How to start an LLC in Florida

Check your business name is free

Search for your name on Sunbiz name search. The search shows names already on the Division's records and their status. It is only a first check. The Division says not to treat a name as approved until you get its filing acknowledgment (confirmation).

Your name must end with

Limited Liability Company, LLC or L.L.C. (a professional LLC uses Chartered, Professional Limited Liability Company, P.L.L.C. or PLLC)

Holding a name

Name reservation: $25 holds an available name for 120 days and cannot be renewed. This option was added in 2019. There is no form or online route: send a signed letter giving the name and your own name and address. The 2017 Articles form still says reservations are no longer available. That line is out of date.

Words you can’t use, or need permission to use:

• No words that state or suggest the LLC is set up for a purpose its articles and Florida's LLC law do not allow
• No words that state or suggest a link with a state or federal government agency, or with a corporation or organization set up by a US federal law (chartered under US law)

Also worth knowing:

• Your name must be clearly different from others on the Department of State's records. These do not make a name different: another ending (Inc./LLC), 'the/a/an', 'and' or '&', singular, plural or possessive forms, and punctuation or symbols.
• Leave the ending off when you search for a free name, as the Division advises.

Choose your registered agent

Every LLC needs a registered agent: a person or company with an address in Florida who receives legal papers and official letters for it.

Can you do it yourself?

Yes. An individual owner or principal (person in charge) can be your registered agent (who receives legal papers for your LLC). They must live in Florida and use a Florida street address. The LLC itself can never be its own agent.

Address rules

The agent needs a Florida street address that is also its business address (the registered office). P.O. Boxes are not accepted.

Do they need to agree?

Yes. The agent must sign a written acceptance on the Articles, saying it knows and accepts the duties of the role. Online, the agent types their own name in the signature box.

• An individual agent must live in Florida, so an owner who lives in another state cannot be the agent personally.
• A business can be the agent only if it is an allowed type (corporation, LLC, LLP or LP) with an active Florida filing or registration.
• Florida charges a separate $25 fee for naming a registered agent, on top of the $100 Articles fee. Changing agents later costs $25.

Living outside Florida means paying someone to do it: see what registered agent services charge after the first year.

File the form that creates your LLC

The form is called the Articles of Organization (Form CR2E047). File it online at Sunbiz E-Filing. The fee: $125 ($100 Articles of Organization plus the required $25 registered agent fee); optional $5 certificate of status and $30 certified copy

You’ll be asked for:

• LLC name with an LLC ending
• Street address of the main office and a mailing address (a P.O. Box is fine for mailing)
• Registered agent's name and Florida street address
• Registered agent's signed acceptance of the role (typed name online)
• Purpose (only required for a professional LLC)
• Names and addresses of managers or authorized representatives, meaning people allowed to act for the LLC (optional)
• Effective date (optional)
• Other terms (optional)
• Signature of an authorized representative
• Contact name and email address
• Optional certificate of status (official proof your LLC exists and is active) and certified copy (an official copy of your filed Articles)

Good to know about the Florida form:

• The registered agent must sign an acceptance statement on the Articles themselves. If the agent is a business, a person in charge of that business signs for it.
• Names of managers or authorized representatives are optional. But the Division warns that banks and Florida's Division of Workers' Compensation may require them to be on record.
• You may pick an effective date (the date the LLC starts) up to 5 business days before or 90 days after the filing date. This can push your first annual report back a year.
• The email address you give receives the filing confirmation and all future annual report reminders. Online filers get nothing by mail.

Prefer paper? Yes. You can print form CR2E047 and mail it with a check or money order to the New Filing Section in Tallahassee. Card payments are accepted only for online filings.

Wait for approval (or pay to speed it up)

No fixed time is promised. Online filings are handled in the order they arrive, and the confirmation is emailed once the document is checked and approved. Sunbiz publishes a Document Processing Dates page showing which receipt date it is working on. On June 11, 2026, it was working on online filings for new businesses received on June 5, 2026.

The Division says it does not offer expedited (faster, for an extra fee) service. It mentions walk-in service at its Tallahassee office (2415 N. Monroe Street, Suite 810), where most walk-in requests are done while you wait.

After approval: what to do next

Once your LLC is approved, get its EIN (the business tax number), free from the IRS. Then work through what Florida asks for next:

• Annual reportBetween January 1 and May 1 every year, starting the calendar year after the Articles take effect · $138.75

  File online at Sunbiz. The fee is the $50 annual report fee plus the $88.75 supplemental corporate fee. The report confirms or updates the LLC's addresses, agent, managers and FEIN (federal tax ID number). You must file it even if nothing changed.

• Late fee and closure by the stateLate fee from the day after May 1; the state closes the LLC if the report is still not filed by the third Friday in September · $400 late fee (total $538.75)

  The $400 late fee cannot be waived. If the report is not filed by 5 p.m. Eastern on the third Friday in September, the state closes the LLC down on the fourth Friday in September. To come back, the LLC must pay for reinstatement (reopening) plus all missed report fees.

• Sales and use tax registration (Florida Department of Revenue)Before you start making taxable sales or rentals

  If the LLC sells taxable goods, rents out property or accommodation, charges admission or provides taxable services, it must register each location with the Department of Revenue. Do this online or on the Florida Business Tax Application (Form DR-1). You then receive a Certificate of Registration (DR-11), which must be displayed at the business.

• Reemployment tax registration (employers)By the end of the month after the calendar quarter in which the LLC starts to owe the tax

  Your LLC owes reemployment tax (Florida's unemployment tax) once it pays $1,500 or more in wages in a calendar quarter. It also owes it once it has an employee during any 20 weeks of a year. Register with the Department of Revenue online or on Form DR-1. Florida has no personal income tax, so there is no state income tax withholding account to open.

• State income tax checkOnly if the LLC is taxed as a corporation or has a corporate owner

  An LLC taxed as a corporation (one that pays income tax on its own profits) files the Florida corporate income/franchise tax return (F-1120). An LLC taxed as a partnership (its profits pass to the owners' own tax returns) files Form F-1065 only if at least one owner is a corporation. A single-member LLC that is disregarded (treated as part of its owner for income tax) files no separate Florida income tax return, unless a corporation owns it.

• Local business tax receipt and professional licensesBefore you start trading in the county or city

  Florida has no general business license for the whole state. Counties and cities may charge a local business tax for doing business there. The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation licenses regulated professions.

• Fictitious name registration (only if you trade under another name)Before doing business under the other name · $50

  The LLC must register the trading name (a fictitious name, or DBA) with the Division of Corporations. It must also confirm that it advertised the name at least once in a newspaper in the county of its main place of business.