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What Does an LLC Cost in Texas?

Texas is front-loaded: $300 once, then $0 a year in state charges for the typical small LLC. The franchise tax is real but starts above $2.65 million in revenue. Here is the whole state bill.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Year one: what you pay to exist

Year-one cost in Texas	Amount
Certificate of Formation (Form 205), Secretary of State	$300
Credit card convenience fee if you pay by card ($0.25 + 2.25%)	About $7 on the filing fee
EIN from the IRS	$0
Company agreement (you write it, not filed)	$0
Total state cost, year one	$300

Texas's $300 is the second-highest formation fee of the fifty states, behind only Massachusetts at $500. A registered agent service adds roughly $125 to $249 a year if you hire one. There are no other state formation charges: no publication, no separate state EIN-style registration, no initial report.

Every year after: the cost of staying alive

Recurring cost in Texas	Amount
Secretary of State annual report	$0. Texas does not have one for LLCs.
Franchise tax, total revenue at or under $2.65 million	$0
Public Information Report to the Comptroller	$0 to file, due every year
Franchise tax above the threshold	0.75% of taxable margin (0.375% for retail and wholesale)
Typical recurring total	$0 for most small LLCs

For a Texas LLC under the revenue threshold, the recurring state cost is genuinely zero dollars, provided you actually file the free information report each year. The penalty map is more specific than most guides print: the $50 penalty applies to a franchise tax report filed after the due date, and the Comptroller states there is no $50 penalty for late filing a Public Information Report alone. The real risk of skipping the free report is forfeiture of the LLC's right to transact business in Texas, which is worse than a fine. Free is not the same as optional.

What drives the Texas total, year one vs. later

Texas puts nearly its entire state cost into a single day: the $300 Certificate of Formation, the second-highest filing fee in the country (only Massachusetts, at $500, charges more), plus about $7 if you pay by card. After that, a typical small LLC pays the state nothing. There is no Secretary of State annual report, and the franchise tax is $0 at or under the $2.65 million no-tax-due threshold for 2026 and 2027. The one recurring duty is free: the Public Information Report, due every May 15. So the Texas pattern is the mirror image of Florida's. Year one is the most expensive year by far, later years cost $0 in state charges, and the only ways a later year gets expensive are growth past the franchise tax threshold, or neglect of the free report that keeps the entity in good standing.

The franchise tax, in plain terms

The Texas franchise tax is a tax on the privilege of doing business in Texas, charged on an entity's margin (roughly, revenue minus a major cost category) rather than its profit. The Comptroller's current figures for 2026 and 2027:

Item	Figure
No-tax-due threshold (total revenue)	$2,650,000
Standard rate (most businesses)	0.75% of margin
Retail and wholesale rate	0.375% of margin
EZ Computation rate (revenue under $20 million)	0.331% of revenue
Due date	May 15, every year
Late penalty	$50 per late franchise tax report; no $50 penalty on the information report alone

Note the threshold everyone gets wrong: older guides cite $2.47 million. The Comptroller's current threshold for 2026 and 2027 is $2.65 million. Texas has no personal income tax, which is part of why the franchise tax exists, and the two facts together define the Texas cost profile: expensive to start, cheap to keep, taxed only at real scale.

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.