What It Costs to Form and Run a North Dakota Limited Partnership

The core cost of starting a North Dakota LP is the state filing fee for the Certificate of Limited Partnership, submitted through the FirstStop portal. This is a one-time charge that brings the partnership into legal existence. The current amount is set by the Secretary of State and displayed in FirstStop when you file, and it appears in the receipt card on this page — we keep what we charge equal to what the state charges, with our service fee shown as a separate line so you always see exactly what goes where.

What the formation fee does and doesn't include

The state filing fee covers registering the Certificate itself, including the registered agent designation that is part of that filing. It does not include:

• A partnership agreement — that is drafted privately, and if you use an attorney, their fee is separate
• An EIN — the IRS issues these free
• Registered agent service — if you use a commercial agent rather than a partner, that is its own recurring cost
• Business licenses or tax registrations — separate from formation and specific to your activity and location

Because North Dakota routes filings through a single portal, there are no surprise line items beyond what FirstStop shows at checkout.

Every North Dakota limited partnership owes an annual report to the Secretary of State, due March 31 each year. It carries a state fee, shown in FirstStop and reflected on this page's receipt card, and it is the one predictable recurring cost every LP has, whether or not it made money that year.

Why the annual report is not optional

The annual report is what keeps the partnership in good standing. Skip it and the partnership drifts out of compliance, which can block financing, complicate contracts, and eventually invite administrative action from the state. Reinstating a delinquent partnership costs more than the annual report would have — you end up paying to fix a problem that a calendar reminder would have prevented. Budget the annual report as a fixed yearly line and file it on time.

North Dakota requires a registered agent, but it does not require you to pay for one. This is a genuine choose-your-own-cost item.

The free path

A general partner or another qualifying North Dakota resident can serve as the registered agent at no cost, as long as they have a physical in-state street address and are available during business hours. The trade-offs are non-monetary: that address becomes public and searchable, someone has to be reliably present to accept legal process, and if the partner moves you have to update the record.

The paid path

A commercial registered agent service charges an annual fee in exchange for keeping a professional address on the public record, guaranteeing someone is always available, and scanning and forwarding documents the day they arrive. For a limited partnership — where general partners carry personal liability and a missed lawsuit can become a personal problem — many owners consider the annual fee cheap insurance against a default judgment. Whether it is worth it depends on how you value privacy and reliability against the cost. One note on how we handle it: Mainstay does not sell agent service as its own line item — it is folded into the single yearly price that also covers preparing and filing your annual report.

Beyond formation, the annual report, and the registered agent, a limited partnership may run into costs that apply only in certain situations. Budget for the ones that fit your plans.

• Name reservation. If you want to hold your name before filing the Certificate, North Dakota charges a fee to reserve it through FirstStop.
• Foreign registration. If your LP was formed in another state and needs to register to do business in North Dakota, foreign qualification carries its own state fee, and you typically need a recent certificate of good standing from your home state.
• Amendments. Changing information on the Certificate — a new general partner, a name change — is a separate filing with its own fee.
• Registered agent change. Updating the agent through FirstStop carries a filing fee.
• Certified copies and certificates of good standing. Banks, lenders, and other states sometimes require these, and each has a fee.
• Professional fees. An attorney to draft the partnership agreement and a CPA to handle the Form 1065 and K-1s are real costs, though not paid to the state. For a multi-partner LP, both are usually money well spent.

Not every part of setting up a limited partnership costs money, and it helps to know which steps are genuinely free so you don't overpay a service to do them.

The EIN is free

The IRS issues Employer Identification Numbers at no charge through its online EIN Assistant at IRS.gov. Any service that bills you for "obtaining your EIN" as a standalone product is charging for something you can do yourself in about ten minutes. A filing service may include it as a convenience, but the government fee for it is zero.

The name search is free

Checking name availability in the FirstStop search costs nothing. You only pay if you choose to reserve the name.

Self-serving as agent is free

If a partner meets the requirements and is willing to be the registered agent, that path has no fee. The cost is convenience and privacy, not dollars.

Knowing where the free lines are lets you spend deliberately — pay the unavoidable state fees, pay for a registered agent and professional help if the value is there, and skip paying anyone for the parts that are already free.