A Florida LLC gets pitched as one of the easiest business entities to form in the country: no state income tax, a flat filing fee, a fully online system. That part holds up. What most formation guides leave out is the local tax bill nearly every Florida LLC owes on top of the state fee, plus a new option that became available on July 1, 2026, that almost nothing published so far accounts for.
What a Florida LLC actually costs
Filing your Articles of Organization with the Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz) costs $100. Add the mandatory $25 registered agent designation fee, and every Florida LLC pays $125 to get on the books, per the current fee schedule posted by the Division of Corporations. Two extras are optional at filing time: a certified copy of your Articles ($30) and a Certificate of Status ($5), which some banks ask for when you open a business account.
That $125 covers the entire state formation cost. Florida doesn’t charge a franchise tax or an LLC-level fee tied to revenue the way California does, and there’s no separate "initial report" due in year one.
How to file
Two ways in: online through efile.sunbiz.org, paid by credit or debit card, or by mail with a paper form and a check. Online is faster in practice, though the Division doesn’t publish a fixed number of days for either method. Sunbiz keeps a running "document processing dates" page showing what’s currently in the queue, and it moves week to week with filing volume. If you need a hard deadline, check that page directly instead of trusting a guide, including this one, for a specific turnaround.
Every Florida LLC also needs a registered agent under Florida Statute §605.0113: a person or company with a physical Florida street address (no PO boxes) who agrees in writing to accept legal mail and state notices on the LLC’s behalf. You can be your own registered agent if you have a Florida address, though your name and address become part of the public record either way once the Articles are filed.
Florida’s tax situation is genuinely good, with one asterisk
Florida has no personal income tax, and changing that requires a voter-approved constitutional amendment, so it’s not the kind of thing that shifts on short notice. An LLC taxed the default way, as a pass-through, pays no state-level income tax on its profits; the money flows to the members’ personal returns, and Florida doesn’t touch it there.
That puts Florida in the same no-income-tax bracket as Texas and Wyoming, both covered elsewhere on this site. As with those two, "no income tax" doesn’t cancel out tax obligations in whatever state you’re actually doing business in, if that’s not Florida.
The asterisk: if your LLC elects to be taxed as a C-corporation, it owes Florida’s 5.5% corporate income tax on net earnings. Most small LLCs never make this election, but it’s worth knowing before assuming "no income tax" applies no matter what you check on your federal paperwork.
The part almost every other guide skips
Nearly every article about starting a Florida LLC stops at the $125 state fee. Almost none of them mention that most Florida counties, and many cities inside them, require a separate Local Business Tax Receipt (formerly called an occupational license) before you can legally operate. It isn’t part of your Sunbiz filing. You register and pay it separately with your county tax collector, and again with your city if your address falls inside city limits. Fees and processes vary by jurisdiction, so there’s no single number to quote here, but skipping this is exactly the kind of gap that surfaces during a bank loan application or a tax audit years later.
New in 2026: protected series LLCs
Florida signed CS/SB 316 and CS/HB 403 into law on June 20, 2025, adding protected series LLCs to the Florida Revised Limited Liability Company Act. The provision took effect July 1, 2026, a few weeks before this was written, which means a lot of existing Florida LLC guides were published before it was even live.
In practice, it lets one LLC create multiple "series" under a single umbrella, each with its own members, assets, and liabilities, and each legally walled off from the others’ debts: a creditor of series A generally can’t reach the assets of series B. That protection only holds if you keep separate, accurate records for each series. Blur the bookkeeping and a court can pierce the shield. This is a niche feature aimed at real estate investors and holding-company setups running multiple properties or brands under one entity. If you’re forming a single-purpose LLC, you don’t need it, but it’s worth knowing Florida now offers it.
Staying in good standing after you form
Florida requires an annual report, not a franchise tax, to keep your LLC active: $138.75 a year, due by May 1, with a flat $400 penalty if you miss it and administrative dissolution later in the year if it’s never filed. We’ve covered the full breakdown, including the exact dissolution date and how reinstatement works, in our Florida LLC annual report guide rather than repeating it here.
Florida doesn’t legally require an operating agreement, and neither do most states; we’ve covered which state actually does in our LLC operating agreement guide. Having one anyway is still worth doing once your LLC has more than one member, since it’s the document that settles disagreements before they turn into a bigger problem.
FAQ
How much does it cost to start an LLC in Florida?
$125 total to file with the state: $100 for the Articles of Organization and $25 for the mandatory registered agent designation. Optional add-ons, like a certified copy or Certificate of Status, cost extra.
Do I need a registered agent for a Florida LLC?
Yes. Florida Statute §605.0113 requires every LLC to continuously maintain a registered agent with a physical Florida street address. You can serve as your own agent if you meet that requirement.
Does Florida charge LLCs a state income tax?
Not by default. Pass-through LLCs owe no Florida income tax. If the LLC elects C-corporation taxation instead, it owes Florida’s 5.5% corporate income tax on net earnings.
What is a Florida Business Tax Receipt, and is it different from my LLC filing?
Yes. It’s a local permit separate from your Sunbiz registration, required by most counties and many cities before you can legally operate. You get it from your local tax collector, not the state.
For how we approach every guide on this site, see our page on how we test.
