delinquent annual report, plus a Department of Revenue certificate that all taxes owed have been paid, under KRS 14A.7-030(1)(d) and (g). Reinstatement is available at any time after dissolution, with no statutory deadline, and it relates back to the dissolution date.

What drives the Kentucky total, year one vs. later

Kentucky reverses the pattern most founders expect. Year one is the cheapest year, a single $40 filing fee with no state add-ons required. Later years cost more, $190, because two recurring charges start: the $15 Annual Report and the Limited Liability Entity Tax. For a typical small LLC the LLET side of that total is simple, because the statute's own computation produces exactly $175 whenever gross receipts or gross profits from all sources are at or under $3 million. The Department of Revenue's Schedule LLET forms say the same thing in plainer language: if gross receipts from all sources are $3,000,000 or less, stop and enter $175. The tax only grows past that point, in the $3 million to $6 million phase-in band and above it, and that growth is income-based in structure even though it is measured on receipts and profits, so it is described in the table below and excluded from the flat total above the floor. What Kentucky does not charge also matters: there is no late fee on the annual report, no publication cost, and no separate state entity fee hiding behind the two recurring items.

The Limited Liability Entity Tax, in plain terms

The LLET, KRS 141.0401, is Kentucky's entity-level tax on every corporation and every limited liability pass-through entity doing business in Kentucky, including a single-member LLC. It is the greater of the computed tax or $175, regardless of credits, and the computation itself is the lesser of two parallel tracks. The figures below are the statute's own, verified against the Department of Revenue's Schedule LLET forms:

Item	Current figure
Minimum tax, and the whole tax at or under $3 million of gross receipts or gross profits from all sources	$175
Gross receipts track, $3 million to $6 million phase-in	$0.095 per $100 of Kentucky gross receipts, with the statutory phase-in reduction in KRS 141.0401(2)(b), never below $175
Gross profits track, $3 million to $6 million phase-in	$0.75 per $100 of Kentucky gross profits, with the statutory phase-in reduction in KRS 141.0401(2)(b), never below $175
Above $6 million	$0.095 per $100 of Kentucky gross receipts, or $0.75 per $100 of Kentucky gross profits, whichever track is lesser
Credit against owners' income tax	LLET paid above the $175 minimum is creditable as a nonrefundable credit, in proportionate shares, against income tax on income from the entity. The $175 itself is never creditable, and any remaining credit is disallowed with no carryforward
Return due date	On or before the 15th day of the 4th month after the tax year closes (April 15 for a calendar-year LLC)
Claimed $100,000 exemption	Does not exist in the codified KRS 141.0401. Do not budget around it

Because the LLET above the $175 floor depends on your Kentucky receipts and profits, only the $175 floor is in the flat recurring total on this page. Members' Kentucky income tax on pass-through income is an owner-level item, partially offset by the credit described above, and local occupational license fees sit outside the state totals as they do in every state here.

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.