Arizona LLC vs Ohio LLC (2026)
Written for owners based in Arizona.
Based in Ohio? Read Ohio LLC vs Arizona LLC →
Compare Arizona LLC vs Ohio LLC on filing fees, taxes, privacy laws, and annual costs. Find out which state is actually better for your business.
Last updated: September 23, 2026
Verdict: for most owners, form where the business is based
Ohio charges $99 once and requires no periodic report, so five-year state cost is $99 against Arizona's $50 plus publication. Ohio also allows members to stay off the filing. What can appear later is the Commercial Activity Tax at 0.26% on taxable gross receipts above a $6 million annual exclusion, which then brings quarterly returns with it. Arizona has no gross receipts tax and, for a statutory agent in Maricopa or Pima County, no publication bill either, since the Commission posts the notice itself. Foreign registration costs $150.
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| Factor | Arizona | Ohio |
|---|---|---|
| Filing Fee | $50 | $99 |
| Processing Time | Live queue, not fixed | 3 to 7 business days (paper) |
| Annual Report Fee | None | None |
| Annual Report Due | None required | None required |
| State Income Tax | Yes | Yes |
| Anonymous LLC | No | Yes |
| Publication Requirement | Yes (waived in Maricopa & Pima counties) | No |
| Foreign LLC Cost (if forming out-of-state) | N/A, you're in your home state | $150 + registered agent ~$150/yr |
Full fee breakdown for either state: Arizona LLC cost and Ohio LLC cost.
Business Climate: Arizona vs Ohio
| Factor | Arizona | Ohio |
|---|---|---|
| 5-year business survival rate | 52.1% (#22 of 51) | 54.4% (#8 of 51) |
| Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months)) | +23.9% YoY (#13 of 51 by volume) | +16.1% YoY (#8 of 51 by volume) |
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics · U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics (BFS)
Compare LLC Costs: Arizona vs Ohio
Arizona
Ohio
A figure shown as "from" is the least the state can charge, not a price. Tennessee's report is $300 for up to six members and $50 for each member above six, its franchise tax is the greater of $100 or 0.25% of Tennessee net worth, Wyoming's report is the greater of $60 or $.0002 per dollar of in-state assets, Kentucky's entity tax is $175 up to $3 million of gross receipts and graduated above it, and New York's annual filing fee is graduated on New York source gross income. A total that contains one of those is shown as "from" for the same reason. Costs include every mandatory state charge: the filing fee, the report fee (annualised where a state files biennially), any state entity-level tax shown in its own row above, a one-time publication cost where the state publishes a rate for it, and any one-time registration charge a state requires before the LLC may trade. Two exclusions follow from that wording. Arizona and Nebraska require publication and publish no rate, so no newspaper cost is carried for either and their totals are not the whole cost. Alaska's $50 annual state business licence is a separate charge from the Secretary of State fees and is not carried here either. Annualising makes the 1, 3 and 5 year rows a cost of ownership rather than a payment schedule: a biennial state charges its whole report fee in the years it falls due and nothing in between. Entity-level taxes that only apply after a corporate election, or above an owner or income threshold, are excluded and flagged on the state's own cost page. New York's publication cost is carried at a $250 floor, roughly $200 of newspaper cost in a low-cost county plus the $50 Certificate of Publication fee. No county-clerk-designated New York City newspaper publishes a rate card, so the four-figure NYC estimates in wide circulation cannot be traced to a primary source and are not asserted here; budget for materially more than the floor if you file in a NYC county. Every fee was verified against the state's own fee schedule, statute, or revenue authority on 29 July 2026. Excludes registered agent and legal fees. For informational purposes only, not legal or tax advice.
Filing Fees & Formation Costs
Arizona charges $50 to form an LLC, while Ohio charges $99. Arizona is $49 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Ohio but operate in Arizona, you must also register as a foreign LLC in Arizona (a $150 filing) and maintain a registered agent in Ohio (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the Ohio route at roughly $399, versus $50 for simply forming in Arizona. Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Ohio publishes a standard turnaround (3 to 7 business days (paper)), while Arizona posts a rolling queue of the dates it's currently working through rather than a turnaround, so the two can't be ranked against each other on speed. Note that Arizona also requires newly formed LLCs to publish a newspaper notice (Arizona requires a notice of the filing to be published for three consecutive publications in a newspaper in the county of the statutory agent's address (A.R.S. 29-3201(G)), within 60 days after the Commission files the Articles. Where that county's population exceeds 800,000, currently Maricopa and Pima, the Corporation Commission posts the notice in its own database instead, free of charge. The newspaper sets its own rate; the state publishes no cost figure), which adds to the true formation cost.
Taxes: Arizona vs Ohio
Both Arizona and Ohio levy a personal income tax on pass-through business income, and your LLC's profits will be taxed where you live and operate. Forming in Ohio doesn't change what an Arizona-based owner pays. Arizona levies a personal income tax (flat 2.5%). Ohio levies a personal income tax, but the Business Income Deduction exempts the first $250,000 and taxes business income above it at a flat 3%. Ohio's Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) applies only to taxable gross receipts above $6 million (0.26%); smaller businesses owe no CAT.
Privacy & Asset Protection
Ohio allows anonymous LLC formation. Member and manager names don't appear on routine public filings. Ohio's Articles of Organization require only the organizer and statutory agent (no members/managers), and Ohio LLCs file no annual report. Arizona doesn't offer that same privacy. The Articles of Organization must list members (member-managed) or managers (manager-managed), a public record. Both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members, and for most small businesses the practical difference in asset protection between the two is minimal. One important caveat: if you register your Ohio LLC as a foreign LLC in Arizona, that Arizona registration is itself a public record, which can undercut much of the privacy benefit for a business that operates in Arizona.
Annual Maintenance Costs
Arizona LLCs file no annual report at all, and Ohio LLCs file no annual report at all. If you form in Ohio while operating in Arizona, you maintain filings in both states, though neither state asks for a recurring report, and pay an Ohio registered agent roughly $150 per year. Counting report fees, the agent and any entity-level tax, that brings the Ohio route to roughly $150 a year, versus about $0 to keep a domestic Arizona LLC in good standing. The tax inside those totals: Ohio's Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) applies only to taxable gross receipts above $6 million (0.26%); smaller businesses owe no CAT.
When Ohio Actually Makes Sense
Forming in Ohio makes sense in a few specific situations: you need anonymous ownership. Arizona puts owner or manager information on public filings and Ohio doesn't (usually via a holding company, since operating in Arizona still requires a public foreign registration there), your business genuinely operates in Ohio, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to Ohio in the near future. For a typical small business based in Arizona, none of these usually apply. Registering an Ohio LLC to do business back home means $150 in Arizona foreign-registration fees, on top of Ohio's $99 formation fee, while Arizona itself never asks for an annual report at all. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.
Frequently Asked Questions
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