Form a Florida LLC
From a name to an active limited liability company with a federal number, its state tax accounts and its county receipt.
- Steps
- 10
- Filings
- 2
- Known fees
- $125.00
- Fees not on record
- 0
- Issued
- not tracking
Your business
The walk
Decide 1. Choose a name the state will accept
The name must include Limited Liability Company, LLC or L.L.C., and it must be distinguishable on the records of the Department of State. Search the records before you file. Reserving a name ahead of filing is optional and costs $25.00 on the fee schedule.
Doors
Decide 2. Name a registered agent
The registered agent is the person or business that accepts legal papers for the company. The agent must have a physical street address in Florida (a P.O. box is not accepted) and must sign to accept the role.
Have in hand
- The agent's name and Florida street address
- The agent's agreement to sign
Doors
File 3. File the Articles of Organization
This is the filing that creates the company. It costs $125.00: a $100.00 filing fee and a $25.00 registered agent fee. A certified copy ($30.00) and a certificate of status ($5.00) are optional. At least one authorized representative signs by typing their name. You may ask for an effective date no more than five business days before or 90 days after the day the state receives the filing. Filings are processed in the order received; the page gives no number of days.
Florida LLC Articles of Organization
- Issued by
- Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations (Sunbiz)
- Fee
- $125.00
- Confidence
- verified · read Wed 7 Oct 2026
- Your record
- —
Have in hand
- The company name, with its LLC ending
- The street address of the principal office
- The registered agent's name, Florida street address and signature
- The name of the authorized representative who signs
- A credit or debit card
Doors
File 4. Get the federal Employer Identification Number
Apply after the state has accepted the Articles: the IRS says to form the entity through the secretary of state before applying. The number is free and the online application issues it in the same session. The responsible party needs their own Social Security number or individual taxpayer number, and may apply for one number a day. The IRS never charges for one.
Employer Identification Number (EIN)
- Issued by
- Internal Revenue Service
- Fee
- $0.00
- Confidence
- verified · read Fri 18 Sep 2026
- Your record
- —
Have in hand
- The company's legal name exactly as the state filed it
- The responsible party's SSN or ITIN (typed into the IRS site only, never here)
Doors
Know 5. No beneficial ownership report to FinCEN
A company formed in the United States does not file a beneficial ownership report. FinCEN's page says: "U.S. companies are exempt from the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirements and therefore, are no longer required to file BOI reports." Nothing is filed with FinCEN for a new Florida LLC and no fee is owed for it.
Doors
Your own paperwork 6. Write down how the company runs
An operating agreement says who owns what share, who may sign for the company and what happens when a member leaves. The state's filing instructions do not ask for it and it is the members' own document; banks commonly ask to see it. Florida's rules on what it may say are in chapter 605 of the Florida Statutes, which was not read for this walk.
Know 7. Check whether your trade needs a state licence
Many trades, construction contracting among them, are licensed by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, separately from forming a company. Which licence a given trade needs was not read for this walk; the department's site is the place to ask, and anyone can verify a licence there.
Doors
On this runtime
File locally 8. Get the county and city receipts
Florida counties, and many cities, charge a local business tax and issue a receipt for it. Tick the places the business operates in and the rows this catalog holds for them appear here. A place with no row has not been read yet: ask the county tax collector.
No county or city row applies yet: tick a place above, or ask the county tax collector.
Know 9. Put the annual report on the calendar
Every year after the one it was formed in, the company files an annual report between January 1 and May 1 to stay active. It costs $138.75. After May 1 a $400 late fee is added. A company with no report by the third Friday of September is administratively dissolved. The report is filed on Sunbiz.
Doors
On this runtime
Your own paperwork 10. Open the company's books
Keep the company's money apart from your own from the first day: a bank account in the company's name (banks commonly ask for the filed Articles and the EIN letter), a record of every sale and expense, and a plan for what the year will cost.
On this runtime
Keep track
Tracking needs these rows in this runtime's catalog, and they have not been planted: fl-llc-articles-of-organization, us-ein. An operator plants the shipped catalog with LegalCode.PermitCatalogSeed; the walk above reads the shipped rows either way.
Agencies on this walk
| Agency | Doors | Pages read |
|---|---|---|
| Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz) | Search the state's records for this name · Filing instructions (name rules) · File online · LLC fee schedule · Fictitious name registration · Instructions and fee · File an annual report | 6 of 7 |
| Internal Revenue Service | Get an EIN | 1 of 1 |
| Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) | Beneficial ownership reporting | 1 of 1 |
| Florida Department of Revenue | Sales and use tax · Register online · Reemployment tax | 2 of 3 |
| Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation | Apply for or manage a licence · Verify a licence | 0 of 2 |
Left out
| Step | Why it is not on your walk |
|---|---|
| Register to collect sales tax | applies when (sells_goods or sells_food) |
| Register for reemployment tax | applies when has_employees |
| Register the name you trade under | applies when uses_trade_name |
Scope
Operator checklist, not legal advice. Confirm every row with the issuing agency before acting on it.
A walk through one kind of registration, in the order a person does it. Every sentence about a fee, a date or a rule was read on the agency page named beside it on the date shown, or says that it was not. A step with requirement_id takes its fee, agency and confidence from the permit catalog row of that id, so the two cannot disagree. A door whose url holds {name} is filled with the name the reader typed. Nothing here files anything, and nothing here is legal or tax advice. Guide checked 2026-10-07.