Nine states do not require an LLC annual report. Seven of those nine charge franchise or margin tax anyway. If you own a company in one of them and you have stopped checking because "there is no annual report", this page is for you.
| State | Annual report | But you still owe |
| Arizona | Not required | Newspaper publication requirement |
| California | Not required | $800/yr, due 15th day of the 4th month after formation, then April 15 annually |
| Delaware | Not required | $400/yr, due June 1 |
| Michigan | Not required | Registered agent only |
| Missouri | Not required | Registered agent only |
| New Mexico | Not required | Registered agent only |
| Ohio | Not required | Registered agent only |
| South Carolina | Not required | Registered agent only |
| Texas | Not required | $0 if under $2.47M revenue; 0.375%-0.75% of margin above threshold, due May 15 |
Why this is the most expensive misunderstanding in the category
An annual report is a visible, dated thing. It arrives as a reminder, it has a form, it feels like the compliance task. A franchise tax in a state with no annual report has none of that scaffolding — there is no reminder because there is no report, and the bill is often larger than any report fee in the country.
- California charges an $800 minimum franchise tax whether the company earned anything or not. A dormant California LLC owes $800 a year.
- Delaware charges $400 a year and requires no annual report at all. It also will not let you dissolve until the outstanding tax is paid, so a company you thought you closed can follow you.
- Texas has a margin tax and a Public Information Report that is due even when no tax is owed.
The pattern is the same every time: the obligation without a form attached is the one that gets missed.
The states where there IS a report, for contrast
36 states require an annual report and 7 require a biennial one. Fees run from $7 in Pennsylvania to $500 in Massachusetts, with a median of about $55. A fee that small is never the problem. The problem is that four companies across three states produces deadlines on four different schedules, and no single calendar for them exists.
Find out what your companies actually owe
Type in your companies and we will show you every deadline, fee and obligation each one carries — including the ones that are not the annual report. Free, no account, and the answer appears on the page rather than in an email.
It computes your obligations from each state's published rules and the formation dates you give us. It does not contact your state's registry, so it cannot tell you your current standing — we say so on the page too, because a tool that told you you were in good standing without having looked would be worse than no tool.
About this page. Every figure here is maintained in one place and rendered from it, so a correction fixes every page at once. State fees and rules do change — verify anything you are about to act on against the state's own site, which is linked above where one exists. This is information, not legal or tax advice. We provide and manage your registered agent service in all 50 states and DC. Northwest Registered Agent is the agent of record named on your state filings, and their correspondence reaches you under their name.