LLC STATES

A state filing ledger · 50 states + DC

record 21 of 51 · /llc/massachusetts/

Massachusetts LLC

oldest record on this page verified 2026-07-23

sources: linked on each field, listed in full below

The Massachusetts business certificate is a municipal filing

The certificate of organization files with the Corporations Division, and a Massachusetts LLC then repeats a report on its formation anniversary every year. The commonwealth's record shows no separate recurring entity tax, a verified absence. No expedited tier is on sale; the office instead states that a fax filing is processed the same business day or the following one at the latest.

the rest of this note

Naming never touches the state register: a business certificate is filed with the clerk of every city or town where the company keeps an office, and no statewide search covers those records. The statute also bars the company from serving as its own registered agent and requires an individual agent to reside in the commonwealth. Both findings print with their sources.

every claim above is a line below

Should you form your LLC in Massachusetts?

If the answer is yes, the home-state rule points to Massachusetts.

Office or storefront in Massachusetts?

Yes, it will

A business with a real footprint in Massachusetts files in Massachusetts. 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

$500

Due Anniversary date, printed as the state writes it.

last verified 2026-09-04

sec.state.ma.us

Franchise tax

none

No recurring state-level tax on an LLC here. The absence is verified against the state, not missing data.

verified absent 2026-08-07

malegislature.gov

Anonymous LLC

no

Member or organizer names reach the public formation record here.

last verified 2026-08-10

malegislature.gov

Processing time

published, not as a range

The state publishes a processing time in prose rather than as a range, so this sheet links it instead of restating it. This state sells no expedited service.

as observed on 2026-08-09

sec.state.ma.us

Name designators

Must contain the words "limited liability company" or "limited company," or the abbreviations "L.L.C.," "L.C.," "LLC," or "LC."

Statute: M.G.L. c. 156C, § 3.

last verified 2026-09-04

malegislature.gov

Name reservation

$30

Optional filing that holds the name for 60 days before you form.

last verified 2026-09-04

sec.state.ma.us

DBA

business certificate

Filed with the county clerk, and each county prices its own filing.

last verified 2026-07-23

mass.gov

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

sec.state.ma.us

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 Massachusetts DBA rules?

Massachusetts calls it the business certificate, and handles it at the county level, so the price and the paperwork are set locally rather than by the state.

Where an LLC files

mass.gov

How long it lasts

4 years

A business certificate is effective for four years and is renewed by filing again with the same city or town clerk.

Newspaper publication

not required

What the filing protects

no exclusive right

A business certificate, known in Massachusetts as a d/b/a, is a municipal notice filing that identifies who is behind a business name; it grants no exclusive right. Because it is filed with the city or town clerk and not the Secretary of the Commonwealth, it is not part of the state entity-name screen, so it neither blocks nor is blocked by names in the Corporations Division records.

Where to search existing names

sec.state.ma.us

Business certificates are held in each city or town clerk's records, not in the Secretary of the Commonwealth's business search, so a full check means contacting the clerk in every municipality where a business operates. There is no statewide index of d/b/a filings.

one record, verified 2026-07-23 · M.G.L. c. 110, § 5

malegislature.gov

What does it take to register a foreign LLC in Massachusetts?

Registering an LLC formed elsewhere is its own filing in Massachusetts. The registration costs $500. That price belongs to a separate filing event, so it enters no cost total on this site.

Registration fee

$500

Flat $500.00 filing fee for the foreign registration of a limited liability company: the Corporations Division filing fee schedule prices the Limited Liability Companies 'Foreign Registration' row at $500.00 and the official application form states 'Filing fee: $500'.

sec.state.ma.us

The official form

Foreign Limited Liability Company Application for Registration

sec.state.ma.us

Filed with

Corporations Division, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

sec.state.ma.us

After registration

File an annual report with the Corporations Division on or before the anniversary date of the filing of the registration (the fee schedule prices the foreign LLC annual report at $500.00), and keep a resident agent whose consent to appointment is on or attached to the filing.

sec.state.ma.us

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 Massachusetts?

Who may serve as an LLC's registered agent is its own rule in Massachusetts. Massachusetts 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

in the state's words which agent must be an individual resident of the commonwealth

malegislature.gov

The LLC as its own agent

Not allowed

malegislature.gov

A mailbox service as the address

not read at this pin

Address rule

an office, which may but need not be a place of its business in the commonwealth at which shall be kept the records required by section nine to be maintained

malegislature.gov

one record, verified 2026-08-09

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 Massachusetts annual report?

A missed report has its own record in Massachusetts: the penalty, the dissolution clock, and the way back. No late fee is published, and that is a checked finding rather than a gap.

  1. Late filing penalty

    none published

    The state can still dissolve the LLC by administrative action, so a missing fee is not an all-clear.

    sec.state.ma.us

  2. Administrative dissolution

    after 24 months of delinquency

    The first stage the state publishes, in its own unit: after this interval the state may dissolve the LLC by administrative action.

    malegislature.gov

  3. Reinstatement

    $100

    as the record reads A $100 Application for Reinstatement Following Administrative Dissolution, which may be filed at any time, and every annual report owed must be filed with it - at $500 each, that catch-up is far larger than the reinstatement fee itself.

    sec.state.ma.us

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.

The rule behind every figure here, and what a card does when one cannot be verified, sits on how a figure gets verified.

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