Georgia — statewide
Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division
In short
Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division issues 5 permits we publish for Georgia — 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Business License — Georgia state position (local occupation tax certificate)only if it applies to you | Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division | No fee | set by the issuing city or county, usually annual | 2026-09-03 |
| Articles of Incorporationonly if it applies to you | Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division | $110 one-time — $100 filing fee plus a $10 service charge | no expiry, but an annual registration is due each year | 2026-09-03 |
| Articles of Organization (LLC)only if it applies to you | Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division | $110 one-time — $100 filing fee plus a $10 service charge | no expiry, but an annual registration is due each year | 2026-09-03 |
| Annual Registrationonly if it applies to you | Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division | $60 a year — $50 plus a $10 service charge; $40 for a nonprofit | annual — filed between 1 January and 1 April | 2026-09-03 |
| Automotive Repair Shop License — Georgia state positiononly if it applies to you | Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division | No fee | not applicable | 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
General Business License — Georgia state position (local occupation tax certificate)
No fee is shown because the state charges none: the Secretary of State's First Stop Business Guide says licenses come from the county or the city where the primary place of business sits and names no state general business license. Two details are routinely got wrong. The local levy is permissive: the statute authorises but does not require a county or municipality to impose an occupation tax, so a minority of Georgia jurisdictions charge nothing, and it is wrong to say a local license is always needed. And you register with one government, not two — the city if you are inside city limits, the county if you are not. Federal work authorisation evidence must be produced before a local license is issued or renewed.
Articles of Incorporation
The same $110 as an LLC, with no share-based component — Georgia does not price incorporation by authorised capital. There is one extra step an LLC does not have: a Georgia corporation must publish a notice of intent to incorporate in the county's legal organ, and the Secretary of State expects verification of publication with the filing. No amount is recorded for that publication because no primary source states one; the newspaper sets it.
Articles of Organization (LLC)
$110 all in, and the price is the same whether you file online, on paper online or by post — the $10 service charge now applies to every channel, so older guidance saying it is a mail-only surcharge is out of date. A corporation costs exactly the same $110, and so does a nonprofit. Expediting is additive and steep: $120 for two days, $275 for same day, $1,200 for one hour.
Annual Registration
Georgia calls it a registration rather than a report, and the window is narrow: 1 January to 1 April, with a $25 penalty the moment you miss it and administrative dissolution if you keep missing it. An LLC may be reinstated within five years, at $260. You may pay for one, two or three consecutive years in advance, though the multi-year totals are not published anywhere the portal will show without logging in, so only the single-year figure is recorded here. One conflict worth knowing: the Secretary of State's own entity-registration page says a nonprofit pays $50, while its fee schedule and its annual registration table both say $40. The two schedules agree with each other, so $40 is used.
Automotive Repair Shop License — Georgia state position
The Secretary of State's complete published list of licensing boards contains no automotive repair board — its only vehicle entries are used motor vehicle dealers and used motor vehicle parts dealers — so there is no state license fee for a repair shop, and the same list separately names the professions regulated by other Georgia agencies, where repair does not appear either. A repair-only shop needs the ordinary stack: entity registration, a sales and use tax number, and a local occupation tax certificate. Three adjacent things do bite. Selling vehicles makes you a used motor vehicle dealer and dismantling makes you a parts dealer. Performing emissions inspections in the thirteen metro Atlanta counties needs a certificate of authorization, which carries no application or license fee at all but a $4.02 administration fee per certificate issued, with the price charged to the motorist capped between $10 and $25. Waste oil and refrigerant duties apply but are not licenses.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Georgia — statewide
- Phone
- (404) 656-2817
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.
- Georgia Comp. R. & Regs. chapter 391-3-20 — enhanced vehicle inspection and maintenance, including the certificate of authorizationGeorgia Environmental Protection Division · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Georgia Secretary of State — First Stop Business Guide, August 2026Georgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Georgia Secretary of State — how to file an annual registrationGeorgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Georgia Secretary of State — Professional Licensing Boards Division, the complete list of licensing boardsGeorgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division — filing fees, effective 6 September 2025Georgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
Other Georgia statewide offices
- Georgia Department of Public Health, Environmental Health Section
- Georgia State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors
- Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
- Georgia Department of Revenue, Taxpayer Services Division
- Georgia State Board of Cosmetology and Barbers
- Georgia State Board of Veterinary Medicine
- Georgia State Construction Industry Licensing Board
Georgia jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.