Pennsylvania — statewide
Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations
In short
Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations issues 4 permits we publish for Pennsylvania — 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 | Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations | $125 one-time filing | no expiry, but an annual report is due each year | 2026-09-03 |
| Certificate of Organization (LLC)only if it applies to you | Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations | $125 one-time filing | no expiry, but an annual report is due each year | 2026-09-03 |
| Annual Reportonly if it applies to you | Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations | $7 per year for a for-profit entity | annual | 2026-09-03 |
| General Business License — Pennsylvania position | Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations | No fee | set by the issuing municipality | 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
$125 with no per-share or capital surcharge, which is worth knowing against states like the District of Columbia where authorised capital can push the same filing to four figures. One form covers business, statutory close, professional, management, insurance, benefit and cooperative corporations. The same veteran and reservist exemption applies. Note the annual report deadline differs from an LLC's: a corporation files between 1 January and 30 June, an LLC has until 30 September.
Certificate of Organization (LLC)
$125, the same as incorporating — Pennsylvania is unusual in charging identically for both structures, so the choice is not a cost decision here. A qualifying veteran or reservist-owned small business is exempt from the start-up fee entirely under Act 135 of 2016, though not from later filings. Fees are non-refundable even if the filing is rejected, so check the form before sending it. The ongoing cost is genuinely small: $7 a year for the annual report.
Annual Report
$7 a year, and free for a non-profit — but this is a new obligation that a lot of Pennsylvania businesses do not yet know about. Act 122 of 2022 repealed the old decennial report and replaced it with this, first due in 2025. The deadline depends on what you are: a corporation files between 1 January and 30 June, an LLC between 1 January and 30 September, and a limited partnership, LLP, business trust or professional association has the whole year. Your first report is due the calendar year AFTER you first register. There is a grace period that will end quietly — administrative dissolution, cancellation or termination begins with reports not filed in 2027, so a business that has skipped it so far has one cycle left. One decennial filing survives, for insignia and marks. Separately, an LLP or restricted professional LLC also files a Certificate of Annual Registration by 15 April, at $470 or $700 per partner or member, with a $500 penalty after 15 May — a different and far larger obligation that is easy to confuse with this one.
General Business License — Pennsylvania position
The Pennsylvania Business One-Stop Shop's license guide states: "There is no general business license that all Pennsylvania businesses must obtain." No state amount is shown for that reason. The guide says licensing is determined by the business activity and by where the business is located, and walks through four tiers — federal, state, county and local — ending with the instruction to contact your locality to determine whether any local business license is needed. Pennsylvania's municipal layer is unusually heavy: the Department of Labor and Industry counts 2,562 municipalities. Registering an entity with the Bureau of Corporations is not a license and does not substitute for one.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Pennsylvania — statewide
- Phone
- Not verified — use the website
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.
- Pennsylvania Business One-Stop Shop — there is no general business license that all Pennsylvania businesses must obtainCommonwealth of Pennsylvania · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Pennsylvania Department of State — annual reports under Act 122 of 2022, first due 2025, replacing the decennial reportPennsylvania Department of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Pennsylvania Department of State — business filing fees and paymentsPennsylvania Department of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
Other Pennsylvania statewide offices
- Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services
- Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Office of Child Development and Early Learning
- Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Bureau of Occupational and Industrial Safety
- Pennsylvania Department of Revenue
- Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, Bureau of Consumer Protection
- Pennsylvania State Board of Cosmetology, Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs
- Pennsylvania State Board of Veterinary Medicine
Pennsylvania jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.