How to form an LLC in Arkansas (2026)

What are the steps to form an LLC in Arkansas?

The path runs from a name search at the Secretary of State to the franchise tax report each spring. Each step below carries its form and fee.

1. Check that your LLC name is available with the Arkansas Secretary of State, Business and Commercial Services Division. You can reserve a name for $25 by paper ($22.50 online) for 120 days.
2. Name a registered agent in Arkansas: a person or company with an Arkansas address who accepts legal papers for the LLC.
3. File the Certificate of Organization (Form LL-01) with the Arkansas Secretary of State, Business and Commercial Services Division. The state fee is $45 online, $50 by paper. Filing methods: Online (credit card), or print the PDF and mail or deliver it.
4. Wait for approval: Most filings within two business days of receipt; in-person drop-offs currently 48-hour turnaround.
5. File the recurring report (Annual LLC Franchise Tax Report): due May 1 each year.

Two of those steps have Arkansas details. Filing online is cheaper than filing on paper, both for the Certificate of Organization and for a name reservation. And the recurring filing is a franchise tax report with a fixed tax, which means the second year carries a state bill even for an LLC that earned nothing.

The state's sources in our record don't publish a newspaper publication step or a separate initial report for LLCs. If you would rather hand the filing to a service, the comparison of LLC services in Arkansas lists each one's first-year total with the state fee included.

How do you check and reserve an Arkansas LLC name?

Search the Arkansas Secretary of State, Business and Commercial Services Division business records before filing. To hold a name while you get ready, file Form RN-06, which costs $22.50 online or $25 by paper and keeps the name for 120 days.⁶

The form asks the state to set the name aside for that period, and the Certificate of Organization is filed under the same name before the hold runs out.

A reservation is optional. It earns its fee when partners are still being signed up, or when a lender or landlord wants to see the name on paper before the LLC exists.

What are the registered agent rules in Arkansas?

Arkansas lets a person or a company act as the LLC's registered agent, as long as the agent is located at a street address inside the state. The agent receives lawsuits and official notices on the LLC's behalf.

Arkansas follows the Model Registered Agents Act, whose definition of a noncommercial registered agent (Ark. Code Ann. § 4-20-102) covers an individual or a domestic or foreign entity that serves in this state as the agent for service of process of an entity. The state's own report form spells out the location rule. The registered agent's address must be a street address in Arkansas, and the agent must be located at that address. So an owner located at an Arkansas street address can serve, while a P.O. box, or an owner based out of state, can't fill the role.^{5, 7}

The yearly franchise tax report asks for the registered agent name and Arkansas street address, so an owner who serves from home lists that home address on the report every year. A commercial agent puts its own Arkansas address there instead. Northwest Registered Agent's compared plan includes the agent for a year (its included registered agent renews at $125/yr after year 1), and Inc Authority lists its agent as Free for the first year with LLC formation, renewing at $249/year after that. InCorp Services sells the service on its own for $129/year. Full price lists sit on the Northwest pricing page and the InCorp pricing page, and the list of plans with a registered agent included covers the rest.^{8, 9, 10, 11, 12}

How do you file the Certificate of Organization, and how fast is it?

The cheaper route is online, paid by card, at $45 online. Paper filings cost $50 by paper and go by mail or hand delivery, and either way the state reports finishing most filings within two business days of receipt.²

The state offers two routes.

1. Online (credit card): open the form on the Secretary of State's forms page, fill it in and pay on the spot.²
2. Paper: print the PDF and mail or deliver it. The Business Services FAQ adds that in-person filings are possible.²

Drop-offs follow their own clock. The office notes that heavy filing volume means in-person drop-offs currently 48-hour turnaround.³

The state doesn't publish a paid rush option for LLC filings in our sources. A formation service's stated speed is its own time; it doesn't change the state's review. The LLC timeline guide separates those two waits, and the fastest stated filing list ranks services by the times they publish.

What does an Arkansas LLC cost in the first and second year?

The first year costs the state fee, $45 online or $50 by paper, plus any service plan. The second year brings the $150 franchise tax with the report due May 1 each year, and paying it online adds a $5.00 card processing fee.^{2, 4, 5}

The table below gives each provider's first-year total in Arkansas with the plan we compare. Rows are ordered by our rating, highest first; how we rate explains the method and how ties are ordered.

First year: state filing fee plus the provider's compared plan. Second year: the recurring state fee plus the plan's renewal, if it renews. In Arkansas that includes the $150 yearly LLC tax.

Totals are our arithmetic on the published figures. Registered agent renewals are extra unless a plan includes the agent. Try other plans in the calculator.

The first-year column uses the online filing fee, so a paper filing adds the difference. Inc Authority's Free LLC plan brings the first-year total down to $45, which is the state fee alone; the following year then brings the $150 tax plus the agent renewal at $249/year unless it is cancelled. Northwest Registered Agent totals $84 in the first year, and its included agent then renews at $125/yr. The Inc Authority profile and Northwest profile list what each plan leaves out.^{4, 9, 11}

The second-year column reads "Can't total" because our Arkansas record doesn't list a separate fee for filing the report itself, only the tax paid with it. The $150 tax is the part every LLC owes, so add it to any plan renewal you expect. For any mix of plan and filing method, the LLC cost calculator adds the pieces, and the guide to what an LLC costs shows how Arkansas compares with other states.

What does an Arkansas LLC owe each year after forming?

Each year an Arkansas LLC files the Annual LLC Franchise Tax Report and pays the $150 tax by May 1 each year. The report goes to the Secretary of State, and the same filing covers both the report and the tax.^{4, 5}

The form asks for the registered agent name and Arkansas street address, the principal office in Arkansas, the member- or manager-management and their names, the LLC's federal tax ID and its nature of business. Note the management question. The names of members or managers go on that yearly filing, so an LLC formed partly for privacy still lists the people running it.⁸

Missing the date costs more than the tax. The form adds a $25 late filing penalty plus daily interest that grows for each day the payment is late, and the state warns that unpaid tax can lead to revocation of the authorization to do business. One more rule applies to an LLC that stops operating. Franchise taxes continue to accrue, even for revoked businesses, until the business is dissolved, withdrawn, or merged. An unused LLC keeps owing the tax until one of those steps is filed.⁴

Some formation services sell annual report filing in general. Northwest Registered Agent lists it at $100 + state fees, charged at filing, and InCorp Services at $89 + state fees. Neither page says whether it covers the Arkansas franchise tax report or pays the $150 tax, so that is worth asking before relying on either for the payment. The guide to what LLC packages include separates filings a service makes from reminders it only sends.^{4, 13, 14}

How do you change an Arkansas registered agent?

You change agents by filing Form DO-03, the Notice of Change of Registered Agent for LLC, which can be filed online. The forms page lists it with no fee, online or on paper.²

An LLC that fails to have an Arkansas agent for 60 consecutive days gives the state grounds for administrative dissolution, though the owner gets 60 days to cure after notice. File the change first, then cancel the old service, so the record never shows a gap.¹⁵

An agent can also resign. Its resignation takes effect on the earlier of the 31st day after the statement of resignation is filed or the appointment of a new agent, and the agent must promptly notify the LLC of the filing date. That notice is the owner's cue to name someone new.¹⁶

What if your LLC was formed in another state?

An out-of-state LLC that does business in Arkansas files the Application for Certificate of Registration of Foreign LLC (Form FL-01). It costs $270 online or $300 paper, well above the $45 online to form a new Arkansas LLC.^{2, 17}

Whether to register an existing company or form a new one in Arkansas depends on where the business operates and how it is taxed, which is a question for an accountant or lawyer. The state fees table puts Arkansas beside its neighbors, including Missouri, Tennessee and Oklahoma.