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What Does an LLC Cost in West Virginia?

West Virginia: $130 in mandatory state charges in year one for a single location, $100 for the Articles of Organization plus a separate $30 Tax Division business registration certificate, and then $25 a year for the Secretary of State annual report. The Tax Division certificate never renews, there is no flat entity tax on a default LLC, and the traps are calendar and track confusion: a $50 late fee the moment the June 30 deadline passes, and a $50 per month penalty for operating without the Tax Division certificate.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Year one: what you pay to exist

Year-one cost in West Virginia	Amount
Articles of Organization (Form LLD-1), Secretary of State	$100
Business registration certificate, Tax Division (per fixed location)	$30 one time
EIN from the IRS	$0
Operating agreement (you write it, not filed)	$0
Agent for service of process (you name an eligible person, if any)	$0
Total state cost, year one	$130 for a single location

That is the complete required state charge for a single location LLC, and the second line is the one most guides merge or miss: the $30 is a Tax Division charge under Sections 11-12-3(a) and (b), separate from the $100 Secretary of State formation fee, and Section 11-12-3(a) makes the certificate a precondition to engaging in any business activity. Budget $30 per fixed business location, because the Tax Division requires a separate certificate for each one. Two qualifications belong on the record. A qualifying veteran-owned organization pays $0 for the Articles of Organization under the Section 59-1-2(j) waiver, although the filing duty remains. And no online processing charge is added to this total, because no figure for one was verified on an official West Virginia source in the research behind this page. The optionals are priced plainly. A name reservation is $15 per 120 day period, renewable once. A trade name registration for an LLC is $25 on Form NR-3, and no term for that registration is stated on the Secretary of State trade name page or on Form NR-3, so this site prints the fee and the form and no term. A certified copy is $15 per copy per Form LLD-1, and 24-hour expedited handling is $25 in addition to the usual fee. Naming an eligible person as agent for service of process 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 West Virginia	Amount
Annual report, Secretary of State, due January 1 to June 30	$25
Business registration certificate, Tax Division	$0. No renewal for certificates granted on or after July 1, 2010
Franchise or other flat entity tax on a default pass-through LLC	$0. No flat entity charge applies
Nonresident withholding and elective pass-through entity tax	Income based or elective; excluded from the flat total, see below
Typical recurring total	$25/yr

A recurring total of $25 a year comes with a hard deadline and a two track structure. The annual report is due between January 1 and June 30 of the year after the registration year, by 11:59 PM on June 30, and the first report is due in the year after the calendar year of registration, not in the formation year. Before dissolution or revocation for failure to pay, Section 59-1-2a(g)(1) requires the Secretary of State to notify the entity by certified mail, return receipt requested, postmarked at least 30 days before the dissolution or revocation date listed in the notice. Under Section 31B-8-809(a), the Secretary of State may commence a proceeding to administratively dissolve a company that fails to pay fees, taxes, or penalties within 60 days after they are due, or fails to deliver its annual or biennial report within 60 days after it is due, among the other grounds that section lists. Reinstatement is available within two years after the effective date of dissolution under Sections 31B-8-809(b) and 31B-8-811(a), and it relates back so the company resumes business as if the dissolution had never occurred. Its cost is itemized on Form LLD-10: a $25 reinstatement application fee under Section 59-1-2(a)(1)(R), plus $25 for each missing annual report year, plus a $50 late fee for each missing year, plus a certificate from the Tax Commissioner reciting that all taxes owed have been paid, which Form LLD-10 states as a required Letter of Good Standing from the West Virginia State Tax Division, and warns the application will be rejected and returned as incomplete if the letter is not included. The $25 application fee is not $50; the $50 figure is the per year late fee.

What drives the West Virginia total, year one vs. later

Year one is two charges from two agencies: $100 to the Secretary of State for the Articles of Organization and $30 to the Tax Division for the business registration certificate, $130 in total for a single fixed location, and $30 more for each additional fixed location. Later years are a single $25 Secretary of State annual report, because the Tax Division certificate granted on or after July 1, 2010 is permanent under Section 11-12-5(a) and never recurs, and a default pass-through or disregarded LLC owes no annual entity level tax, franchise style charge, or minimum tax. The optional biennial election does not change the annualized math: after five consecutive timely annual reports and good standing, a company may elect a $50 biennial report instead of the $25 annual one, the same cost spread over two years. So the West Virginia total is driven by compliance, not by the fee level. File the annual report late and it costs $75, not $25. Operate without the Tax Division certificate and the penalty runs $50 per month. Let the report lapse into administrative dissolution and reinstatement stacks a $25 application fee, $25 per missing report year, and $50 in late fees per missing year, plus a required Tax Division Letter of Good Standing.

The West Virginia fees around the formation

Most West Virginia LLC charges sit in Section 59-1-2 and the Secretary of State forms, and each is event driven. These are the lines a West Virginia LLC is most likely to meet:

West Virginia filing	Fee
Name reservation, Form NR-1 (120 days, renewable once)	$15 per 120 day period
Change of designated office or agent for service of process, Form AAO	$15
Amendment of Articles of Organization	$25
Trade name (DBA) registration for an LLC, Form NR-3	$25
Business registration certificate reissuance, Form BUS-RBL (name, location, or ownership change)	$30
Certificate of Authority (foreign LLC registering), Form LLF-1	$150
Certificate of Cancellation of Authority (foreign LLC withdrawal), Form LLF-9	$25
Articles of Termination, Form LLD-9	$25
Reinstatement application fee, Form LLD-10 (plus $25 per missing report year and $50 late fee per missing year, and the Tax Division Letter of Good Standing)	$25
Certified copy, per Form LLD-1	$15 per copy

The two-track tax and registration picture

Track one is the Secretary of State: formation for $100 and the $25 annual report, which Section 59-1-2a(c) states is in part for the services of the Secretary of State as attorney-in-fact. It is a filing fee, not a Tax Division entity tax. Track two is the Tax Division: the $30 business registration certificate under Chapter 11, Article 12, required before engaging in business, permanent for certificates granted on or after July 1, 2010, plus the income tax filings the business's classification produces. Pass-through treatment is the default. The Tax Division states that a limited liability company treated like a partnership for federal income tax purposes will also be treated as such for West Virginia purposes, and if it is not treated like a partnership, it will be taxed as a corporation. A partnership-taxed LLC files Form PTE-100 with Schedule K-1 and Schedule SP, an information and withholding return for a non-electing entity, not a flat entity tax.

Three income based items sit on track two and are excluded from every flat total on this page. First, nonresident owner withholding: partnerships and S corporations, and therefore partnership-taxed and S-taxed LLCs filing PTE-100, are required to withhold West Virginia income tax from each nonresident owner who has not provided Form NRW-4, at the Tax Division's current stated rate of 4.82 percent of the nonresident owner's share of federal taxable income derived from or attributable to West Virginia sources, remitted with Form PTE-100 and creditable by the owner on the owner's West Virginia return, under Section 11-21-71a. Second, the composite return alternative: an entity may instead file Form IT-140 NRC at the same 4.82 percent rate, due the 15th day of the 4th month after the close of the taxable year, with a $50 processing fee that belongs only to that optional filing posture. Third, the elective pass-through entity tax created by SB 151 in 2023, retroactive to tax year 2022: an electing entity is taxed directly on the resident owners' income plus the apportioned nonresident owners' income at the top marginal individual rate under Section 11-21-3a, files and pays instead of the nonresident withholding due with PTE-100, and is no longer obligated to file PTE-100 for that year. For calendar year taxpayers the election is due on or before March 15, filing Form EPT-100 signifies the election, and once an election is made for a tax year it cannot be switched. The election is optional and income based, so it is explained here rather than totaled above, as are the owners' own West Virginia income taxes and any activity based taxes a particular business owes.

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.