Illinois — statewide
Illinois Secretary of State, Department of Business Services
In short
Illinois Secretary of State, Department of Business Services issues 3 permits we publish for Illinois — 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Articles of Organization (LLC)only if it applies to you | Illinois Secretary of State, Department of Business Services | $150 one-time filing | no expiry, but an annual report is due every year | 2026-09-03 |
| Articles of Incorporationonly if it applies to you | Illinois Secretary of State, Department of Business Services | $175 one-time — $150 filing fee plus $25 minimum initial franchise tax | no expiry, but an annual report and franchise tax are due every year | 2026-09-03 |
| Annual Reportonly if it applies to you | Illinois Secretary of State, Department of Business Services | The annual report filing fee is not printed on the Secretary of State filings cited here; contact the Secretary of State's Department of Business Services for the current amount. | annual — an LLC files before the first day of its anniversary month | 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
Articles of Organization (LLC)
$150, down from $500 — the reduction is old enough now that it is settled, but old guidance quoting $500 is still in circulation. The figure here is read off the face of an accepted Secretary of State filing rather than from the fee schedule, because ilsos.gov refuses every automated route including a real browser, and the statute host refuses connections outright. A 2017 revision of the form prints $500; filings accepted in 2019 and 2023 print $150. The recurring obligation is the annual report, due before the first day of your anniversary month each year, and failure can dissolve the company.
Articles of Incorporation
Two charges, not one, and the second is not flat. The $150 filing fee is joined by an initial franchise tax computed at fifteen hundredths of one per cent of the capital represented in Illinois with a $25 minimum — so a corporation capitalised above roughly $16,667 pays more than $175. The figures are read off an accepted Articles of Incorporation, which prints all three lines; the newest one obtainable is from 2018, because the Secretary of State's own site cannot be reached from any route. That 2018 filing predates a separate, later change to the recurring side of the same tax: 805 ILCS 5/15.35(d) sets a stepped annual franchise tax exemption that reaches $10,000 on and after January 1, 2025, read directly off a Wayback Machine capture of the General Assembly's own Public Act 103-0592 text (ilga.gov is unreachable live, so the archived .gov page stands in as the primary source). The statute's own '(Source: ...)' line credits that $10,000 figure to P.A. 103-8 (eff. 6-7-23), building on 102-282 and 102-558 — not P.A. 103-592 itself, which only consolidates the section's two parallel amendment chains into one. This exemption applies to the recurring annual franchise tax paid with each year's annual report, not to the initial tax recorded here, so it does not change the $175 figure above; it is recorded because it bears on the same statute and the same company's ongoing cost.
Annual Report
The obligation is certain and the consequence is severe — the Secretary of State's own accepted filings carry the warning that failure to file on time may result in penalty and dissolution — but the fee amount is not printed on those filings, and the commonly republished figure of $75 appears only in secondary sources, so no amount is shown here; confirm it with the Secretary of State. A corporation's cost is in any case not a single number: its annual report form carries four separate money fields, for franchise tax, filing fee, penalty and interest.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Illinois — statewide
- Phone
- (217) 524-8008
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.
- Illinois Public Act 103-0592 — full enrolled text, reprinting 805 ILCS 5/15.35(d)'s stepped annual franchise tax exemption reaching $10,000 on and after January 1, 2025, credited on the statute's own '(Source: ...)' line to P.A. 103-8 (eff. 6-7-23) atop 102-282 and 102-558Illinois General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-08
- Illinois Secretary of State form BCA 2.10, Articles of Incorporation, accepted 7 August 2018 — the filing fee and initial franchise tax are printed on the face of the documentIllinois Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Illinois Secretary of State form LLC-5.5 — the annual report obligation and dissolution warning printed on the accepted filingIllinois Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Illinois Secretary of State form LLC-5.5, Articles of Organization, accepted 17 April 2023 — the filing fee is printed on the face of the document (hosted by the Illinois Commerce Commission because ilsos.gov blocks all automated access)Illinois Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
Other Illinois statewide offices
- Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Division of Professional Regulation
- Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Food, Drugs and Dairies
- Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
- Illinois Department of Early Childhood
- Illinois Department of Public Health, Plumbing Program
- Illinois Department of Revenue, Central Registration Division
Illinois jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.