What a Pennsylvania LLC has to file, what it pays, and where to look it up. An LLC is a state entity, so every figure on this page is specific to Pennsylvania.
Verified against the Pennsylvania Department of State, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, August 2026.
LLC rules, taxes, details Pennsylvania
Formation
You form a Pennsylvania LLC by filing a Certificate of Organization with the Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations. Filing is done online at file.dos.pa.gov.
It costs $125. An out-of-state LLC that wants to do business in Pennsylvania files a Foreign Registration Statement instead, and that costs $250.
The Certificate of Organization must contain:
- The LLC name
- The address of the registered office in Pennsylvania, or the name of a Commercial Registered Office Provider
- The name of each organiser
- Whether the LLC is a restricted professional company, and if so which professional service
- The effective date, if it is not to be immediate
A docketing statement is filed alongside it.
Naming rules
- The name must contain Company, Limited or Limited Liability Company, or an abbreviation of one of those, such as LLC, L.L.C., Co., Ltd.
- The name has to be distinguishable from every other entity already on the Department of State register.
- Some words need approval from another agency first, including words suggesting banking, insurance, education or engineering.
Registered office
Pennsylvania does not use the term registered agent in the way most states do. It requires a registered office.
- The registered office must be a Pennsylvania street address. A PO Box on its own is not enough.
- Instead of giving an address, you can name a Commercial Registered Office Provider, and the provider’s county then stands as the LLC’s registered office county.
- Changing the registered office costs $5.
Annual report
Pennsylvania changed this recently, and anything written before 2025 is out of date.
- Act 122 of 2022 replaced the old decennial report, filed once every ten years, with an annual report. The new requirement began in calendar year 2025.
- The fee is $7 for an LLC. Not-for-profit LLCs pay nothing.
- LLCs file between 1 January and 30 September each year.
- Failure to file leads to administrative dissolution for a domestic LLC, or administrative termination for a foreign one, and the loss of the protection of the company name.
- The state gave a grace period while the requirement bedded in. From the reports due in 2027, an association that fails to file will be subject to administrative dissolution six months after the due date.
Full fee schedule
| Certificate of Organization, domestic LLC: | $125.00 |
| Foreign Registration Statement: | $250.00 |
| Amendment of a foreign registration: | $250.00 |
| Ancillary transactions for a domestic LLC, including amendment and dissolution: | $70.00 each |
| Change of registered office: | $5.00 |
| Name reservation: | $70.00 |
| Subsistence or good standing certificate: | $40.00 |
| Certified copy: | $55.00 |
| plus $3.00 per page | $3.00 |
| Annual report: | $7.00 |
Two details people get wrong
The decennial report is gone. Pennsylvania used to ask for a report once a decade, which is why so many owners believe there is nothing to file. Since 2025 there is an annual report every year, due by 30 September, and the penalty for ignoring it is losing the company name.
Restricted professional companies pay a completely different annual fee. If your LLC renders a restricted professional service, such as law, medicine, dentistry, accountancy or veterinary work, it files a Certificate of Annual Registration instead of the ordinary route. For 2026 that costs $700 for every eligible member, due by 15 April, with an extra $500 penalty if it is filed after 15 May. A four-member professional LLC is looking at $2,800 a year, not $7.
LLC tax information Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is straightforward at entity level. There is no franchise tax on LLCs any more, and the personal income tax is a single flat rate rather than a set of brackets.
Federal classification
- A single-member LLC is disregarded by default. The income reports on the member’s personal return.
- A multi-member LLC is a partnership by default. It files Form 1065, with a K-1 to each member, due 15 March.
- An LLC can elect corporate treatment instead. Form 8832 gives C corp treatment, Form 2553 gives S corp treatment. An S corp files 1120-S by 15 March, a C corp files 1120 by 15 April.
Pennsylvania state taxes
- Personal income tax: yes, at a flat 3.07%. Pennsylvania does not use graduated brackets, so the rate is the same whatever the member earns.
- Franchise tax: none. The old capital stock and foreign franchise tax has been phased out, so an ordinary Pennsylvania LLC has no entity-level state tax to pay.
- Sales and use tax: 6% at state level. Allegheny County adds 1% and Philadelphia adds 2%, so the rate is 7% in Pittsburgh and 8% in Philadelphia.
- Unemployment compensation: for 2026 a new non-construction employer pays 3.822% and a new construction employer pays 10.5924%, both on the first $10,000 of each employee’s wages. Pennsylvania is one of the few states that also withholds UC from the employee, at 0.07% of gross wages.
- Local taxes: Pennsylvania has an unusually deep layer of local taxation, including earned income taxes levied by municipalities and school districts. Check the specific municipality, not just the state.
LLC lookup Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s register is public and free. It shows the entity type, status, registered office county and filing history.
Search the register
The business entity search sits at file.dos.pa.gov.
- By entity name. The one most people need. It confirms whether a name is taken and whether the entity is Active.
- By entity number. Goes straight to one record when you already hold the number.
- By officer or registered office. Useful for diligence on a counterparty.
Filed documents can be viewed and downloaded from the record, which makes Pennsylvania better than most states for checking what a company actually filed.
File and register
- Department of State, at file.dos.pa.gov. Form the LLC, file the annual report, amend, change the registered office, or dissolve.
- Department of Revenue, at pa.gov. Register for sales tax and employer withholding through myPATH. This is separate from the Department of State.
Getting help with a Pennsylvania LLC
indinero handles the accounting, tax and CFO work behind all of this for Pennsylvania LLCs. If you would rather not track the 30 September annual report yourself, talk to an expert.
Fees and rates are taken from the Pennsylvania Department of State, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, and were verified in August 2026. They change. This page is general information, not tax or legal advice for your situation.
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