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What Does an LLC Cost in North Dakota?

North Dakota: $135 in state fees to form, and $50 a year after that for the annual report. There is no publication charge, no report due in the formation year, and no flat entity tax on a default LLC. The numbers that punish people are the penalty numbers: a $50 late fee that doubles a late report to $100, and a $135 reinstatement fee with a hard one year window.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Year one: what you pay to exist

Year-one cost in North Dakota	Amount
Articles of Organization, Secretary of State (FirstStop)	$135
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	$135

That $135 is the complete required state charge to form, and nothing else falls due in year one. No publication is required at formation, and no annual report is due in the formation year, because the first report is due before November 16 of the following calendar year. The optionals are priced plainly. A name reservation is $10 for twelve months, renewable for successive twelve month periods. A trade name registration, needed before operating under a different name, is $25 for five years. Changing the registered agent or office later costs $10. One figure is deliberately kept out of this total: the $1,000 commercial registered agent listing fee in Section 10-01.1-03(1)(a) is what an agent pays to join the Secretary of State's commercial agent list, not a fee an LLC pays to appoint one, and the $500 commercial agent termination statement is the agent's fee as well. Serving as your own noncommercial registered agent, or naming another eligible individual, costs nothing; hiring a commercial agent service is a market purchase, not a state fee.

Every year after: the cost of staying alive

Recurring cost in North Dakota	Amount
Annual report, delivered before November 16 (November 15 deadline)	$50
Franchise or minimum entity tax on a default pass-through LLC	$0. No flat entity charge applies; classification follows federal
Member income tax	Paid on the members' own returns at individual rates; excluded from the flat total
Typical recurring total	$50/yr

A recurring $50 a year comes with a hard calendar attached. The report is delivered before November 16 each year, stated by the Secretary of State as a November 15 deadline, with the first report due in the year after formation. A report returned for correction avoids the failure to file penalties if it is corrected and returned within thirty days after the Secretary of State returned it, under Section 10-32.1-89(3)(b). Past the deadline, the company is placed in not good standing, and under Section 10-32.1-90(1)(b) it ceases to exist six months after the November 16 date if the report and fees are still unfiled. Reinstatement under Section 10-32.1-91(1)(a) restores the company as of the termination date, validating contracts and restoring assets and rights, but only if the past-due report, the $50 report fee, the $50 late fee, and the $135 reinstatement fee are all filed and paid within one year. Farming or ranching LLCs and Authorized Livestock Farm LLCs run the same $50 report on an April 15 deadline instead.

What drives the North Dakota total, year one vs. later

Year one is a single $135 filing fee, paid through FirstStop, and later years are a single $50 annual report. Nothing else is flat. There is no publication step at formation, no initial report, and no franchise or minimum entity tax on a default pass-through or disregarded LLC in Chapter 10-32.1 or the Tax Commissioner materials. So the North Dakota total is driven by penalties for neglect, not by the fee level. File the report late and the year costs $100, because Section 10-32.1-92(25)(a)(1) adds a $50 late fee to the $50 report fee. Miss it entirely and the company is involuntarily terminated six months after the deadline, and bringing it back costs $235 for a single missed year once the $135 reinstatement fee is added, inside a one year window that closes for good. The figures that scale with the business, the members' own North Dakota income tax, withholding or composite tax collected from nonresident members, and corporate income tax if the LLC elects C corporation taxation, are member level or election based taxes, explained below and kept out of the flat total.

The North Dakota fees around the formation

Section 10-32.1-92 NDCC is the Act's fee schedule, and most North Dakota LLC filings an owner will ever meet are in it. These are the lines most likely to come up:

North Dakota filing	Fee
Name reservation (12 months, renewable; transfer or cancellation also $10)	$10
Consent to use a name	$10
Statement of change of registered office or registered agent	$10
Articles of amendment	$50
Restated articles	$125
Statement of authority, or a statement amending or canceling it	$20
Certificate of Authority (foreign LLC registering)	$135
Amendment of certificate of authority	$50
Withdrawal (foreign LLC, certificate of withdrawal)	$20
Trade name registration (5 years)	$25
Notice of Dissolution (optional, does not terminate the company)	$10
Articles of Dissolution and Termination	$20
Reinstatement fee after involuntary termination (plus the past-due report and late fee)	$135
Certificate of good standing, existence, or authorization (plus $5 for a search of records)	$15

The North Dakota taxes that are not in the flat total

Pass-through treatment is the default, and it follows the federal classification. An LLC classified as a partnership files Form 58, the Partnership Income Tax Return, when it is required to file a federal Form 1065 and does business or derives gross income in North Dakota, due on or before April 15 for a calendar year filer, or the fifteenth day of the fourth month after the end of a fiscal year, with a North Dakota Schedule K-1 (Form 58) for each partner. An LLC taxed as an S corporation files Form 60, the S Corporation Income Tax Return, with a Schedule K-1 (Form 60) for each shareholder. Form 60 is not the general pass-through return, whatever a guide that mixes the two up says. The entity level tax lines on both forms are collections from nonresidents: withholding from nonresident members at the highest individual rate, 2.50% for tax year 2025, on shares of $1,000 or more unless an exception such as a Form PWA adjustment or a Form PWE exemption applies, and composite tax for electing nonresident members whose only North Dakota income is from passthrough entities. The members' own tax is the real income tax: for tax year 2025 an individual pays 0.00%, 1.95%, and 2.50% by bracket and filing status, with a single filer's brackets running from $0 to $48,475, then to $244,825, then above. All of it is income based or member level, so none of it is in the flat totals above, and an LLC that elects C corporation taxation leaves the default treatment and is taxed under the corporate system instead.

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.