Starting an LLC in Florida: Costs, State Office, Taxes and Timeline

Florida asks for little to start an LLC: one filing with the state and $125 in required fees. The costs that need a plan come every year after that. An annual report is due by May 1, and filing it late raises the fee from $138.75 to $538.75. The state also posts your filing details on a public page that anyone can open.

To start an LLC in Florida, you file Articles of Organization with the Florida Division of Corporations. Most people know it by its website name, Sunbiz. This is what it costs and involves:

• $125 in required state fees ($100 to file, $25 to designate a registered agent)
• $160 if you add the optional documents
• a free EIN from the IRS
• a wait of a few days for online filings, though it can be much longer
• an annual report every year between January 1 and May 1, for $138.75

Meeting Sunbiz: where you start an LLC in Florida

Your first contact with the state is the office that takes the filing. In most states the business filing office is the Secretary of State. In Florida it's the Division of Corporations inside the Florida Department of State. Its website and filing system go by the name Sunbiz.

The Division handles these filings:

1. Articles of Organization for new LLCs
2. annual reports
3. amendments
4. fictitious name (DBA) registrations
5. dissolutions

It also keeps the public record of every Florida company. That record matters more than people expect. Everything on your filing is posted on the Division's website. That includes the names and addresses you list and the registered agent's address. Anyone can look your company up.

The Division checks whether a filing meets the minimum rules in the law. It doesn't give legal or tax advice. If a filing falls short, the state rejects it. You then fix it with the tracking number and PIN you got when you filed.

Once the document is approved, online filers get the confirmation by email. Mail filers get it by U.S. mail.

Setting the budget: what it costs to start an LLC in Florida

Before you click anything, you check what it will cost. Everything goes through the Division, so its fee schedule tells you what you'll pay. All the amounts below come from that schedule.

You can pay online by credit or debit card. You can also pay from a prepaid Sunbiz E-File account. Mail filings are paid by check or money order, since cards work only online.

So the first year costs $125 in state fees, or $160 with both optional documents. From the second year on, the state charges $138.75 a year for the annual report. That holds as long as you file by May 1. If you use a commercial registered agent, it adds its own yearly price.

The state fees can't be skipped

You may have searched for a way to form a Florida LLC for free. But the $100 filing fee and the $25 agent designation fee are mandatory. So the lowest possible cost is $125.

The one thing that really costs nothing is the EIN, the company's federal tax number. The IRS says you never have to pay a fee for an EIN. We explain what it is and who needs one in What Is an EIN (Employer Identification Number)?.

The decisions you make before filing

With the budget clear, you turn to what goes on the form. This is an overview of what the state will ask, so you can decide in advance. It isn't a guide to filling in the form.

The name you choose has to be distinguishable from names already on the Department of State's records. It also needs one of these endings: "Limited Liability Company", "LLC" or "L.L.C." Professional LLCs use the PLLC versions. And the name isn't approved until the filing acknowledgment arrives.

The principal place of business has to be a street address. The separate mailing address can be a P.O. Box.

Managers or authorized representatives are optional on the form. Even so, banks and workers' compensation exemption applications may need them listed. Don't enter members in that field.

The operating agreement doesn't appear in the Articles at all. It's an internal document between the owners, and you don't file it with the state.

Registered agent rules in Florida

A registered agent is the person or company that accepts service of process for the LLC. In other words, if someone sues the company, the court papers go to the agent.

Under Florida law, the agent can be a Florida-resident individual. It can also be a domestic or foreign entity authorized to act as an agent.

The agent's business address must match the LLC's registered office. It has to be a physical street address in Florida, and a P.O. Box isn't accepted. An LLC can't be its own registered agent. But an individual owner or manager with a Florida street address can serve. The agent signs a statement accepting the duties under section 605.0113(3) of the Florida Statutes.

The requirement lasts for the life of the company. The LLC must always keep a registered office and agent, and switching agents later costs $25. Owners who live outside Florida, or outside the U.S., still need an agent with a Florida street address. The agent's name and address go into the public record with the rest of the filing.

Choosing the effective date when you form late in the year

By default, an LLC exists from the day the state files the Articles. You can list a different effective date instead. It can fall from 5 business days before the state gets the filing to 90 days after. This matters mostly if you form in the last three months of the year.

The wait: how long Sunbiz takes

You've filed, and now you want to know when the LLC will be approved. In Florida that's hard to answer. The state doesn't publish a fixed processing time. The Division works through filings in the order it gets them. It shows its progress on a Document Processing Dates page, which changes daily. On October 23, 2026, the page showed this.

The "approximate wait" column is our own reading of those dates. LLC University and some other guides give "5 business days online, 12 business days by mail". The state doesn't confirm those numbers, so treat them as a rough range.

Our own experience with Florida is less predictable than that snapshot. Processing has ranged from about 5 business days to a month. Filings we sent in December 2025 came back only in January 2026. So check the live page before you file, and leave room in any plans that depend on the approval date.

Two things add time on top of the queue. Mail filings move more slowly than online ones. And a rejected filing has to be fixed and processed again. Across the states we work with, the most common reason for rejection is a vague or incomplete description of the business activity.

The EIN is a separate step with the IRS. Its online application needs the responsible party's SSN or ITIN. So owners without either can't use the online tool.

Approved: what a Florida LLC owes in tax

The confirmation email arrives, and the next question is tax. Florida is known for having no state personal income tax. Article VII, section 5 of the Florida Constitution limits how the state can tax residents' income. In practice, that means no state personal income tax. What your LLC owes still depends on how the IRS classifies it.

The constitutional limit allows taxing income only up to amounts that can be credited against federal tax. A single-member LLC is disregarded for income tax. But it's treated as separate from its owner for employment tax and certain excise taxes.

Members of an LLC that files as a partnership generally pay self-employment tax on their share of the earnings. So no state income tax doesn't mean the profit goes untaxed.

Sales tax and employee taxes

If the LLC sells taxable goods or services in Florida, sales and use tax applies. The general state rate is 6%, and many counties add a discretionary sales surtax. The Florida Department of Revenue lists county rates on Form DR-15DSS and updates it every November. Only the first $5,000 of certain taxable sales or purchases is subject to the surtax.

Once the LLC hires employees, the Department of Revenue's reemployment (unemployment) tax also applies. Tax rules have many exceptions, and a CPA can tell you which ones apply to your company.

The next spring: the Florida LLC annual report

Months pass and the work is going well. Then January comes, and with it the one filing every Florida LLC shares. Every Florida LLC must file an annual report to stay active. The report isn't a financial statement. It confirms or updates the company's information on file. You file it even if nothing changed and even if the LLC earned nothing that year.

The window runs from January 1 to May 1 of the year after the LLC's filing date. If you listed an effective date, it counts from that date instead. The fee is $138.75.

After 11:59 p.m. on May 1, the fee becomes $538.75 because a $400 late fee is added. A check payment must be mailed and postmarked by May 1. Reports paid online by card post right away.

If the report still isn't filed, the state dissolves the LLC. That happens at the close of business on the fourth Friday of September. In 2026, the last day to pay by check was September 18. Card payments were accepted until 5:00 p.m. EST on September 25. Reinstatement costs $100 plus the annual report fee for every year missed.

In our work, we regularly see companies dissolved over missed state reports and taxes. Reinstatement is often impossible or comes with a large penalty. Some owners end up forming a new company instead. The bank account can also become a problem if the bank isn't told what happened.

If you ever close the business, you don't have to keep filing annual reports. But you should file Articles of Dissolution, which cost $25. Without them, the LLC still shows as active in the state's records. We compare annual report rules across states in LLC Annual Report: Requirements, Fees and Due Dates by State.

A letter about BOI: why US LLCs no longer file

At some point you may read that your new LLC owes a federal BOI report. Many guides still tell new LLC owners to file a beneficial ownership information (BOI) report with FinCEN. So did Google's AI answers as of October 2026. That advice is out of date.

FinCEN issued a final rule on August 11, 2026. It took effect on August 14, 2026. Under it, U.S. companies are exempt from BOI reporting and don't need to file. Reporting companies also no longer report U.S. persons as beneficial owners or company applicants. Only certain foreign companies registered to do business in a U.S. state still have to report.

Florida's own LLC page still shows a notice that a federal BOI requirement took effect on January 1, 2024. The FinCEN rule from August 2026 is the current one.

More detail on who still reports is in Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Report: Who Must File.

Where Florida owners trip up

The rules above are clear on paper, but owners still trip over them. Each of these mistakes comes from one of those rules:

• Missing the annual report. That adds a $400 late fee in May and leads to dissolution in September.
• Giving a P.O. Box as the registered agent's address. Florida needs a physical street address.
• Naming the LLC as its own registered agent, which the law doesn't allow.
• Picking a name that isn't distinguishable from existing records or lacks the LLC ending.
• Treating the name as approved before the acknowledgment arrives.
• Writing a vague or incomplete description of the business activity. It's the most common reason we see filings rejected.
• Registering a fictitious name you don't need. A DBA is only for operating under a name other than the LLC's own.
• Filing a BOI report that's no longer required, or paying a "BOI fee" to someone who isn't FinCEN.
• Mixing up the principal place of business (street address only) with the mailing address (P.O. Box allowed).
• Forming between October and December without thinking about a January 1 effective date.

A DBA costs $50. You also have to advertise it at least once in a newspaper in the county of your principal place of business.

Filing it yourself or getting help

Many people with a one-owner Florida LLC who live in Florida file it on their own. The state fees are the same either way. What changes is how much of your time it takes. It also changes who carries the risk of a rejection or a missed deadline.

Help tends to pay off in these cases:

• the owners live outside Florida or outside the U.S.
• there are several owners or companies
• formation is one part of a larger business launch

That is how we work with new owners: the Sunbiz filing goes together with the Google profile, directory listings and a landing page.

If you live outside the U.S., read Can a Non-US Resident Own a US LLC? What It Involves first.

Still deciding on Florida

If you haven't settled on Florida yet, compare it with other states before you file. Florida's numbers are $125 to form and $138.75 a year for the annual report. But fees aren't the whole picture. Whether Florida is the right state for you depends on where you live and where the business actually operates. We compare states side by side in Best State to Form an LLC: Fees, Taxes and When Your Home State Wins.

What to do this month

Look carefully at the registered agent and the street address, since both go into the public record. Write the business activity clearly, because a vague description is the most common reason we see filings rejected. Leave room in your plans for the wait, which can stretch to a month.

Then put the January 1 to May 1 window in your calendar the day the LLC is approved. Missing it costs $400 and can end with the LLC dissolved in September.