Updated August 10, 2026. Quick answer. Forming an LLC in Kentucky costs $40 to file, and an ongoing report requirement ($15). Five-year total: $990 over five years, every component verified.
What it actually costs
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Formation filing fee | $40 |
| Annual/biennial report | $15 |
| Franchise / minimum tax | $175 minimum Limited Liability Entity Tax (LLET) per year |
| Publication requirement | No newspaper publication requirement was found. |
Five-year cost of ownership: $990 over five years, every component verified. Publication cost is excluded from this figure — it’s county-driven where it applies, not state-driven, so a single number would be wrong for most filers.
The trap worth knowing before you file
Filing fees from the Secretary of State’s own fee schedule; due date, filing window and administrative-dissolution consequence from https://www.sos.ky.gov/bus/business-filings/Pages/Annual-Reports.aspx ; LLET from the Department of Revenue at https://revenue.ky.gov/Business/Corporation-Income-and-Limited-Liability-Entity-Tax/Pages/default.aspx . The statutory fee provision (KRS 14A.2-060) was not separately opened; no disagreement was observed between the SOS schedule and the statutory citations printed on it.
Source
KRS 275 (LLC act) via the SOS fee schedule; KRS 141.0401 (LLET) via the Department of Revenue. Read 2026-08-06 from official. Formation-service sites were not used as a source for this figure.
If the LLC already exists somewhere else
Everything above prices forming a new Kentucky LLC. A company that already exists in another state cannot become a Kentucky one: Kentucky is one of the eight jurisdictions with no jurisdiction-change route in either direction, and there is no section to cite, because nothing in the code read permits it. The substitute is a merger — form a Kentucky LLC, then merge the older company into it, under KRS 275.350 to 275.365. A merger produces a surviving entity rather than a continuation, so it is genuinely not the same thing as domestication, but it keeps far more alive than dissolving and re-forming does.
How to Move an LLC to Another State · LLC Domestication by State: All 51 Jurisdictions, With the Statute
Once the LLC exists, an operating agreement is what actually runs it
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