--- title: "How to Start an LLC in Arizona (2026)" canonical: https://startupowl.com/start/arizona-llc last_updated: "August 15, 2026" --- # How to Start an LLC in Arizona (2026) Form an Arizona LLC for $50 by mail. Learn naming rules, filing steps, publication requirements, and processing times in our step-by-step guide. ## Arizona LLC Quick Facts | Fact | Value | | --- | --- | | Filing Fee (Online) | $50 | | Processing Time | 12 days, ACC live board | | Expedited Available | Yes (6 days, ACC live board / $35) | | Annual Report | N/A | | State Income Tax | Yes | | Sales Tax Rate | 5.6% | | Filed With | Arizona Corporation Commission | | Last Verified | August 15, 2026 | Missing Arizona's newspaper deadline does not dissolve your LLC. The statute says so. A.R.S. 29-3708 lists six grounds for administrative dissolution and publication is not one of them, which changes what your $50 buys. ## What You Need to Know About Forming an LLC in Arizona An Arizona LLC puts a legal wall between what you own and what the business owes. That wall is the whole point. If the company is sued or runs up debt, your house and your savings sit on the other side of it. Two things make Arizona unusual. There is no annual report. Once the LLC exists the Commission asks nothing of you again and bills you nothing either. Then there is the newspaper rule. Most new LLCs have to run a notice of formation in a local paper within sixty days. You are off the hook if your statutory agent street address sits in a county of more than eight hundred thousand people. Today that means Maricopa and Pima. The steps are plain. Pick a name, name a statutory agent, file the articles, then sort out an EIN and the notice if you owe one. The state charges $50 for all of it. What you can buy on top is speed. ## Choose a Name for Your Arizona LLC Step 1 Your name has to be one of a kind. The state checks it against every business on file. Your name has to be distinguishable from every entity already on file with the Commission. Search first, it is free. If the name is clear but you are not ready to file, section 29-3113 lets you hold it for one hundred twenty days for $10. [Search available names →](https://arizonabusinesscenter.azcc.gov/businesssearch) **Arizona LLC Naming Requirements** - Must include LLC, L.L.C. or Limited Liability Company. - Must be distinguishable from every other Arizona business on file. - Cannot imply a government tie, so no FBI and no Treasury. - Words like Bank, Insurance or University may need extra licensing. - Cannot suggest the LLC is a corporation. **Name Reservation (Optional)** - The fee is $10. - It holds the name for one hundred twenty days. - You file it with the Commission. **State Specific** The agent has a different name here. The rules for naming the LLC itself are the usual ones. **Pro Tip** Search the Commission name database before you fall in love with a name. It is free and it takes two minutes. ## Choose a Statutory Agent in Arizona Step 2 Other states call this the registered agent. Same job. Your agent takes legal papers for the LLC and needs a real street address in the state. Your statutory agent takes legal notices, tax mail and court papers for the LLC. Arizona wants a real street address in the state. No P.O. boxes. The agent can be a person who lives here, an Arizona company, or an out of state firm cleared to do business here. An agent service does not make you anonymous here, and it is worth being clear why. A.R.S. 29-3201(B)(4) puts every member on the articles of a member managed LLC, name and address both. Manager managed is not much better. It names every manager, plus every member holding twenty percent or more. The articles are public. The Commission also lets anyone search its records by principal name, so one query on a person returns the companies they run. An agent service fixes the agent address. It does nothing to the ownership field. **Your Three Options** - Be your own agent. It is free. Your street address then joins your name on the public record, and you have to be there in business hours. - Ask someone you trust in Arizona. They need a real address here and they need to be reliable. - Hire an agent service. It runs $50 to $300 a year, keeps your home address off the agent field, and means nothing gets missed. **State Specific** Most states call this the registered agent. Arizona uses another word for the same job. **Pro Tip** A professional statutory agent keeps your home address out of the agent field. It does not keep your name out of the articles, which section 29-3201(B)(4) requires. Treat those as two separate problems. ## File Your Articles of Organization with the Arizona Corporation Commission Step 3 This is the filing that makes the LLC real. You send Form L010 to the Commission, online or by post. Filing Fee (Online): $50 Processing: 12 days, ACC live board Form L010 asks for a short list. Your LLC name, your statutory agent name and street address, your principal address, how the LLC is managed, and the member or manager names section 29-3201(B)(4) wants. File it online or by post. Online means the Arizona Business Center, the portal that used to be eCorp. **File Online** **Pros** - Fastest way in. - You get confirmation on the spot. - The fee is $50, same as post. **Cons** - You need a free Arizona Business Center account. **File by Mail** **Pros** - The fee is $50. - Form L010 downloads from the Commission site. - Pay by check or money order. **Cons** - Regular examination ran 12 days on 15 August 2026. - Nothing confirms it arrived. - Filing Fee: $50 (online or by mail) - Regular Examination: 12 days (ACC board, 15 Aug 2026) - Expedited: $85 total (6 days on the same board) Arizona charges more for faster filing, and each speed has its own price. Regular filing costs only the $50 Articles of Organization fee. Expedited adds $35, so you pay $85 in all. Accelerated examination costs more and is charged on top of the $50 filing fee. Next day adds $100, for $150 in all, if the Arizona Corporation Commission has your filing by 5pm. Same day adds $200, for $250 in all, if the Commission has it by 10am. A two hour turn adds $400, for $450 in all, if the Commission has it by 3pm. The Commission posts its current processing times on a board it updates. Check that board the morning you file, rather than trusting any guide, this one included. **State Specific** The exemption is a population test, not a list of names. Section 29-3201(G)(2) excuses you when your statutory agent street address sits in a county of more than eight hundred thousand people. Two counties clear that bar today. Maricopa and Pima. **Important** Publication is still required if your statutory agent sits outside Maricopa or Pima County. Three runs, sixty days. What it does not carry is a dissolution penalty, because A.R.S. 29-3708 lists six grounds and publication is not one of them. ## Get an EIN for Your Arizona LLC Step 4 An EIN is a federal tax ID number for your business. You need one to open a bank account, hire employees, and file taxes. Get your EIN straight from the IRS. It is free. The form takes about ten minutes and the number comes back on the spot. You will need the LLC legal name and the date the Commission approved your articles. [Apply for your EIN on IRS.gov →](https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-number-ein-online) ## Create an Operating Agreement for Your Arizona LLC Step 5 An operating agreement sets out who owns the LLC and who runs it. Arizona does not require one. Skipping it hands both questions to the default statutes. Without an agreement the default Arizona statutes decide how your LLC works. They rarely match what you wanted. Profit splits, who makes the calls, and what happens when a member walks all fall back on the code. Your bank will probably ask to see one when you open the account. **Key Sections to Include** - Who owns what, and what each member put in. - How profit and loss get split. - Whether members or managers run the company. - Who votes, and on what. - How a member joins or leaves. - What happens if you wind up or sell. - Whether a member can hand their stake to someone else. **Pro Tip** Single member LLCs need one too. It marks the line between you and the company, and that line is what protects your house. ## Open a Business Bank Account for Your Arizona LLC Step 6 A business account keeps your money and the company money apart. That gap is what holds the shield up. Mixing personal and business money is the fastest way to lose the protection you filed for. If a court decides you treated company funds as your own it can pierce the veil and come after you personally. A separate account is the defence. Use it from day one. **What to Bring to the Bank** - Your approved articles from the Commission. - The EIN letter from the IRS. - A copy of your operating agreement. - A photo ID. - Your principal business address. **Pro Tip** Plenty of Arizona banks and credit unions run free business checking for small LLCs. Shop around first. ## Federal BOI Reporting No. FinCEN exempted every company created in the United States from beneficial ownership reporting in its interim final rule of 26 March 2025, applied from 21 March 2025, and has since made that exemption permanent by final rule. An Arizona LLC formed in Arizona files nothing with FinCEN. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How much does it cost to start an LLC in Arizona in 2026? The Articles of Organization cost $50, online or by post. That is the only fee the state ever asks of you. Arizona has no annual report. Everything above the $50 is optional speed. If your agent sits outside Maricopa or Pima County, a paper bills you for three notice runs at its own rate. A paid agent runs $50 to $300 a year. ### How long does it take to get an LLC approved in Arizona? The Commission runs a processing board and restamps it daily. On 15 August 2026 it read 12 days for regular examination of a new LLC filing, 6 days for expedited, and 1 day for same day or next day service. Those numbers move. Read the board the morning you file. The clock starts the day after your document lands, and posting the papers back adds more. ### Can one person form an LLC in Arizona? Yes. Arizona is fine with a single member LLC. You can form it, own it and run it alone. The cover is the same. The IRS treats it as a disregarded entity by default, so the profit lands on your own tax return. ### Does Arizona require an LLC operating agreement? No. Arizona does not require one. You should still write one. Without it the state default rules run your LLC, and they may not run it the way you meant. A bank will often ask to see the agreement, and so will a court if the members ever fall out. ### What taxes does an Arizona LLC pay? Arizona follows the federal default. A single member LLC is taxed as a sole proprietorship, a multi member LLC as a partnership, and the profit lands on the members' own Arizona returns. There is no franchise tax on LLCs. If you sell taxable goods or services you need a Transaction Privilege Tax licence from the Department of Revenue. State TPT is 5.6% and cities add their own on top. ### Does Arizona require an annual report for LLCs? No. Arizona asks for no annual report and charges no fee for one. That is unusual. Most states bill something every year to keep an LLC on the register, and Arizona bills nothing. Once the LLC is formed and the publication notice is done, the Commission wants nothing further from you. ### What happens if I miss the Arizona publication deadline? Less than most guides tell you. The notice itself is required by A.R.S. 29-3201(G). The penalty people quote is not in the statute. A.R.S. 29-3708 lets the Commission dissolve an LLC on six grounds. Unpaid fees. Sixty days with no statutory agent. Sixty days with no principal address. An unreported change to either. A failure to amend the articles when required. Ignored interrogatories. Publication is on none of them. It was grounds under the older act. Publish anyway, it is still the law. ### Can you form an anonymous LLC in Arizona? No, and one line of statute is why. A.R.S. 29-3201(B)(4) puts every member name and address on the articles of a member managed LLC, and every manager plus every member above twenty percent on a manager managed one. The articles are public. The Commission business search even takes a principal name as a query. An agent service hides your home address and nothing else. A sole owner is named either way. ## What to Do Next - [Get an EIN](https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-number-ein-online), Apply for free in about 10 minutes at IRS.gov, required before opening a bank account or hiring anyone. - [Open a Business Bank Account](https://startupowl.com/setup/how-to-open-a-business-bank-account), Keep personal and business money apart from day one. Bring your EIN, your approved articles and a photo ID. - [Create an Operating Agreement](https://startupowl.com/start/llc-operating-agreement), Arizona does not ask for one. Write it anyway. It settles who owns what before anyone falls out. - [Publish Your Notice of Formation](https://arizonabusinesscenter.azcc.gov/publicnotice), Outside Maricopa or Pima County? Run the notice within sixty days. Nothing is due after that. No report, no yearly fee. - [Paying contractors](https://startupowl.com/setup/contractor-vs-employee#by-business-type), Arizona is in the IRS forwarding program, so an e-filed 1099-NEC can reach the state. Check the Arizona floor before you skip a form under $2,000.