Formation fee
$51
last verified 2026-08-22
record 11 of 51 · /llc/hawaii/
Hawaii LLC
The general excise tax shadows every Hawaii LLC
Hawaii layers a general excise tax over an LLC's receipts, filed with the Department of Taxation, and because it follows revenue with no published floor, its card wears a badge where a figure would sit. The report to the business registration division is priced low and falls due by the close of the anniversary quarter. That quarter cadence is the state's own framing.
the rest of this note
The agent question closes with a refusal: form instructions bar the company from acting as its own registered agent, and the sheet cites the instruction sheet itself. Expedited review is sold per document while no standard processing time is published, a verified absence. A trade name registration stands as statewide constructive notice only while it remains on file.
every claim above is a line below
Should you form your LLC in Hawaii?
If the answer is yes, the home-state rule points to Hawaii.
Office or storefront in Hawaii?
Yes, it will
A business with a real footprint in Hawaii files in Hawaii. Forming anywhere else adds a foreign registration back home: two filings, two annual bills, two registered agents. The out-of-state discount does not survive that arithmetic.
No, it will not
This one answer cannot choose a state. Use the full four-question wizard with the place where the business will actually operate. Open the full wizard .
Annual report
$12.50
Due End of anniversary quarter, printed as the state writes it.
last verified 2026-08-22
Franchise tax
scales with revenue
Hawaii calls it the General Excise Tax, collected by Hawaii Department of Taxation. It follows revenue with no annual minimum, so no yearly figure can stand in for it.
last verified 2026-08-08
Anonymous LLC
no
Member or organizer names reach the public formation record here.
last verified 2026-08-10
Processing time
none published
This state publishes no standard processing time, which is not the same as filing instantly. Expedited formation starts at $25.
verified absent 2026-08-09
no source in the snapshot
Name designators
Must contain "limited liability company" or the abbreviation "L.L.C." or "LLC". "Limited" may be abbreviated as "Ltd." and "company" as "Co." The letters in the name must be letters of the English alphabet.
Statute: HRS § 428-105(a).
last verified 2026-07-18
Name reservation
$10
Optional filing that holds the name for 120 days before you form.
last verified 2026-07-18
DBA
trade name
One statewide register; the filing costs $50.
last verified 2026-07-23
An individual as the agent
allowed
Whether a person may hold the seat, so nobody has to be hired. The terms Hawaii attaches, and the entity question, sit in the registered agent section.
last verified 2026-08-10
Late filing penalty
none
No late fee is published for a missed report, and that is a checked finding rather than a gap. It is not an all-clear: the state can still dissolve the LLC by administrative action, and section 09 carries that record.
verified absent 2026-08-10
field 05 carries the date it was observed, not a promise: of the two halves beside it, only the expedited tiers are prices the state commits to
What are the Hawaii DBA rules?
Hawaii calls it the trade name, and keeps one statewide register for it. The state filing costs $50.
- Where an LLC files
- How long it lasts
-
5 years
A registration is effective for five years and may be renewed for successive five-year periods by filing within six months before expiration with a $50 fee (HRS § 482-3).
- Newspaper publication
-
not required
- What the filing protects
-
no exclusive right
A Hawaii trade name registration is constructive notice statewide of the registrant's claim while the name stays in actual use (HRS § 482-3), and registered trade names are among the records that block a later substantially identical entity name. Registration does not by itself grant ownership, which is acquired through adoption and bona fide use.
- Where to search existing names
-
Registered trade names appear in the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs business search.
one record, verified 2026-07-23 · HRS § 482-3
What does it take to register a foreign LLC in Hawaii?
Registering an LLC formed elsewhere is its own filing in Hawaii. The registration costs $50. That price belongs to a separate filing event, so it enters no cost total on this site.
- Registration fee
-
$50
Flat $50.00 nonrefundable filing fee stated on Form FLLC-1 (rev. 11/2025).
- The official form
-
Application for Certificate of Authority for Foreign Limited Liability Company (Form FLLC-1)
- Filed with
-
Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA), Business Registration Division
- After registration
-
File annual business reports with BREG (online $12.50) and continuously maintain a registered agent in Hawaii.
one record, verified 2026-08-08
The same fee for every other jurisdiction sits on one page: foreign qualification fees for every jurisdiction.
Who can be the registered agent in Hawaii?
Who may serve as an LLC's registered agent is its own rule in Hawaii. Hawaii lets a natural person serve, so no commercial agent is required. The LLC itself may not hold the seat, which is a separate question.
- An individual as the agent
-
Allowed
- The LLC as its own agent
-
Not allowed
- A mailbox service as the address
-
not read at this pin
- Address rule
-
State the complete street address of the place of business of the registered agent in the State of Hawaii to which service of process and other notice and documents being served on or sent to the entity represented by it may be delivered to.
An allowed finding says Hawaii admits a person to the seat, not that every person qualifies. Hawaii sets the terms, on the page behind the finding.
one record, verified 2026-08-10
The same four answers for every other jurisdiction sit on one page: registered agent rules for every jurisdiction.
What happens if you don't file the Hawaii annual report?
A missed report has its own record in Hawaii: the penalty, the dissolution clock, and the way back. No late fee is published, and that is a checked finding rather than a gap.
-
Late filing penalty
none published
The state can still dissolve the LLC by administrative action, so a missing fee is not an all-clear.
-
Administrative dissolution
not read at this pin
-
Reinstatement
$25
as the record reads A $25 Application for Reinstatement (Form X-4), available only within two years of the involuntary dissolution and only to domestic entities, filed with every delinquent annual report, a Department of Taxation clearance, and payment of all delinquent fees and costs.
one record, verified 2026-08-10
The same three answers for every other jurisdiction sit on one page: late fees and reinstatement for every jurisdiction.
Where do these figures come from?
Every figure on this sheet renders from the pinned dataset snapshot, and each card links the page its own figure came from. This list collects those pages in one place, with the duplicates removed and the agency named.
- Formation and annual report figures https://cca.hawaii.gov/breg/registration/dllc/fees/
- Recurring tax: Hawaii Department of Taxation https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol04_Ch0201-0257/HRS0237/HRS_0237-0013.htm
- Naming statute https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol08_Ch0401-0429/HRS0428/HRS_0428-0105.htm
- Name reservation https://cca.hawaii.gov/breg/faqs/
- Foreign LLC registration https://cca.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/fllc-1.pdf
- Who may be the registered agent https://files.hawaii.gov/dcca/breg/registration/forms/llc-1-instr.pdf
- Anonymous LLC statute https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol08_Ch0401-0429/HRS0428/HRS_0428-0203.htm
- DBA filing https://cca.hawaii.gov/breg/registration/trade/
- Hawaii Business Registration Division https://cca.hawaii.gov/breg/
- Business entity search https://hbe.dcca.hawaii.gov/search-and-buy
The rule behind every figure here, and what a card does when one cannot be verified, sits on how a figure gets verified.