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How to Form an LLC in Missouri

Missouri charges $50 to form an LLC online, $105 on paper, and then charges nothing to keep it filed with the Secretary of State: no annual report, no biennial report, no recurring state filing fee. The traps are different here. Guides quote the $105 paper fee as the price, generalize a $100 reinstatement fee that the statute grants for only one narrow cancellation path, and sell annual report services for a report Missouri LLCs do not file.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

The Missouri filing steps

1. Check your name on the state's own search

   Search your name for free through Missouri Business Filings at bsd.sos.mo.gov before you file. A Missouri LLC name must contain the words "limited company" or "limited liability company" or the abbreviation "LC," "LLC," "L.C.," or "L.L.C.," and under RSMo 347.020 it may not contain the word "corporation." The name must be distinguishable upon the records of the Secretary of State from the name of any corporation, LLC, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, or limited liability limited partnership organized or registered in Missouri. A search does not reserve the name. If you want to hold a name while you prepare, Missouri offers an optional name reservation on Form BE-1 for $25, running 60 days per reservation, with a maximum of 180 days total under RSMo 347.025. Most founders who are ready to file skip it and file the Articles directly.

2. Choose your registered agent

   Missouri uses the term registered agent, with a registered office, and RSMo 347.030 requires every LLC to have and continuously maintain both in this state. The agent may be an individual resident of this state whose business office is identical with the registered office, or a domestic or foreign corporation authorized to do business in this state whose business office is identical with the registered office. The articles must give the registered office address including street and number, if any, and the agent and address must be in the State of Missouri. Changing the agent or office later takes a Statement of Change of Registered Agent and/or Registered Office, Form Corp. 59, for $10. For a change, the Secretary of State's Business Services Division FAQ describes the filing as including a statement from the new registered agent, signed, stating they consent to being the registered agent. An agent resigns on Form LLC-6 for $10, and the resignation is effective 30 days after the Secretary of State receives it, or on appointment of a new agent, whichever is earlier. Keep the record current: failing to maintain a registered agent is one of the stated grounds for cancellation of your articles under RSMo 347.183, covered on the compliance page.

3. File the Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State

   File Form LLC-1, Articles of Organization, through Missouri Business Filings, the Business Services Division's online filing system at bsd.sos.mo.gov, or on paper. The fee is $50 online and $105 on paper, and the Secretary of State's own FAQ states the saving directly: filing articles of organization for an LLC online saves $55. The two figures confuse people because RSMo 347.179 lists statutory base fees of $45 online and $100 on paper. The Secretary of State's Schedule of Fees and Charges states its totals include $5 for the Technology fund where applicable, and the totals the state actually charges are $50 and $105. Paying electronically adds a separate e-payment convenience fee paid to the vendor, not retained by the state: credit cards cost 2% plus $0.25, and e-check costs $0.50 flat, while cash, check, and ACH payments carry no additional fee. The Secretary of State notes that many online filings are processed immediately after submission, but no standard processing timeframe for LLC articles and no expedited processing fee appear in the Chapter 347 fee list. The one speed adjacent product is an optional preclearance examination for $55, a review of the sufficiency of documents you propose to file. It is not expedited processing. Under RSMo 347.037, the LLC is formed when the articles are filed, or on a later date set in the articles, not to exceed 90 days from filing. The articles state whether management is vested in managers or in members, and the duration, which may be any number of years or perpetual. Choose perpetual unless you have a reason not to, for the cancellation reason explained in the notes below.

4. Get an EIN from the IRS

   Free, online, and takes minutes once your Missouri 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.

5. Write your operating agreement

   Missouri statute requires every LLC to have an operating agreement, and it is never filed. The Secretary of State's Small Business Startup Guide states it plainly: Missouri statute requires all limited liability companies to have an operating agreement, and it is an internal document, not filed with the Secretary of State or any other government agency. Under RSMo 347.081, the members shall adopt an operating agreement containing the provisions they deem appropriate, and state policy is to give maximum effect to freedom of contract and to the enforceability of operating agreements. One default rule is worth knowing before you rely on silence. Under RSMo 347.065, in a member managed LLC every member is an agent of the LLC, and a member's act apparently carrying on the business in the usual way binds the LLC. If management is vested in managers, every manager is the agent on the same terms, and no member acting solely as a member is an agent. Write the agreement at formation, because the defaults decide who can bind your company.

6. 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. Missouri formation itself is the Secretary of State filing above. There is no LLC formation add-on priced on the Secretary of State's Chapter 347 fee schedule beyond the filings described on this page. Tax registration runs through the Missouri Department of Revenue on its own track: an LLC taxed as a partnership files Federal Form 1065 and a Missouri Partnership Return, Form MO-1065, and each member receives a K-1 and reports the income on the member's own Missouri return. Industry specific licenses come from the relevant state board or agency, and cities and counties add their own permits and licenses, which vary by place and trade and are not priced here.

Filing details that trip people up

• The real formation price is $50 online. The $105 figure is the paper price, and the $45 figure is an incomplete one. The Secretary of State charges $50 online and $105 on paper for Form LLC-1, and its FAQ calls out the $55 online saving. RSMo 347.179 lists base fees of $45 and $100, and the fee schedule explains that its totals include $5 for the Technology fund where applicable. A guide quoting $45 has read the statute without the fund amount. A guide quoting only $105 has priced the slow route. File online at bsd.sos.mo.gov.
• Foreign LLCs pay $105 in Missouri, and the home state certificate is mandatory and must be fresh. Registering an out-of-state LLC takes an Application for Registration of a Foreign Limited Liability Company, Form LLC-4, for $105. Do not assume the $50 online rate applies: the fee schedule's $50 online line is for domestic certificates, and Form LLC-4 prints $105. Under RSMo 347.153, the application must include a certificate of existence or good standing from the secretary of state in your home jurisdiction, dated within 60 calendar days from filing. Transacting business unregistered carries a fine of not less than $1,000 under RSMo 347.163, and an unregistered foreign LLC may not maintain a suit or action in any Missouri court while unregistered, although its contracts stay valid and it can still defend an action.
• No publication requirement for formation. Neither RSMo 347.037 nor RSMo 347.039, nor Form LLC-1, nor the Chapter 347 fee schedule imposes a newspaper publication or advertising step. Formation is complete on filing conforming articles. Missouri's only LLC publication mechanism is optional and comes after dissolution: under RSMo 347.141 a dissolved LLC may publish a notice of winding up to bar unknown claims unless a proceeding is commenced within three years. It is a claims device for closing LLCs, not a formation requirement, and no founder owes it.
• Trading under a different name is a $7 state filing in Missouri, and it expires in five years. Missouri files fictitious names at the state level with the Secretary of State, not at the county. Register on Form Corp. 56, Registration of Fictitious Name, for $7. The registration expires 5 years from the filing date, renewals cost the same $7, and renewals must be made in the six month period before expiration. Once expired, it cannot be renewed: a new registration must be filed and issues a new charter number. The form itself warns that registration gives no protection to the name and does not keep anyone else from adopting and using the same name. Our DBA guide covers when you need one and when you do not.
• State a perpetual duration, or calendar the expiry you chose. RSMo 347.039 expressly permits a perpetual duration. If your articles state a number of years instead and that duration expires, the Secretary of State may administratively cancel the articles on not less than 30 days written notice under RSMo 347.183(5). Reinstatement for that specific path, and only that path, is spelled out in RSMo 347.183(6): first amend the articles to extend the duration, then apply with a $100 reinstatement fee plus any delinquent fees, penalties, and other charges then due. Guides that quote $100 as the Missouri LLC reinstatement fee for every cancellation are generalizing a narrow statute. Other cancellation reasons are hedged on the compliance page, because the LLC specific fee for them was not confirmed on the official pages reviewed.

After your Missouri LLC is approved

Get the EIN, open the business bank account, and register with the Department of Revenue for the taxes your activity triggers. Then understand what Missouri does not ask for: there is no annual report to calendar and no recurring Secretary of State fee to budget. What you calendar instead is upkeep. Keep the registered agent and office continuously in place, file Form Corp. 59 for $10 within the change process when the agent or office changes, and treat any notice from the Secretary of State about cancellation as urgent. If you registered a fictitious name, calendar its five year expiry and the six month renewal window before it. If your articles state a fixed duration rather than perpetual, calendar that expiry, because an expired duration is an administrative cancellation path. For most Missouri LLCs, staying alive is free. It is staying findable that takes attention.

The full recurring picture for Missouri, with fees and due dates, is on the Missouri annual report and compliance page, and the money view is on the Missouri LLC cost page.

Missouri LLC questions