What a California LLP Actually Costs

Registering a California LLP starts with a single state filing: the Application to Register a Limited Liability Partnership (Form LLP-1), submitted to the Secretary of State through bizfile Online. The state charges a filing fee to process it. That fee is the baseline cost of getting your partnership onto California's records with the LLP designation and its liability shield.

Because state fees are set by the Secretary of State and change from time to time, we don't print a dollar amount in this text. The receipt card on this page reflects the current state filing fee alongside our service fee, and what you see there is what you're charged — no surprise line items added later.

What the registration fee does and doesn't cover

The filing fee covers processing your Form LLP-1. It does not cover the annual tax you'll owe the Franchise Tax Board, the biennial Statement of Information, your professional liability coverage, or any name reservation or fictitious business name filing you choose to do. Those are separate, and we cover each below so nothing catches you off guard.

An LLP is not a one-and-done expense. California attaches ongoing costs that continue for as long as the partnership exists, and budgeting for them from the start keeps the firm in good standing.

The annual tax

California imposes an annual tax on every LLP registered or doing business in the state, paid to the Franchise Tax Board. It's due regardless of whether the partnership made money, and — unlike some entity types in some years — there's no first-year waiver for LLPs. This is the single most significant recurring cost of maintaining a California LLP, and it's the one out-of-state firms most often overlook. Treat it as a fixed annual line item.

The Statement of Information

California LLPs file a Statement of Information with the Secretary of State on a biennial cycle. There's a state charge to file it. It's a small cost compared to the annual tax, but missing it triggers a delinquency notice and eventually threatens the partnership's good standing, so it belongs on the calendar.

Partnership tax returns

Beyond the annual tax, the partnership files a California return (Form 565) and a federal return (Form 1065), issuing Schedule K-1s to the partners. Preparing these is a professional cost — usually your CPA's fee — rather than a state fee, but it's a real recurring expense of running the entity.

California is one of the few states that conditions the LLP liability shield on maintained security for claims. In practice, that means carrying professional liability insurance, posting a surety bond, or setting aside designated funds up to the amounts the Corporations Code specifies for your profession. This isn't optional if you want the shield to hold — it's a structural cost of being a California LLP.

The size of this cost depends on your profession, the number of licensed partners, your claims history, and the coverage you choose. A larger firm carries more security than a two-partner practice. Because this is an insurance and licensing matter, the figure comes from your carrier, not from us — but plan for it as a core, non-negotiable expense of the structure rather than a nice-to-have. A partnership that lets its required security lapse can lose the very protection it registered to get.

Several costs are real but discretionary — they apply only if your firm's situation calls for them.

Name reservation

If you want to lock in your partnership name before you're ready to file, California lets you reserve it for a limited period for a state fee. Useful if you're finalizing partners or coordinating a rebrand, but not required.

Fictitious business name

If your firm operates under a name other than its registered legal name, you register a fictitious business name with the County Clerk-Recorder in your county. Most counties also require publishing a notice in a local newspaper, which adds a publication cost. This is a county-level expense, separate from the state registration.

Certified copies and certificates of status

When a bank, a court, or another party asks for a certified copy of your registration or a certificate of status, the Secretary of State charges for those documents. You request them as needed, so they're occasional rather than recurring.

Foreign registration

If your LLP was formed in another state, registering to transact business in California carries its own filing cost, plus the ongoing California obligations that follow — the annual tax, the Statement of Information, and a California agent. See our foreign registration page for the full picture.

Our service fee is separate from the state's fees, and both appear on the receipt card so you can see exactly where each dollar goes. What we charge covers preparing and submitting your Form LLP-1 correctly, serving as your California agent for service of process, and tracking your biennial Statement of Information so the deadline doesn't slip.

We keep it simple: the price you see is the price you pay. We don't pad the order with fees that only surface at checkout, and we don't mark up the state's fees behind the scenes — the displayed state fee is the charged state fee. For a professional firm that would rather spend its time on clients than on the bizfile Online interface, that's the value: correct filings, a reliable agent, and a clear, honest cost breakdown.