Updated August 12, 2026. Quick answer. To dissolve an LLC in North Dakota you file the Articles of Dissolution and Termination (LLC), and it can be filed online only. Fee: $20 (articles of dissolution and termination); optional notice of dissolution $10. North Dakota requires no tax-clearance certificate to accept the filing. Until that filing is accepted the LLC still legally exists — and whatever North Dakota charges an LLC each year keeps accruing against it.
What you file in North Dakota, and what it costs
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Filing | Articles of Dissolution and Termination (LLC), filed online via the SOS FirstStop portal; an optional Notice of Dissolution may be filed first during winding up |
| Fee | $20 (articles of dissolution and termination); optional notice of dissolution $10 |
| How you can file | online — ND SOS routes business filings through the FirstStop portal (https://firststop.sos.nd.gov); the SOS maintain-registration page references FirstStop for entity filings and no paper LLC dissolution form is published. |
| Tax clearance | not required |
| Statute | N.D. Cent. Code § 10-32.1-50 (events causing dissolution); § 10-32.1-51 (winding up; notice of dissolution; articles of dissolution and termination); § 10-32.1-92(17),(19) (fees); §§ 10-32.1-89, 10-32.1-90 (annual report; involuntary termination) |
Statutory names, not numbered paper forms: NDCC 10-32.1-51(2)(b) — in winding up the LLC may ‘(1) File with the secretary of state a notice of dissolution stating the name of the company and that the company is dissolved’ and ‘(6) File with the secretary of state articles of dissolution and termination stating the name of the company and that the company is terminated.’ ND SOS lists the filing as ‘Dissolution/Termination (domestic)’ on its LLC business-structures page; filings are made through the FirstStop portal (firststop.sos.nd.gov).
On the fee. Statutory fee schedule NDCC 10-32.1-92: ’17. Filing a notice of dissolution, ten dollars.’ ’19. Filing articles of dissolution and termination, twenty dollars.’ Matches the SOS LLC page fee listing ‘Dissolution/Termination (domestic) – $20.’
Tax clearance in North Dakota
No tax-clearance certificate is required to file in North Dakota. That is not the same as owing nothing — it means the state will accept the filing without a revenue-agency sign-off first.
Neither NDCC 10-32.1-51 nor the fee/filing provisions condition dissolution on Tax Commissioner clearance, and the SOS’s maintain-registration and LLC pages state no tax-clearance prerequisite. Negative verified against the full chapter text (ndlegis.gov PDF) — no clearance requirement appears anywhere in the dissolution sections.
Do not just walk away
Closing the business is not closing the entity. Fails-to-file annual report (due before Nov 16) → ‘not good standing’; if still unfiled six months after the due date the LLC ‘ceases to exist and is considered involuntarily terminated by operation of law’
NDCC 10-32.1-89(3): annual report ‘must be delivered to the secretary of state before November sixteenth of each year.’ NDCC 10-32.1-90(1)(b): ‘A limited liability company that fails to file its annual report, together with the fees…, within six months after the date established in subsection 3 of section 10-32.1-89 ceases to exist and is considered involuntarily terminated by operation of law.’ Reinstatement available under 10-32.1-91. SOS site: ‘If a business fails to file its annual report it will be placed into Not Good Standing status’ and involuntary termination follows within roughly 6-12 months.
Closing the tax accounts
Close business tax accounts (sales/use, withholding) via ND TAP and file final returns; the state publishes no consolidated closing checklist
Official tax.nd.gov pages confirm business tax accounts (sales tax returns, payments, responsible-party updates) are managed through ND TAP (tap.tax.nd.gov) but the Office of State Tax Commissioner publishes no specific business-closure checklist page that I could locate; account closure/final returns are handled inside ND TAP or by contacting the office (701-328-1246). Recorded as partially unverifiable rather than citing blog checklists.
Before you file
- The order the steps go in — internal decision, creditors and distributions, the state filing, the final returns, then the registrations you are still paying for.
- What an LLC costs to keep alive in North Dakota — the bill that keeps running until this filing lands.
- What dissolution costs in all 51 jurisdictions — the fee, the filing route and the tax-clearance flag, side by side.
- What happens if you simply stop filing — administrative dissolution is the walk-away trap happening to you rather than by you.
We do not form or dissolve LLCs, sell filing services, or take a commission from anyone who does. No advertising appears on this page and we earn nothing from it.
Sources and limits
N.D. Cent. Code § 10-32.1-50 (events causing dissolution); § 10-32.1-51 (winding up; notice of dissolution; articles of dissolution and termination); § 10-32.1-92(17),(19) (fees); §§ 10-32.1-89, 10-32.1-90 (annual report; involuntary termination). Fee, form and procedure read 2026-08-10 from the statute source.
Research note. Statute text extracted directly from the ND Legislative Branch PDF (official). Fees cross-checked against sos.nd.gov LLC page ($20 dissolution/termination). Tax-agency wind-down steps are the weak spot: no official closing checklist exists on tax.nd.gov; noted honestly in final_tax_steps.
Honest gap. This page covers the state filing that ends the entity, its fee and its tax-clearance condition. It does not cover creditor claims against a dissolved LLC, disputes between members, the tax treatment of a final distribution, reinstatement after an administrative dissolution, or withdrawal from any other state you registered in — each of those has its own rules. General information, not legal or tax advice. See methodology and corrections.