Formation Filing Fee Rules by State: Dates, Refunds, Waivers

Which date does each state's formation filing-fee schedule carry?

Each cell says whether its date is the office's own effective date or only the date the source was checked: Louisiana's corporation row (Effective 2026-10-01. source) states the office's own date, and a row labelled Checked gives the day the source was read, not an effective date.

Source: 51 jurisdictions. Each source link opens the authority for its cell. The page source record lists the capture date for every cell, and the SHA-256 and snapshot path of the source document for the cells that have them.

Not established here: historic fee schedules, meaning the schedule in force before the one a cell reads. The dates are stated as the cells state them, and not as the source pages stand today.

Is a state's formation filing fee refunded if the filing is rejected or withdrawn?

Whether the fee comes back is set by each state's own rule and printed from that state's cell, as Arizona's corporation row shows (Nonrefundable; not transferable to another filing source), and a state whose record is silent is marked not established, never given a guessed refund rule.

Source: 48 jurisdictions. Each source link opens the authority for its cell. The page source record lists the capture date for every cell, and the SHA-256 and snapshot path of the source document for the cells that have them.

Not established here: duplicate-payment practice, which the refundability cells do not carry. Iowa, Indiana and Wyoming hold no refundability cell, so they are not rows of this table and no rule is stated for them. A position read from a nonrefundable label keeps its hedge in the cell and is not stated as a rule of law.

Which states waive or reduce the formation filing fee, and for whom?

A state waives or reduces the fee only for the class its own rule names, as Michigan's LLC row shows (The administrator waives the initial articles of organization fee when veterans will hold a majority of the initial membership interests source), and a state whose record is silent is marked not established, never given an assumed waiver.

Source: 48 jurisdictions. Each source link opens the authority for its cell. The page source record lists the capture date for every cell, and the SHA-256 and snapshot path of the source document for the cells that have them.

Not established here: fee-credit programs, meaning a credit against a later fee. Arizona, California and Indiana hold no waiver cell, so they are not rows of this table and no waiver is stated for them. The eligible class is each cell's own wording, and no class is carried over from another state's row.

Frequently asked questions

Related research

• LLC Formation Fees by StateRelated by topic: the LLC formation filing fee amount, which this table does not state.
• Corporation Formation Fees by StateRelated by topic: the corporation formation filing fee amount, which this table does not state.
• LLC, LP and Corporation: What State Statutes DiscloseRelated by topic: LLC and corporation formation. This table does not rely on that page's text.