How to start an LLC in Georgia

Georgia is a cheap, fast state to form an LLC in — $110 to file, no publication notice to buy in a newspaper, and a filing system that’s done in about a week. The trade-off shows up later: Georgia taxes pass-through profits at the personal income tax rate, and it wants $60 from you every single year to stay in good standing.

This guide covers the whole thing in plain English: what the $110 really buys, each filing step, the April 1 deadline that keeps your LLC alive, the tax picture, and why the Atlanta market is the real reason most founders form here.

What a Georgia LLC costs

Forming the LLC costs $110, paid to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Corporations Division when you file the Articles of Organization — a $100 statutory fee plus a $10 service charge, the same total whether you file online or by mail (fee schedule effective September 6, 2025). Online is still the way to go: same price, faster processing. The full fee schedule is public if you want to see every line item Georgia charges for.

Articles of Organization

$110

Required — online or mail

Annual registration

$60

Required, every year

Name reservation

$35

Optional, 30-day hold

Certificate of existence

$20

Optional

There’s no publication cost on top of any of this — a genuine advantage over states like New York, where a newspaper notice can run into hundreds of dollars. The recurring cost that actually adds up over time is the $60 annual registration, not the one-time filing fee. Compared with the cost of an LLC in other states, Georgia sits in the affordable middle: cheap to start, cheap to maintain.

How to form a Georgia LLC, step by step

Five steps, start to finish. Most founders knock out steps 1–3 in one sitting; the state’s processing time is the only real wait.

1. 1

   Choose your LLC name

   Georgia requires the name to contain “Limited Liability Company,” “LLC,” “L.L.C.,” “Limited Company,” “LC,” or “L.C.” and to be distinguishable from every entity already on the Corporations Division’s records. Punctuation, capitalization, and filler words like “the” usually aren’t enough to separate two names.

   Search your name in the Georgia business search before you file. A search isn’t a guarantee — availability is confirmed when your filing is processed, not when you look — so hold off on printing business cards until the state accepts your Articles. If you need extra time before you’re ready to file, Georgia’s $35 name reservation holds a name for 30 days.

2. 2

   Appoint a registered agent

   Every Georgia LLC must continuously maintain a registered agent: a person or company with a Georgia street address (not a P.O. box) who accepts service of process — lawsuits and official mail — during business hours.

   You can be your own registered agent if you live in Georgia and are reliably available at that address, but it becomes part of the public record. Founders who work from home, travel, or want privacy often hire a registered agent service instead, typically $50–$150 per year.

3. 3

   File the Articles of Organization

   The Articles of Organization is the document that creates your LLC. You file it with the Georgia Secretary of State’s Corporations Division through the online eCorp system and pay the $110 online fee. The form asks for your LLC name, principal office address, registered agent name and Georgia street address, the organizer’s information, and an optional effective date.

   Online filings are typically processed in about 7 business days, with paid expedite options if you need it sooner. Once approved, your LLC officially exists and shows up in the Corporations Division’s public business search.

4. 4

   Get your EIN from the IRS

   An EIN (Employer Identification Number) is your LLC’s federal tax ID. You need it to open a business bank account, hire employees, and file taxes. It’s free directly from the IRS — apply online once your LLC is approved. Never pay a third party a standalone fee just to “get you an EIN.”

5. 5

   Create an operating agreement

   Georgia does not require an operating agreement, but you want one anyway. It sets out who owns what, how decisions get made, and how profits are split. Without it, Georgia’s default LLC statute answers those questions for you, and banks, lenders, and investors routinely ask to see one. For a single-member LLC it also helps demonstrate that the business is genuinely separate from you — the entire point of forming one.

The annual registration: Georgia’s April 1 deadline

Every Georgia LLC must file an annual registration with the Corporations Division between January 1 and April 1, every year, starting the calendar year after formation. The fee is $60. It’s not a financial report — it just confirms or updates your addresses, registered agent, and officers.

Nothing forces you to remember the deadline; at most the state emails a reminder to the address on file. Put April 1 in your calendar the day your LLC is approved, or check your exact window with our annual-report deadline tool. Georgia also lets you pay for multiple years at once (up to three), which is a simple way to stop worrying about it entirely. (FilingDesk’s Complete plan auto-files your annual registration so this deadline is never your problem.)

Georgia LLC taxes, briefly

Georgia is not a no-income-tax state, and that’s the single biggest difference from a place like Florida or Wyoming.

• State income tax applies. Georgia levies a flat individual income tax — 4.99% for tax year 2026, cut from 5.19% in 2025 under HB 463 and scheduled to keep declining toward a 3.99% floor in future years if revenue targets are met. A standard LLC is a pass-through, so its profits land on your personal Georgia return and are taxed at that rate. Confirm the current-year rate with the Georgia Department of Revenue before you plan around it.
• Federal taxes still apply. A single-member LLC reports on Schedule C; multi-member LLCs file a partnership return. Profits are generally subject to federal income tax and self-employment tax — see our LLC vs S-Corp guide for when an S-corp election can cut the self-employment-tax bill, and run the numbers with our S-corp savings calculator.
• Sales tax is separate from anything the Corporations Division does — if you sell taxable goods or services in Georgia, register with the Georgia Department of Revenue and collect it.

Because Georgia taxes pass-through income, forming here mainly makes sense when your business actually operates in Georgia — which, for most Georgia founders, it does.

The Atlanta market

Georgia’s appeal isn’t a tax loophole; it’s the economy. Metro Atlanta is one of the largest business hubs in the Southeast — a Fortune 500 headquarters cluster, a huge logistics and film-production base, a fast-growing tech and startup scene, and the world’s busiest airport. If your customers, employees, office, or property are in Georgia, forming a Georgia LLC keeps everything in one state and avoids the foreign-registration overhead of forming elsewhere.

That overhead is real. If you formed in, say, Wyoming but genuinely operate out of Atlanta, Georgia expects you to register that out-of-state LLC as a foreign LLC — another filing, another annual registration, and you still owe Georgia income tax on the profits. For a business rooted in Georgia, the clean answer is almost always to form at home. Out-of-state formation earns its keep mainly for location-independent businesses — that’s the best-state-to-form-an-LLC conversation, and the Wyoming and Florida guides cover the two most common alternatives.

Is Georgia right for you?

If you live in Georgia or your business operates there, the answer is almost always yes — form at home. You get a low, predictable cost ($110 to form, $60/year), no publication requirement, and none of the foreign-registration friction of forming out of state. The one trade-off is the state income tax on pass-through profits, which you’d pay on Georgia-sourced income regardless of where the LLC is formed.

The main reason to look elsewhere is a business with no real tie to Georgia that wants lower recurring fees or more privacy — the Wyoming or Florida route. For anyone actually doing business in Atlanta or anywhere in the state, Georgia is the straightforward choice.

Five common mistakes (and how to dodge them)

1. Missing the April 1 annual registration deadline. The $25 late fee is avoidable, and repeated neglect risks administrative dissolution. Calendar it the day you’re approved, or prepay up to three years at once.
2. Paying for an EIN. It’s free from the IRS, issued the same day online. Any standalone “EIN service” fee is pure markup.
3. Listing a P.O. box for the registered agent. Georgia requires a street address; a P.O. box gets the filing rejected or the appointment invalidated.
4. Assuming a Georgia business search reserved your name. Availability is only confirmed when your filing is processed — file promptly once your name looks clear, or buy the $35 reservation if you need time.
5. Forming out of state while operating in Georgia. You’ll end up paying for a foreign registration plus two states’ annual filings, on top of still owing Georgia income tax on Georgia-sourced profits.

Where FilingDesk fits

FilingDesk files Georgia LLCs now via specialist filing. Describe your business in plain English, and we run the name check, prepare and file your Articles of Organization with the Georgia Corporations Division — every filing reviewed and submitted by a human specialist before it goes out — then get your EIN and generate your operating agreement, with your first year of registered agent service included. One flat $99 plus the $110 state fee, $209 all-in, everything included, no upsells. After Year 1 it’s $99/year to keep your compliance handled — including the annual registration — and there’s a 60-day money-back guarantee. See how it works.

Ready? Start your Georgia LLC now.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Georgia.gov — Register an LLC with the Secretary of State
• Georgia Secretary of State — Filing fees and expedited processing
• Georgia.gov — Renew an LLC (annual registration)
• Georgia Corporations Division — Business search (eCorp)
• Georgia Department of Revenue — Important tax updates (income tax rate)

This guide is general information, not legal advice. FilingDesk is not a law firm.