Louisiana business filing fees rise on 1 October 2026. Here is what changes.
Bizer · 2026-09-26
The Louisiana Secretary of State's fee schedule changes on 1 October 2026. Filing an LLC goes from $100 to $125. The annual report every registered Louisiana company files goes from $30 to $35. The increases come from Act 921 of the 2026 Regular Session, which started as House Bill 908 and became law without the governor's signature on 23 June 2026.
The $25 on the LLC filing is the figure that will get quoted. It is not the one that matters.
What changes, and by how much
Current fee first, new fee second. Both come from the Secretary of State's own two schedules, the one in force today and the one titled effective 10/1/26, read on 26 September 2026.
- Articles of organization, Louisiana LLC: $100 to $125
- Articles of incorporation, Louisiana business corporation: $75 to $95
- Annual report: $30 to $35
- Partnership registration, Louisiana: $100 to $125
- Limited liability partnership registration: $125 to $155
- Application of a foreign corporation: $125 to $155
- Application of a foreign limited liability company: $150 to $185
- Trade name, trademark or service mark registration: $75 to $95
- Supplemental initial report, LLC: $25 to $30
- Statement of change of registered office or agent: $25 to $30
- Expedite, processed within 24 hours: $30 to $35
- Priority, processed while you wait: $50 to $60
Two things did not move. A name reservation stays $25, and the credit card convenience fee stays $5.
The $5 is the expensive one
A formation fee is paid once. File in November and you pay $25 more than someone who filed in August, and then never again.
The annual report is different. Every LLC, corporation and partnership on the Louisiana register files one every year to stay in good standing, so the extra $5 lands on a company that has been trading since 1974 exactly as it lands on one formed next week. It is a permanent addition to the cost of existing rather than a one-off cost of starting. The Legislative Fiscal Office put the whole package at roughly $5 million a year in extra revenue, and the annual report is where the volume is.
If you already run a Louisiana company, nothing here asks anything of you this week. Your next annual report costs $5 more when its anniversary comes round. That is the whole consequence.
Should you file before 1 October?
Only if you were already going to file.
If the name is settled, the structure is chosen and you know who your first customers are, file online this week and keep the $25. Nothing about the filing gets faster or slower for having been done in September.
If you are not there yet, $25 is not a reason to register a business. Look at what filing early actually costs. You pay $100 now, then $35 every year whether or not the business trades, you maintain a registered agent address, and you put a company on the public record that you may later want to dissolve. The saving lasts one filing. The obligation lasts until you end it.
That order is deliberate on the startup track here: validate, then make it real. It was reordered for a reason: the earlier order had founders paying to register a business before anyone had confirmed they wanted it. A fee deadline is a poor reason to skip that.
Who this deadline is not for: anyone who has not yet talked to five people who would pay them. Have those conversations. Pay the $125 in November.
Coming from out of state
The two largest increases in the schedule are not for Louisiana companies at all. A foreign corporation's application for authority goes from $125 to $155, and a foreign limited liability company's from $150 to $185. The foreign LLC application is the one out of state firms most often need, and $35 is the largest single rise anywhere in the schedule.
It is worth a moment this year in particular. Out of state contractors are circling Starbase Louisiana in Vermilion Parish, and qualifying to do business in the state is among the first things a supplier sorts out. If registering here is on your list for the fourth quarter, doing it before 1 October instead is worth $35 to you.
What the fee does not cover
Filing the articles creates the company. It registers you with nothing else, and that is where Louisiana catches people out. Your parish sales tax collector is a separate registration, the occupational license that 40 of the 64 parishes levy outside their towns is a separate annual tax on gross receipts, and the Department of Revenue is its own step again. The full sequence, with what each step costs, runs to eight steps and the Secretary of State is one of them.
When you are ready, you file on the Secretary of State's own site and pay the state directly. Miles can prepare every answer with you first and talk you through the form while you do it: file my business registration. If the structure is still open, start one step back, at sole proprietor, LLC or S corp.
What is genuinely uncertain
The new schedule is titled effective 10/1/26 and the Secretary of State's fee page says the increase applies from that date. Neither document says which fee a filing pays when it is posted in September and processed in October. If you are sending a paper filing this week, assume the new fee and call the Commercial Division before you send payment at the old rate. Filing online removes the question.
Fees change, and this article ages. These were read on 26 September 2026 from the Secretary of State's fee schedule and the 10/1/26 schedule it links to. On the day you file, those two pages are the only sources worth trusting.
