Register your business in Kansas

LLCs and corporations file with the Kansas Secretary of State¹. A sole proprietorship does not. Kansas calls the person who accepts legal papers the resident agent. There is no state filing for a trade name.

What’s different in Kansas

• The formation fee on the form is $85 online and $90³ on paper, for a general LLC and for a for-profit corporation. A May 26, 2026 announcement says the LLC fee was aligned with the corporation fee of $90¹⁸. Details are below.
• The recurring filing is every two years, not an annual report. It is an information report, due April 15² for a for-profit business. Stay compliant has the forfeit rule.
• A name reservation is optional. It is not a DBA. It lasts 120 days and may not be renewed¹¹.
• A company formed in another state files on paper. The fee regulations set the fee by entity type, and the foreign application form prints one figure for every business. Details are below.
• Online filing of a general LLC or corporation is within minutes, and you can print the certified copy from the site³. The paper instructions do not state a review time.*

Do this

1. Pick your structure. LLC, corporation, nonprofit, partnership, or sole proprietorship. A sole proprietor has no formation filing. A general partnership is not required to file. Pick an entity compares them.
2. Search the name. Use the Secretary of State’s business name availability search, as the articles instructions describe. An LLC name must contain Limited Liability Company, Limited Company, or L.L.C., L.C., LLC, or LC. A corporation name must contain a word such as Corporation, Incorporated, Company, Limited, Corp., Inc., Co., or Ltd.⁴ Do not put a DBA, fictitious, assumed, or trade name in the entity name. If the name is already in use, file a written consent from the business that already has the similar name, attached to the formation³. The consent form does not list a fee.* Check the total when you file. Search the web and the federal trademark database too.
3. Reserve the name only if you are not ready to file. A reservation is effective for 120 days. It may not be renewed. It does not register an assumed, fictitious, trade, or DBA name¹. The fee regulations, in effect since February 27, 2026, set a corporation’s name reservation at $20, plus a $5 technology fee on paper or a $10¹⁶ information fee online. They list no base fee for reserving an LLC’s or another entity’s name.* Form NR is dated January 1, 2024, before those regulations, and it prints $35¹¹ for any entity name. Check the total with the Secretary of State when you file.
4. Name a resident agent with a Kansas street address. The agent is an individual, a business registered in Kansas, or the business itself. The office is a Kansas address where that person or business may be regularly present, and not a post office box³. The business can name itself.
5. File the formation document. The fee depends on the structure, below. File a general LLC or a for-profit corporation online at the register a business page. Online processing is within minutes, and you can print the certified copy from the site³. Series LLCs, professional LLCs, public benefit entities, and LLPs are paper forms on that page. A company formed elsewhere files by paper¹.
6. Calendar the information report. It is filed every two years, in even years if you formed in an even year and in odd years if you formed in an odd year. For-profit businesses are due April 15. Nonprofits are due June 15. You can still file during a delinquency period of three months after the due date. After that, the business forfeits and cannot file anything else until it is reinstated². The reinstatement page is linked from the information reports page.

By structure

LLC

File Articles of Organization, form DL, for $85 online or $90 on paper. Online, $85 is the $75 application fee plus the $10 information fee. The online technology fee is $0. The paper technology fee is $5¹⁶, and the paper form total is $90³.

The information report for an LLC is $90 online and $110 on paper. It asks for each member who owns 5 percent or more of the capital¹³. The for-profit corporation report, revised July 22, 2026, prints the same $90 and $110¹⁴. Use the form for your entity and check the total before you pay.

A series LLC uses a paper articles form at $90⁵. A series LLC cannot file the information report online¹³. A professional LLC is also paper, at $90⁶. The register page does not offer online filing for those two forms.

Corporation

File articles of incorporation, form AI. A for-profit corporation is $85 online and $90 on paper. Online processing is within minutes, and you can print the certified copy from the site. The name must contain a word such as Corporation, Incorporated, Company, Limited, Corp., Inc., Co., or Ltd.⁴

S corporation status is a federal election. Kansas’s income return for an S corporation is on Get your tax IDs.

The for-profit information report is $90 online and $110¹⁴ on paper.

Nonprofit

The same articles form is $20 online and $20⁴ on paper. The information report is $80¹⁵ online and the same amount on paper, and it is due June 15². 501(c)(3) status is a separate application to the IRS. Past formation, the rest of this series is written for for-profit businesses.

Partnership

A limited liability partnership files a paper statement of qualification for $90⁷.

A limited partnership files a certificate for $85 online or $90⁸ on paper.

A general partnership is not required to register, and may file a Statement of Partnership Authority¹. The statement form is filed on paper for $35⁹.

Sole proprietorship

Sole proprietors do not register with the Secretary of State¹. Sales tax registration and any license your work needs still apply. A trade name is not a state filing.

Trade names

The Secretary of State name reservation does not register an assumed, fictitious, trade, or DBA name¹. There is no state form for an assumed name. If a city, a county, or a bank asks you to record a trade name, follow that office’s instructions.

Formed in another state

File form FA by paper¹. Kansas law charges a foreign LLC an application fee set by the Secretary of State's regulations¹⁷, and the fee regulations set it at $75. The same regulations set $75 for a foreign limited partnership’s application, $75 for a foreign LLP’s statement of qualification, and $100 for a foreign corporation’s application. A paper filing adds the $10 information fee and the $5¹⁶ technology fee. Form FA, revised March 2, 2026, prints $115¹⁰ for every business, which matches only the for-profit corporation total.

If you are filing information reports after the business’s forfeiture date, the form adds a one-time penalty of $85¹⁰ for every business except a nonprofit, and the reports themselves have their own fees. You still need a Kansas resident agent. Forming in another state covers the tradeoffs.

What you get back

A filed certificate, or a reserved name if you filed form NR and are not forming yet. Keep the certificate for the EIN and the bank. The next Secretary of State date is the information report, not an annual report. Selling taxable goods means registering with the Department of Revenue before you collect tax: Get your tax IDs.