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What Does an LLC Cost in Vermont?

Vermont: $155 to form, and $295 a year to stay alive for a default LLC taxed as a partnership, made of the $45 annual report and the flat $250 minimum business entity income tax. A disregarded single-member LLC drops the $250 and pays $45 a year. There is no late fee on the report, because Vermont's sanction for missing it is involuntary termination instead of a charge.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Year one: what you pay to exist

Year-one cost in Vermont	Amount
Articles of Organization, Secretary of State	$155
Minimum business entity income tax, first tax year, default LLC taxed as a partnership (32 V.S.A. section 5921)	$250
EIN from the IRS	$0
Operating agreement (you write it, not filed)	$0
Agent for service of process (you or another eligible person serves)	$0
Total state cost, year one	$405 for a default partnership taxed LLC; $155 for a disregarded single-member LLC

For the default case, a multi-member LLC taxed as a partnership, year one is $405: the $155 Articles fee plus the first $250 minimum entity tax, which is owed for the first tax year and paid with the first Form BI-471 on the federal return due date. A single-member LLC treated as a disregarded entity does not owe the $250, so its year one is the $155 Articles fee alone. The $155 is the same online or by mail, with no extra fee for online filing; online filing normally takes less than 1 business day and mail should be allowed 7 to 10 business days. The $125 formation fee in older guides is superseded law, replaced by the 2023 amendment to section 4012. The first annual report, $45, is not in the year-one total: it falls due within three months after the first fiscal year end, so depending on the fiscal year chosen it can land in year one or early year two, and it is counted in the recurring figure instead. No publication is required at formation. The optionals are priced plainly. A name reservation is $25 for 120 days. An assumed business name registration is $70 per name for five years, with reregistration at $65. Serving as your own agent for service of process, or naming another eligible Vermont resident, 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 Vermont	Amount
Annual report, due within 3 months after the fiscal year end	$45
Minimum business entity income tax, default LLC taxed as a partnership (32 V.S.A. section 5921)	$250
Late fee on the annual report	$0. None exists; the sanction is involuntary termination
Elective pass-through entity tax (SALT workaround)	None exists in current Vermont law; see below
Typical recurring total	$295/yr for a default partnership taxed LLC, $45/yr for a disregarded single-member LLC

A recurring $295 comes with a deadline that runs from the fiscal year, not the formation date. Under section 4033(c), the annual report shall be delivered within three months after the expiration of the company's fiscal year, so a calendar year company, fiscal year ending December 31, has a window that closes March 31. There is no late fee to pay if it slips, and that is not a kindness: under section 4034(a)(1), the articles of organization of a company that fails to file the required annual report shall terminate. Reinstatement under section 4034(a)(3) costs the missed report fee plus a $35 reinstatement fee for each year missed, $80 in total for one missed domestic year and $160 for two, and it relates back as if the termination never occurred. Wait too long and the cost becomes the name itself: under section 4034(c), the company loses the right to retain its name if the report is not filed on or before five years after the date when the report was due. A foreign LLC registered in Vermont runs the same cycle at a higher report fee, $170 a year, with termination of its certificate of authority on the same terms.

What drives the Vermont total, year one vs. later

Vermont's year one is one $155 filing fee. Its later years are driven by a tax, not by the Secretary of State. The report itself is $45, filed online only, due within three months after the fiscal year end on record. The larger line is the $250 minimum tax in 32 V.S.A. section 5921, which by its terms applies to a limited liability company taxed as a partnership, which is the default for a multi-member LLC, and which the Department of Taxes collects with Form BI-471, or Form BI-476 for a resident only, Vermont only filer. Together they make $295 a year, and that is the recurring figure this site uses for the default case. Tax posture is what moves it. A single-member LLC treated as a disregarded entity is outside section 5921, because that section reaches only an LLC taxed as a partnership and its second sentence taxes an LLC without partnership treatment in the same manner as it is taxed under the Internal Revenue Code, so a disregarded company pays the $45 report and no entity level minimum. An LLC electing S corporation taxation files under the same business entity regime, where the Department states the $250 minimum is generally due with the return. An LLC electing C corporation taxation leaves this table entirely: it files Form CO-411 and owes a tiered corporate minimum by Vermont gross receipts, $100 under $500,000, then $500, $2,000, $6,000, and $100,000 at the higher tiers, which is receipts based and excluded here. One more absence matters: Vermont has no operative elective pass-through entity tax. The 2023 bills that proposed one were never codified, the current Title 32, chapter 151 has no subchapter 10C, and the Department publishes no election, so no page on this site presents one.

The Vermont fees around the formation

Vermont's LLC fees sit in one schedule, 11 V.S.A. section 4012, with the assumed business name fees in chapter 15. These are the lines a Vermont LLC is most likely to meet:

Vermont filing	Fee
Name reservation (120 days)	$25
Notice of transfer of a reserved name	$20
Statement of change of designated agent or designated office, or both	$35
Agent's statement of resignation	$0
Articles of amendment	$35
Restated articles of organization	$25
Articles of correction	$35
Certificate of existence or authorization	$35
Articles of merger	$55
Application for Certificate of Authority (foreign LLC registering)	$155
Annual report (foreign LLC)	$170
Certificate of Cancellation (foreign LLC withdrawal)	$25
Assumed business name registration, per name, 5 years	$70
Assumed business name reregistration, every 5 years	$65
Articles of Termination	$20
Reinstatement after involuntary termination, per missed year, plus each missed report	$35

The Vermont taxes that are not flat LLC charges

Pass-through treatment is the default, and most of what it produces is owner level tax, not an entity charge. The Department of Taxes states that the business entity income tax applies to S corporations, partnerships, and LLCs that elect to be taxed as partnerships or S corporations, that the income attributable to Vermont passes through to the members and is taxed at the individual or corporate income tax rate, and that each member must also file a Vermont income tax return. Subchapter S corporations, partnerships, and LLCs engaged in activities in Vermont file a Business Entity Income Tax return, Form BI-471 for most entities and the simplified Form BI-476 for entities owned exclusively by Vermont residents with only Vermont income and loss, due on the date established for filing under the Internal Revenue Code. The one flat entity level charge in that regime is the $250 minimum in the table above.

Two related items are excluded from the flat total because they are the owners' own tax collected through the entity. Under section 5920(b) and (c), composite returns and composite payments are permitted on behalf of nonresident members, the entity is liable for the income tax on its nonresident members' Vermont income with estimated tax payments on Form WH-435 quarterly, and the Department states that composite filing is mandatory for pass-through entities with more than 50 nonresident shareholders, partners, or members. Also excluded are the corporate income tax itself and the tiered C corporation minimum above its $100 floor, both income and receipts based, and the foreign LLC civil penalty for transacting business unregistered, $50 per day capped at $10,000 per year plus back fees. There is no elective pass-through entity tax to include: no subchapter 10C exists in the current codified Title 32, chapter 151, and the Department of Taxes describes composite filing and withholding only.

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.