Indiana — statewide
Indiana Secretary of State, Business Services Division
In short
Indiana Secretary of State, Business Services Division issues 5 permits we publish for Indiana — 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 Incorporationonly if it applies to you | Indiana Secretary of State, Business Services Division | $75 one-time electronic filing; $100 on paper | no expiry, but a business entity report is due every two years | 2026-09-03 |
| Business Entity Reportonly if it applies to you | Indiana Secretary of State, Business Services Division | $32 every two years online; $50 on paper — a nonprofit pays $22 online or $20 on paper | biennial — due on the month and day the business was formed | 2026-09-03 |
| Automotive Repair Shop Licensing — State of Indiana Positiononly if it applies to you | Indiana Secretary of State, Business Services Division | No fee | not applicable | 2026-09-03 |
| Articles of Organization (LLC)only if it applies to you | Indiana Secretary of State, Business Services Division | $75 one-time electronic filing; $100 on paper | no expiry, but a business entity report is due every two years | 2026-09-03 |
| General Business License — State of Indiana Positiononly if it applies to you | Indiana Secretary of State, Business Services Division | No fee | set by the city or county | 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 Incorporation
Identical to an LLC at $75 electronically or $100 on paper, with no share-based component — Indiana gives no filing-cost reason to prefer one structure over the other, at formation or afterwards, since both file the same biennial report at the same price. A nonprofit is cheaper at $20 electronically and $50 on paper. The same $20 enhanced-access charge and portal processing fee apply on top of an online filing.
Business Entity Report
Every two years, not every year, and the first one falls two years after formation — guidance describing an annual Indiana report is wrong, including the state's own business owner's guide, which still quotes a superseded $30. Nonprofits are on the same biennial cycle now too. One counterintuitive detail: a for-profit saves $18 by filing online while a nonprofit pays $2 more, because the enhanced-access charge is larger than the statutory electronic discount. There is no monetary late fee at all — the sanction is administrative dissolution sixty days after the due date, and recovering from that costs a reinstatement fee plus every delinquent report at the paper rate plus a revenue department clearance that can take four to six weeks. Name protection lapses a hundred and twenty days after dissolution. Sole proprietorships and general partnerships file nothing.
Automotive Repair Shop Licensing — State of Indiana Position
There is no state fee to record here. The Secretary of State's Auto Dealer Services Division lists the license applications it handles — auto auction, automotive salvage recycler, converter manufacturer, dealer, distributor, manufacturer, new manufactured home community or sales lot, transfer dealer, transport operators and watercraft — and the list names no repair facility license. In the motor vehicles title of the Indiana Code, the provision aimed at repair shops is chapter 9-26-5, which requires the person in charge of a garage or repair shop to report a vehicle showing evidence of a bullet strike to the state police; the professions title (title 25) has no repair-shop article. What does apply is conduct. Exceed a written estimate by ten per cent or more on a job over $750 without written permission and it is a deceptive act; so is disposing of a replaced part within seventy-two hours of telling the customer the work is done, or repairing anything the customer did not authorise. Rebuilding a wrecked vehicle for resale crosses into the salvage recycler license, which is a different thing.
Articles of Organization (LLC)
The statute sets $75 for an electronic filing and $100 on paper, so filing online genuinely saves $25 — but $75 is not the checkout total. The Secretary of State adds a $20 enhanced-access charge on online filings under a separate statutory power, and the portal adds a processing charge disclosed only as at least a dollar and no more than 2.15 per cent. No official page publishes the sum, so it is not recorded here; expect around $96. Indiana charges no expedite fee at all, which the Secretary of State points out is unusual. A corporation costs exactly the same, and a nonprofit $20 electronically.
General Business License — State of Indiana Position
There is no state fee to record here. The State of Indiana's Business Owner's Guide states that Indiana does not have any one single, comprehensive business license, and that all businesses are instead subject to regulatory requirements that may involve several state agencies. INBiz, the state's start-up portal, presents formation as registering the business with the Secretary of State and then registering with the Department of Revenue and the Department of Workforce Development. The guide describes what applies instead: industry-specific state licenses, local zoning, signage and contractor rules that vary by city and county, and an annual personal property return filed with the assessor by 15 May. One caution on that guide: it is authoritative for the licensing architecture and stale on figures — it still quotes a $30 biennial report fee and a $10 annual nonprofit report, while INBiz now publishes $32 online for a for-profit entity's biennial report.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Indiana — statewide
- Phone
- (317) 234-9768
- Website
- www.in.gov/sos/business/
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.
- INBiz — business entity report fees and filing cycleIndiana Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-08
- Indiana Business Owner's GuideState of Indiana · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-08
- Indiana Code section 24-5-0.5-3 — the deceptive consumer sales duties that govern repair estimates and replaced partsIndiana General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-08
- Indiana Code title 23 — entity filing fees, including sections 23-0.5-9-19, 23-0.5-9-1 and 23-0.5-9-34Indiana General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-08
- Indiana Secretary of State — regulatory analysis of business entity fees, listing the enhanced-access chargesIndiana Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-08
- Indiana Secretary of State, Auto Dealer Services Division — the complete list of vehicle business licenses, which contains no repair facilityIndiana Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-08
Other Indiana statewide offices
- Indiana Department of Health, Food Protection Division
- Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, State Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners
- Indiana Board of Veterinary Medicine
- Indiana Department of Revenue
- Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning
- Indiana Plumbing Commission, Professional Licensing Agency
Indiana jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.