Staying compliant in Arizona

Do Arizona LLCs file an annual report?

No. Only corporations are required to file annual reports, according to the Commission's own FAQ, and LLCs are not, so an Arizona LLC has no yearly report or report deadline at the Commission.¹

That makes Arizona unusual. Many states require a yearly or every-other-year report to stay in good standing, and our explainer on how annual reports work in other states covers what those filings ask for. If you also run an LLC elsewhere, compare this page with staying compliant in California or staying compliant in Nevada, which follow a different model.

What "no annual report" means

• No yearly deadline at the Commission. Nothing comes due on the anniversary of your filing, and the Commission does not charge a recurring report fee.
• No late fee for a missed report. Because there is no report, there is nothing to be late on in that sense.
• Updates are up to you. In states with annual reports, the yearly filing is a built-in moment to update your agent and addresses. In Arizona, the agent and address on the public record stay as last filed until a new filing changes them, such as your statement of change or an agent's resignation.

What it does not mean

• You still have obligations. The agent requirement, the publication rule and address updates still apply, and the Commission can dissolve an LLC that neglects the agent requirement (see the section on dissolution below).
• Your tax filings are unaffected. The Commission handles business records, and tax agencies run their own deadlines, covered in the next section.
• Corporations are treated differently. If you later convert to a corporation or form one alongside your LLC, that corporation does file annual reports.

Does Arizona charge LLCs a franchise tax or annual state fee?

The Commission charges an Arizona LLC no annual report fee ($0), so there is no yearly business-entity charge at the Commission to plan for. Taxes are a separate matter.¹

The Commission does not administer taxes, and this page does not cover Arizona's tax rules for LLCs. For tax questions, go to the Arizona Department of Revenue, which administers state taxes, and to the IRS for federal filings. Ask the Department of Revenue which registrations and returns apply to your business based on what you sell and where. A tax professional can tell you how your LLC's income is taxed given how it is owned and whether it has elected to be taxed as a corporation. Keep tax deadlines on a separate calendar from the Commission items on this page: having no annual report does not make any tax filing optional.

What can get an Arizona LLC dissolved, and how do you reinstate it?

With no annual report to miss, the main risk in Arizona is losing your statutory agent, which can lead to administrative dissolution; reinstatement is possible for a fee.

Two of the grounds for administrative dissolution set out in A.R.S. § 29-3708(A)(2) and (A)(4) turn on the agent.⁴

1. The LLC has gone without a statutory agent in Arizona for 60 consecutive days.
2. The LLC fails to notify ACC within 60 days of a resignation.⁴

The second ground catches owners who never learn that their agent quit. A resignation takes effect on the earlier of the 31st day after the ACC files it or the designation of a new agent. The agent must promptly notify the LLC of the filing date, so that notice goes to whatever contact details the agent has. If your email changed or your service account lapsed, you may not see it. That is why the provider's contact details matter as much as the Commission's record.⁵

Dissolution is not instant. The statute gives the LLC 60 days after notice to cure to fix the problem, usually by appointing a new agent with a statement of change. Treat any notice from the Commission as urgent, because the cure period is the cheap way out.⁴

If the LLC is dissolved anyway, Arizona allows reinstatement. The fee is $100 plus all past-due fees and penalties, and the Commission accepts applications within 6 years of administrative dissolution. The name is the more pressing problem: the reinstatement statute releases it if no reinstatement application is filed within six months after the dissolution takes effect, after which another business could take it. If you depend on the name for contracts, a bank account or a website, apply quickly. Ask the Commission which past-due items apply to your record, and talk to a lawyer if the business kept operating or signed contracts while dissolved. For a fuller picture of what having no agent means, see the Arizona statutory agent guide.¹

How do you keep your statutory agent and addresses current?

You keep a statutory agent with a place of business or residence in Arizona on record at all times (A.R.S. § 29-3115), and you file a statement of change when the agent or your LLC's Arizona address changes.⁶

The agent requirement covers every LLC and every foreign LLC registered here. In a state without annual reports, keeping that record accurate is the core compliance job.

When you need to file a statement of change

The Statement of Change of Principal Address or Statutory Agent (Form L020) is the filing used to change your statutory agent or your LLC's Arizona address, and the dissolution statute expects the Commission to be told when either changes. The fee is $5.00. When you appoint a new agent, the Statutory Agent Acceptance form M002 must be submitted along with this Statement of Change form, so get the new agent's signed acceptance before you file. The Commission's regular processing is typically 14-16 days. Filing methods: Online (ABC system), by mail, by fax (requires a Money-on-Deposit account) or in person (Phoenix or Tucson office). The step-by-step process, including the order of filing and cancelling, is on our guide to changing your statutory agent. File the change before you cancel the old service, so there is no gap in coverage.^{1, 7}

Foreign LLCs registered with the Commission (the registration costs $150) keep the same agent obligations. The Commission's description of the change form reads "For use by Arizona or foreign LLCs", and a registered foreign LLC's agent must meet the same in-state address rule (A.R.S. § 29-3115).^{7, 8}

What a provider's compliance features cover in Arizona

Most commercial agent services advertise compliance features built for annual-report states, so in Arizona it pays to check what each one would actually do for you.

• Reminder services. Bizee (formerly Incfile) advertises free lifetime compliance notifications, and InCorp Services advertises email reminders before anything comes due. These come with the agent service, but in Arizona there is no annual report deadline for them to track. Ask whether the provider will also warn you about the publication deadline in your first year.^{9, 10}
• Annual report filing plans. Harbor Compliance charges $199 per state per year plus filing fees for its annual report service, Northwest Registered Agent charges $100 + state fees, Swyft Filings sells ComplianceGuard $199/year, and ZenBusiness lists Annual Report Filing $100 per report and Worry-Free Compliance $199/year. An Arizona LLC has no annual report for these plans to file. Before buying one, ask the provider in writing which Arizona filings, if any, it would handle for you.^{11, 12, 13, 14}
• Forwarding of state notices. For an Arizona LLC, this is the feature that counts most. Legal papers in a lawsuit arrive at the agent's address, and so does the Commission's notice of a dissolution ground and its cure deadline under the dissolution statute. If your agent resigns, its notice of the filing date goes to the contact details it holds. Keep your email and phone current in the provider's account.
• Renewal terms. With no annual report fee, a paid agent service, if you use one, is likely to be the only recurring charge tied to your Commission record. For example, Bizee (formerly Incfile) renews at $149/year, ZenBusiness at $199/yr, and LegalZoom's service auto-renews at the purchase rate each year. Some providers need notice well before renewal: Harbor Compliance's terms require notice of non-renewal at least 90 days before the end of the current term, or the service renews for another term.^{15, 16, 17, 18}

Provider prices and terms side by side are on the Arizona statutory agent comparison, and a broader view of these features is on services with compliance tools. Before cancelling any service, read how to cancel a statutory agent service.

What does an Arizona LLC compliance calendar look like in the first year and after?

Arizona's calendar is short, but the first months after filing carry the only fixed deadline.

Year one

1. Articles approved. The window for publication starts when the Commission files your articles. The Commission's instructions are blunt: do not publish until the commission approves the articles for filing. Wait for that approval before placing the notice. How to file the articles is covered in our Arizona LLC formation guide.²
2. Publication, if your agent's street address is outside Maricopa and Pima County. Arrange 3 consecutive newspaper publications in a newspaper of general circulation in the agent's county, finished within 60 days of filing. Afterwards, an affidavit of publication may be filed as proof. If your agent's street address is in Maricopa or Pima County, the Commission posts the notice online and you have nothing to publish. Publication cost varies by newspaper; see the cheapest ways to form an Arizona LLC for how it affects the total.²
3. Set up agent notices. Confirm the email and phone your statutory agent service will use, and note its renewal date.
4. Taxes. Ask the Arizona Department of Revenue and the IRS which registrations apply, and put their dates on a separate list.

Year two and later

1. No Commission report. Nothing is due at the Commission on your filing anniversary.
2. Agent renewal. Your provider bills its renewal, usually yearly. Decide whether to keep it before any notice deadline in its terms.
3. Record check. Look up your LLC on the Commission's records once a year and confirm the agent and addresses. If anything changed, file the statement of change ($5.00).³
4. After any agent resignation, appoint a replacement promptly: the resignation takes effect on the earlier of the 31st day after the ACC files it or the designation of a new agent, and an LLC left without an agent faces the dissolution grounds described above.⁵

Terms used on this page, such as administrative dissolution and service of process, are defined in our glossary. For what a statutory agent does day to day, read what a statutory agent is.