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What Does an LLC Cost in Washington?

Washington: $200 to form online, $70 a year for the Annual Report, and a separate $50 business license processing fee for most operating LLCs in year one. The wildcard is not a filing fee at all. It is the B&O tax on gross receipts, which depends on what you sell and how much you take in.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Year one: what you pay to exist

Year-one cost in Washington	Amount
Certificate of Formation online via CCFS ($180 base fee plus $20 online processing fee)	$200
Initial Report, filed with the Certificate of Formation	$0
State Business License processing fee to open a business (Department of Revenue, most operating LLCs)	$50
EIN from the IRS	$0
Limited liability company agreement (you write it, not filed)	$0
Total state cost, year one	$250 for most operating LLCs

Read the total as two bills from two agencies: $200 to the Secretary of State to exist, and $50 to the Department of Revenue to operate, for the typical LLC that meets any of the business license triggers in the formation guide. Filing the Certificate of Formation by paper instead of online drops the first bill to $180 and the combined total to $230. Filing the Initial Report separately instead of with the formation adds a $10 base fee, and online processing charges may also apply to that separate filing; we do not print a combined total for it because no official page states one. A commercial registered agent, if you hire one instead of naming an individual, is a private cost on top of these state charges and is not included. Optional state extras exist but are rarely needed in year one: a trade name is $5 per name through the Business Licensing Service, and expedited formation handling is priced in the filing notes on the formation guide.

Every year after: the cost of staying alive

Recurring cost in Washington	Amount
Annual Report, Secretary of State	$70
Business License renewal processing fee, per location (Department of Revenue)	$5
State income tax on the LLC	$0. Washington has no corporate or personal income tax
B&O tax on gross receipts	Varies by classification and receipts; rates below
Typical recurring total	$75 plus B&O tax and any endorsement fees

The flat recurring bill is $75 a year before endorsements: $70 to the Secretary of State and $5 per location to renew the business license, with each license endorsement carrying its own fee on top. A late business license renewal draws a penalty of half the endorsement fee, up to $150. The Annual Report's own late charge is simpler: a $25 delinquent fee on top of the $70, for $95 total, and the report can be filed up to 180 days early, so there is rarely a reason to pay it. The B&O tax is reported and paid on the Excise Tax Return through MyDOR on the schedule DOR assigns your business; it is a cost of operating in Washington every year, not a formation fee, and it is the number that actually grows with the business.

What drives the Washington total, year one vs. later

Washington's year one is driven by two formation era charges: the $200 online Certificate of Formation, which is really an $180 state fee plus a $20 online processing fee, and the $50 Business Licensing Service processing fee that most operating LLCs pay the Department of Revenue to open. Bundle the Initial Report into the formation filing and it adds nothing. Later years look cheap on the flat fee side, $70 for the Annual Report plus $5 per location to renew the business license, but Washington's real recurring driver is not in that $75 at all. It is the B&O tax, charged on gross receipts with no deduction for labor, materials, or other costs, at rates that depend on your classification. A retail shop and a consulting firm with identical flat fees can owe very different B&O amounts, which is why this page totals the flat charges honestly and then explains the tax separately instead of pretending it is zero. File the Annual Report late and a $25 delinquent fee joins the bill; ignore it entirely and the cost stops being about money and becomes about reinstatement, priced on the report page.

The B&O tax, in plain terms

Washington has no corporate or personal income tax. Instead, most businesses, LLCs expressly included, pay the Business and Occupation (B&O) tax on gross receipts: the total value of products sold or total income earned, with no deduction for labor, materials, taxes, or other costs of doing business. The business pays it; it is not collected from customers the way sales tax is. The Department of Revenue's headline state rates by classification are:

B&O classification	State rate on gross receipts
Retailing	0.471%
Wholesaling	0.484%
Manufacturing	0.484%
Service and Other Activities, under $1 million of prior year taxable income in the classification	1.5%
Service and Other Activities, $1 million to $4,999,999.99	1.75%
Service and Other Activities, $5 million or more	2.1%

The Service and Other Activities tiers took effect October 1, 2025, and are set by prior calendar year taxable income under that classification; hospitals and select advanced computing businesses stay at 1.5%. Two softeners matter for small LLCs. First, the Small Business B&O Tax Credit reduces or can eliminate the tax at low liability levels, it varies with the total B&O tax due after other credits, and the electronic filing system calculates it automatically. Second, these are state rates only: many Washington cities impose their own local B&O tax, administered separately from DOR. Because B&O follows your receipts, this site excludes it from the flat totals above and shows the rates instead; any calculator that folds it into a single yearly dollar figure without asking your revenue is guessing.

The business license processing fees, in one place

Business Licensing Service item (Department of Revenue)	Processing fee
Open or reopen a business (first location under a UBI)	$50
Add an additional location	$0
Any other purpose, such as hiring employees, adding endorsements, or registering a trade name	$10
Annual renewal, per location, plus endorsement fees	$5
Trade name registration, per name	$5

The processing fee is nonrefundable and sits on top of endorsement and trade name fees. Older guides quoting a $19 license figure are out of date; the current schedule above is the one DOR publishes. A trade name itself, once registered, stays registered indefinitely until you ask to cancel it, and cancellation is free. What renews every year is the underlying license and its endorsements, not the trade name.

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.