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What Does an LLC Cost in Louisiana?

Louisiana: $125 to form, $35 a year to stay. The $125 is a package price covering both the Articles of Organization and the mandatory Initial Report, Louisiana imposes no LLC franchise tax, and the elective pass-through entity tax at a flat 3% is income based and kept out of the totals.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Year one: what you pay to exist

Year-one cost in Louisiana	Amount
Articles of Organization plus Initial Report, Secretary of State	$125 combined
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	$125

That is the complete required state charge to form. There is no separate Initial Report fee, no publication step, and the first annual report is not due until the first anniversary of organization. Two payment and speed notes apply. Paying online by credit card adds a $5 statutory convenience fee, so the card-paid total is $130 in practice while the filing fee remains $125. Expedited handling is optional: $35 for 24 hour service, or $60 for priority expedite in 2 to 4 hours. The other common optionals are priced plainly. A name reservation is $25 for a nonrenewable 120 days. A Supplemental Initial Report, needed only if no managers or members were named at formation, is $30. Using an eligible person as registered agent costs nothing in state fees; hiring a commercial agent service is a market purchase, not a state fee.

Every year after: the cost of staying alive

Recurring cost in Louisiana	Amount
Annual report, due on or before the anniversary of organization	$35
Franchise tax on an LLC	$0. Louisiana does not impose one on an LLC
Pass-through entity (PTE) tax	Elective and income based, at a flat 3%; excluded from the flat total
Corporation income tax	Only if the LLC is taxed as a corporation; a flat 5.5%, excluded from the flat total
Typical recurring total	$35/yr

A recurring total of $35 comes with a real duty attached. An LLC delinquent in filing its annual report is not in good standing under section 12:1308.2 and is prohibited from engaging in commercial business operations with the state or its boards, agencies, departments, or commissions, and a state contract with an LLC not in good standing may be declared null and void. No statutory late fee for the annual report appears in the statute or on the Secretary of State's fee schedule. The serious consequence is revocation after three consecutive missed years, covered on the report page. Budget $35 a year, and spend the attention you save on the anniversary date.

What drives the Louisiana total, year one vs. later

Louisiana's year one is a single $125 package fee, and later years are a single $35 annual report. Nothing in either year scales with revenue: Louisiana has no LLC franchise tax, and the corporation franchise tax, which was a corporation tax and not an LLC tax, has been repealed for franchise tax periods beginning on or after January 1, 2026. So the Louisiana total is driven by behavior, not by income. Skip annual reports for three consecutive years and the articles are revoked; bringing them back inside the three year reinstatement window costs $160 on the statutory build-up explained below. Elect the pass-through entity tax, or classify the LLC as a corporation, and income based taxes appear, but both are elections or classifications, explained below and kept out of the flat total.

The Louisiana fees around the formation

These are the lines a Louisiana LLC is most likely to meet, from the Secretary of State's Forms and Fee Schedule as raised by Act 921 effective October 1, 2026:

Louisiana filing	Fee
Name reservation (120 days, nonrenewable)	$25
Supplemental Initial Report	$30
Change of registered office or registered agent	$30
Change of members or managers	$30
Expedited service (24 hour)	+$35
Priority expedite (2 to 4 hour)	+$60
Credit card convenience fee (statutory)	+$5
Foreign LLC certificate of authority	$185
Foreign LLC annual report	$35
Foreign LLC withdrawal	$185
Assumed business name (DBA) certificate, filed with the parish Clerk of Court	No fee or duration stated in section 51:281; any charge is set at the parish level
Dissolution by affidavit	$125
Reinstatement proceedings after revocation (plus the current annual report, $35)	$125

The two Louisiana taxes that are not in the flat total

The pass-through entity tax is an election, not a charge. Under section 47:287.732.2, an entity taxed as a partnership for federal income tax purposes, which includes a multi-member LLC so taxed, may elect to be taxed at the entity level in the manner of a C corporation. Owners holding more than one-half of the ownership interest, measured by capital account balances, must approve the election, and owners then exclude the entity-taxed income from their own Louisiana taxable income. For tax periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, electing entities are taxed at a flat 3%, per the Department of Revenue's Revenue Information Bulletin 25-012. Because the election is optional and the tax is income based, it is excluded from the totals on this page.

The corporation income tax reaches an LLC only if the LLC is taxed as a corporation for federal purposes; those LLCs file Form CIFT-620 and pay the flat 5.5% corporation income tax rate that applies for tax periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025. A default pass-through LLC is not in that regime: its income tax falls on the owners, and Louisiana's flat 3% individual income tax rate is an owner level tax, not an LLC charge. The repealed corporation franchise tax is sometimes still listed for LLCs in older guides; it was never an LLC tax, and it no longer applies to periods beginning on or after January 1, 2026.

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.