Your New Jersey LLC Is Doing Business in Another State
The short answer. You keep one LLC. It stays registered in New Jersey, which charges $75 a year to keep it in good standing, and a state that finds you are doing business there adds its own registration and its own filings on top. Whether your activity counts is decided by that state's own rule, not by this page. Of the 47 other states that have one figure to compare, 16 cost more in year-one registration than New Jersey's own first-year total of $175, and 31 cost less. Tennessee and Washington are outside those figures: Tennessee's fee scales with member count from $300, and Washington's $180 is before back fees, so neither has one figure to compare.
What you keep paying in New Jersey
When the Annual Report is due. Due every year on the last day of the month in which the business formation was completed
Every New Jersey fee behind these figures is broken out on what an LLC costs in New Jersey.
What a second state adds
These are the states closest to New Jersey’s own cost line, plus the three dearest to enter. Each figure is that state’s first-year registration cost for an out-of-state LLC, beside what it charges every year after. Whether your activity counts as doing business there depends on the facts, and each state defines it differently.
| State | Year one to register | State charges, each year after | Against your year one ($175) |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota | $750 | $55/yr | $575 more |
| Texas | $750 | None | $575 more |
| Massachusetts | $500 | $520/yr | $325 more |
| Delaware | $200 | $400/yr | $25 more |
| Minnesota | $185 | None | $10 more |
| Washington | at least $180 | $70/yr | not comparable, this is a floor |
| Vermont | $155 | $45/yr | $20 less |
| Alabama | $150 | None | $25 less |
| Arizona | $150 | None | $25 less |
| Illinois | $150 | $75/yr | $25 less |
| Louisiana | $150 | $30/yr | $25 less |
A state charge of None is not a tax of none. The column is the recurring charge our fee dataset records, and a state that asks for no recurring filing may still levy an entity-level tax that sits outside it.
What we verified about New Jersey's own costs
Our notes, from New Jersey's published fee schedules and statutes.
New Jersey charges a flat $100 to file a domestic LLC's Certificate of Formation, the same amount online or on paper, and $100 for a foreign LLC's application for a certificate of authority, under N.J.S.A. 42:2C-93(a)(4) and (a)(10) as amended by P.L.2026, c.24, effective July 1, 2026 (both fees were $125 before that date). Every LLC then files an Annual Report for $75, due on the last day of its formation anniversary month. Certified copies are $25 each and a standing certificate is $50 ($100 for a certificate reciting all of the LLC's filings). An LLC with more than two owners and New Jersey source income additionally owes the $150-per-owner Partnership Filing Fee, capped at $250,000, plus a prepayment of half that amount toward the next year.
Older guides still quote $125. P.L.2026, c.24 cut the Certificate of Formation fee and the foreign LLC registration fee from $125 to $100 for filings on or after July 1, 2026. DORES's older Public Records Filing instructions (revised 2011) still print $125, and so do many third-party guides; the Division's current fee schedule shows $100.
The $150-per-owner fee surprises multi-member LLCs. An LLC with three or more owners and New Jersey source income owes $150 per owner (max $250,000) on Form NJ-1065, and must also prepay one-half of that fee toward next year, so a five-member LLC's first bill is $750 plus a $375 prepayment, not $750.
Anniversary-month annual report, not a calendar deadline. The $75 Annual Report is due on the last day of the month in which the LLC was formed, so the deadline differs for every entity and failure to file can lead to revocation.