District of Columbia — statewide
District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, Corporations Division
In short
District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, Corporations Division issues 3 permits we publish for District of Columbia — statewide, last verified 2026-09-03. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.
What this agency issues
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biennial Reportonly if it applies to you | District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, Corporations Division | $300 per filing, every two years | biennial | 2026-09-03 |
| Articles of Incorporationonly if it applies to you | District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, Corporations Division | $99–$1,650 one-time filing, banded by authorised capital | no expiry, but a biennial report is due every two years | 2026-09-03 |
| Certificate of Organization (LLC)only if it applies to you | District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, Corporations Division | $99 one-time filing | no expiry, but a biennial report is due every two years | 2026-09-03 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
About each permit
Biennial Report
$300 every two years for a for-profit entity — the most expensive routine entity filing of any jurisdiction covered here, and $150 a year in effect. A non-profit pays $80. Filing late adds $100. Because it is biennial rather than annual it is easy to forget entirely, and the penalty for drift is administrative dissolution rather than a simple fine.
Articles of Incorporation
$99 only if your authorised capital is $100,000 or less, and that caveat is routinely dropped. Above it the fee climbs steeply: $550 from $100,001 to $500,000, $1,100 from $500,001 to $1,000,000, and $1,650 above $1,000,000. Authorised capital is the shares you are permitted to issue, not the money you have raised, so a standard ten-million-share authorisation at a nominal value can land a startup in a higher band than it expected. A domestic non-profit pays $80 flat. Forming an LLC instead is a flat $99 with no capital banding at all, which is the cheaper and simpler route for most small operators.
Certificate of Organization (LLC)
$99 flat, with none of the authorised-capital banding that can take a corporation to $1,650. The recurring cost is where DC bites: the biennial report is $300 for a for-profit entity, which is high for a two-yearly filing, and $100 more if it is late. Register a foreign entity instead and the initial filing is $220.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- District of Columbia — statewide
- Phone
- (202) 671-4500
Contact details are taken from the agency’s own site or its published fee schedule. Where we have not verified a phone number we leave it blank rather than guess.
Sources
Every fee and term above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.
- DC Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection — fees for corporate registration servicesDistrict of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- DC Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection — license and corporate filing feesDistrict of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
Other District of Columbia statewide offices
District of Columbia jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.