Illinois Reduces Filing Fees for Limited Liability Companies


If you own an interest in an Illinois Limited Liability Company (LLC), good news!  Effective yesterday, certain filing fees have been significantly reduced.  See this press release from Secretary of State Jesse White's office for details as to the fee changes.

If you have a current LLC, you are required to file Annual Reports with the State, and pay the annual filing fee associated with that.  This fee is being reduced from $250 to $75.  The fee is generally due on the anniversary of forming your LLC, which means the payment due date is different for each LLC.  The Secretary of State typically mails the Annual Report form out a few months in advance of the due date.  If your LLC annual report is due soon, you should doublecheck to ensure that you do not accidentally overpay the fee.

For those who may have been holding off on forming a corporation or LLC due to cost concerns, this fee reduction is also great news! To file "Articles of Organization" to form a new Illinois LLC, the fee is being reduced from $500 to $150 (or from $750 to $400 for a Series LLC).

There are many factors that go into choosing how to set up your business and what form of legal entity is the right fit for you, but a few important factors are 1) limiting your personal liability, 2) limiting liability across different businesses or parts of business (for example, having a separate entity hold title to an office building in which your business entity, say a law practice, is operating), and 3) having flexible freedom of contract to structure the management of the entity in the way that makes the most sense to you the owner, and similarly to readily make changes to it as the business changes in the future (say for example, if you take on a partner).  LLCs are ideally suited to accomplish these goals, and have the added benefit of giving you the choice to be treated for tax purposes as either a partnership or a corporation, depending on what is in your best interest.

If you've been thinking about whether to form an LLC or corporation and have been postponing taking action on that, or just have questions about whether doing so might be the best fit for you, I would encourage you to speak with an attorney who regularly works with business owners and can go over your specific situation and questions.

Nate Hinch is an attorney and partner at the law firm of Mueller, Reece & Hinch, LLC.  He has offices at 404 N. Hershey Road, Suite C, Bloomington, IL 61704, and 809 Detweiller Drive, Peoria, IL 61615, and can be reached by phone at (309) 827-4055 and email at nhinch@mrh-law.com.

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