New Mexico LLC vs Pennsylvania LLC (2026)
Written for owners based in New Mexico.
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Compare New Mexico LLC vs Pennsylvania 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
Pennsylvania's $7 annual report is the cheapest non-zero recurring charge any state levies, and it is also new. Act 122 of 2022 replaced the decennial report with an annual one starting in 2025, so companies formed years ago that expected a filing once a decade now face a September 30 deadline every year, with administrative dissolution behind the 2027 report. New Mexico's recurring charge is zero and there is no deadline to learn. Formation is $125 in Pennsylvania against $50 here, with $100 to qualify a Pennsylvania LLC into New Mexico.
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| Factor | New Mexico | Pennsylvania |
|---|---|---|
| Filing Fee | $50 | $125 |
| Processing Time | Not published by the state | 2 to 4 days |
| Annual Report Fee | None | $7 |
| Annual Report Due | None required | September 30 |
| State Income Tax | Yes | Yes |
| Anonymous LLC | Yes | No |
| Publication Requirement | No | No |
| Foreign LLC Cost (if forming out-of-state) | N/A, you're in your home state | $100 + registered agent ~$150/yr |
Full fee breakdown for either state: New Mexico LLC cost and Pennsylvania LLC cost.
Business Climate: New Mexico vs Pennsylvania
| Factor | New Mexico | Pennsylvania |
|---|---|---|
| 5-year business survival rate | 46.3% (#46 of 51) | 57.1% (#1 of 51) |
| Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months)) | +12.6% YoY (#37 of 51 by volume) | +6.5% YoY (#12 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: New Mexico vs Pennsylvania
New Mexico
Pennsylvania
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
New Mexico charges $50 to form an LLC, while Pennsylvania charges $125. New Mexico is $75 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Pennsylvania but operate in New Mexico, you must also register as a foreign LLC in New Mexico (a $100 filing) and maintain a registered agent in Pennsylvania (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the Pennsylvania route at roughly $375, versus $50 for simply forming in New Mexico. Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Pennsylvania publishes 2-4 days, while New Mexico publishes no standard processing time, so the two can't be ranked against each other on speed.
Taxes: New Mexico vs Pennsylvania
Both New Mexico and Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania doesn't change what a New Mexico-based owner pays. Pennsylvania levies a flat 3.07% personal income tax. Neither state imposes a separate franchise or privilege tax on LLCs beyond standard filing fees.
Privacy & Asset Protection
New Mexico, your home state, actually offers more formation privacy than Pennsylvania: New Mexico allows anonymous LLC formation, while Pennsylvania requires owner or manager information on public filings. Pennsylvania's annual report names at least one governor (a member or manager with management responsibility). 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. From a privacy standpoint there's no reason for a New Mexico-based business to form in Pennsylvania.
Annual Maintenance Costs
New Mexico LLCs file no annual report at all, and Pennsylvania LLCs file an annual report ($7, due September 30). If you form in Pennsylvania while operating in New Mexico, you maintain filings in both states, Pennsylvania's report, though New Mexico asks for nothing on the foreign-registration side, and pay a Pennsylvania registered agent roughly $150 per year. Counting report fees, the agent and any entity-level tax, that brings the Pennsylvania route to roughly $157 a year, versus about $0 to keep a domestic New Mexico LLC in good standing.
When Pennsylvania Actually Makes Sense
Forming in Pennsylvania makes sense in a few specific situations: your business genuinely operates in Pennsylvania, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to Pennsylvania in the near future. For a typical small business based in New Mexico, none of these usually apply. Registering a Pennsylvania LLC to do business back home means $100 in New Mexico foreign-registration fees, on top of Pennsylvania's $125 formation fee, while New Mexico itself never asks for an annual report at all. New Mexico already allows anonymous formation, so the privacy argument for Pennsylvania doesn't apply to a New Mexico-based owner. Trading New Mexico's no-annual-report status for Pennsylvania's filing calendar is a step backwards for most owners. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.
Frequently Asked Questions
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<iframe src="https://www.incaca.com/tools/compare-states?embed=1&stateA=NM&stateB=PA" width="100%" height="720" frameborder="0" style="border:0;max-width:900px;display:block;margin:0 auto;" title="New Mexico vs Pennsylvania LLC Cost Comparison" loading="lazy"></iframe> <p style="text-align:center;font-size:.8125rem;color:#6b7280">Source: <a href="https://www.incaca.com/llc/compare/new-mexico-llc-vs-pennsylvania-llc">IncACA, New Mexico vs Pennsylvania LLC Comparison</a></p>