Colorado LLC Cost

Once you file Colorado Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State, your Colorado LLC officially exists as a legal entity. Filing in Colorado is way less burdensome than in most other states—the fee is only $1. Colorado Articles of Organization must be filed online through the Secretary of State’s website.

All LLCs in Colorado need to file an annual report, which is referred to as the Periodic Report and has a fee of $10. Your LLC’s Periodic Report must be filed once a year, by the end of the LLC’s anniversary month (so an LLC formed on June 4, 2023 will need to file the Periodic Report by June 30, 2024.)

Find out how to file your Colorado Periodic Report.

You must appoint a Colorado registered agent in your LLC’s Articles of Organization. A registered agent is the person or company you pick to accept legal notices on behalf of your business.

You can serve as your own registered agent, or name a business partner or employee to the role, but many businesses choose to hire a professional registered agent service instead. Doing so helps you keep your privacy and gives you a reliable way to receive legal notices when you’re out of the office. Registered agent service fees vary, but Northwest’s fee for registered agent service is locked in at $125 per year, and never goes up.

Colorado issues a Sales Tax License that authorizes businesses selling tangible personal property to operate in the state and collect state sales tax. This license is required for virtually any LLC that will be making taxable sales. The Colorado Sales Tax License costs $16 and is valid for two years.

You can get your Colorado Sales Tax License online at MyBizColorado, or you can file a Colorado Sales Tax and Withholding Account Application by mail to register for a sales tax license.

Many careers require specialized training, including medical professionals, certified public accountants, engineers, and many more. Working in a skilled trade requires a professional license from the Colorado board that regulates the industry. Most occupations require a fee for a licensing exam as well as a fee for the license itself.

Visit the Colorado Division of Professions and Occupations for more information about professional licensing.

Counties and cities in Colorado require a local sales tax license in addition to the state sales tax license. The fee for these licenses vary based on location and the industry being licensed. For example, Colorado Springs charges $110 for most business licenses, but a general business license in Boulder is $25.

LLCs in regulated industries like liquor sales, contracting, electrical engineering and other specialized industries may also need to purchase a license on the local level, along with any state-issued professional licenses.

Alongside the mandatory expenses of starting an LLC in Colorado, you may need to pay fees for other services that apply to your business.

Name Reservation: $25

If you’re not ready to pull the trigger on starting your Colorado LLC just yet, but know what you want to name it, you have the option of reserving a business name for $25. By filing a Statement of Reservation of a Name with the Colorado Secretary of State, you can get exclusive rights to your chosen business name for 120 days.

DBA (Doing Business as) Name: $1

If you want to do business under a name other than your LLC’s legal name, you’ll need a DBA—called a “trade name” in Colorado. To get a trade name in Colorado, file a Statement of Trade Name, along with a $1 fee.

Certified Copies of Business Documents

As your business grows, you may need to order a certified copy of your business documents from the Secretary of State, such as when you’re expanding your business to a new state. The fee for a certified copy is $2, plus 25 cents per page for documents longer than 20 pages. It takes up to 10 business days for certified copies to process, but you can speed up processing to 5 days or less for an additional $150 expedited service fee.

Find out how to get a certified copy of your Colorado Articles of Organization.

Colorado Certificate of Good Standing

If you need to prove to a bank, investor, or foreign jurisdiction that your LLC is up-to-date on its taxes and state reports, you’ll need a Certificate of Good Standing (also known as a Certificate of Compliance or Certificate of Existence in other states).

You can download a printable Colorado Certificate of Good Standing online through the Colorado Secretary of State’s Business Database Search for free.

Read more on how to get a Colorado Certificate of Good Standing.

Any LLC with valuable assets or a risk of lawsuits should probably invest inbusiness insurance. The cost of insurance can range from $50 a month to several thousand dollars a month, depending on the size and needs of your business—but the average cost in Colorado is 86¢ per every $100 in earnings.

If your business has one or more employees, Colorado requires that you purchase workers’ compensation insurance. You can obtain worker’s compensation insurance through a private company, and if you are unable to purchase it from another provider, Pinnacol Assurance coverage is available to any Colorado employer. The price for this insurance varies, so it’s a good idea to shop around for a competitive rate. Rates also differ depending on your industry—a bookkeeping firm will have lower workers’ comp insurance rates than a manufacturing plant will.

Depending on the kind of business your LLC does, you may also consider liability insurance. Your LLC protections shield you and other LLC members from from lawsuits and bankruptcy, but won’t protect your business if a customer is injured on your premises. You may not need liability insurance if you have a home-based LLC or operate a small office in a quiet area away from the public—but retail stores, restaurants, and other businesses with a lot of public interaction should consider getting some. In fact, certain businesses are required to carry liability insurance in order to legally operate.

Learn more about LLC Business Insurance.

Registering a foreign LLC in Colorado costs $100. If your LLC was formed in another jurisdiction but you want to do business in Colorado, you’ll need to register as Colorado foreign LLC. To do business as a foreign LLC, you’ll need to submit a Colorado Statement of Foreign Entity Authority online—the Colorado Secretary of State also provides detailed instructions for filing this form.

You may also need a Colorado sales tax license, and likely one or more professional or local licenses as well.