Florida's LLC filing fee is listed as $125 โ but the moment you're filing from outside the US, that number stops being the full story. That $125 actually splits into two separate charges: $100 for the Articles of Organization itself, and $25 for designating a registered agent, both bundled into one payment that most guides don't bother breaking apart. If you need a certified copy or a certificate of status, there's an optional $30 and $5 on top of that โ not mandatory, but plenty of banks ask for one or both when opening an account. Filing goes through Sunbiz, the state's online portal, and processing is usually fast. But here's the catch that trips people up: annual reports can only be filed online โ no mail-in option, no counter service. If you're used to paper-based processes, this "online only" rule is worth building into your planning ahead of time.
The full first-year bill
| Fee item | Amount | Frequency | Difference for non-residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Articles of Organization filing | $125 | One-time | Same as residents, filed online via Sunbiz |
| Registered agent | ~$50โ300/year | Annual | Mandatory โ non-residents can't serve as their own agent |
| Annual Report | $138.75 | By May 1 each year | Miss it and it jumps straight to $538.75 โ a flat $400 penalty, no exceptions |
| EIN | $0 | One-time | Can't use the IRS online system โ phone, fax, or mail only, which eats real time |
| Business license | $50โ500 | Varies by city | Usually not needed for a purely online cross-border business |
| Bank account | $0โ30/month | Monthly | Harder approval than for residents, often with a higher minimum balance requirement |
Add it all up and a non-resident's real first-year cost lands around $325 โ the $125 state filing fee plus roughly $200 for a registered agent. The EIN itself is free, but it'll cost you a few extra weeks of waiting. Ongoing annual cost after that runs around $339: the $138.75 annual report fee plus a year of registered agent service. Florida doesn't have state income tax, and it doesn't charge franchise tax on pass-through LLCs either, so this annual report fee is really the only fixed state-level cost worth watching. That's a meaningfully different situation from Delaware, where a separate franchise tax shows up every year regardless of whether the company made any money at all.
Why non-residents can't skip the registered agent fee
This is where a lot of generic LLC guides mislead people. Plenty of articles say "you can just be your own registered agent and save $100 to $300" โ and that's true if you're a Florida resident with a physical address in the state. If you're not, it simply doesn't apply to you. Florida law requires the registered agent to hold a physical street address inside the state โ a mailing address, a virtual office, or an overseas address doesn't meet that bar. Without a Florida street address of your own, hiring a commercial registered agent service isn't optional. It's the only route available.
The usual providers people compare โ Northwest, ZenBusiness, Bizee โ don't all price this the same way. Some bundle the first year in for free as part of a full formation package; others charge annually on their own, starting around $50 and running up to $150โ300 depending on whether privacy protection or mail forwarding is included. One thing worth being explicit about: don't use your registered agent's address as if it were your own company or residential address on other applications, bank account paperwork, or payment platform documentation. These are two functionally different addresses, and mixing them up is one of the most common sources of trouble in later KYC review.
The EIN step costs time, not money
Wherever you apply from, the EIN itself is free for everyone. What genuinely differs for non-residents is the speed. Residents whose main place of business is inside the US can apply online and get it in minutes. Non-residents whose main place of business is outside the US can't use that same system โ the IRS routes these applicants to phone, fax, or mail instead, and actual turnaround runs anywhere from two to six weeks depending on which method you use.
The phone line for international applicants is 267-941-1099, staffed Monday through Friday, 6am to 11pm Eastern. The fax number for overseas applicants is 304-707-9471, with a typical response time of around 4 business days. One rule that's easy to miss: regardless of which method you use, the same Responsible Party can only apply for one EIN per day โ so trying to apply through multiple channels simultaneously to speed things up simply doesn't work.
Three hidden costs generic guides never mention
| Hidden cost | Rough amount | Why it gets overlooked |
|---|---|---|
| International shipping for physical documents | $30โ80 | Non-residents often need certified paper documents shipped internationally โ something US-based guides rarely think to mention |
| Minimum bank deposit requirement | $500โ2,500 | Non-resident accounts are usually required to maintain a higher minimum balance than resident accounts |
| Annual accounting fees | $300โ900 | Non-residents face Form 5472 filing obligations, which are considerably more involved than a resident's typical filing |
| LLC dissolution fee | $25โ100 | If you ever decide to shut the company down, that costs money too |
How Florida stacks up against other common formation states
| Cost | Florida | Wyoming | Delaware | Texas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filing fee | $125 | $100 | $90 | $300 |
| Annual report/fee | $138.75 | From $60 | $400 (raised as of Aug 2026) | Usually none (below franchise tax threshold) |
| Registered agent | ~$200 | ~$100 | ~$200 | ~$200 |
| Total first year | ~$325 | ~$260 | ~$690 | ~$500 |
| Best fit for | Online business, no physical office, non-residents | Cost-first, simple structure | Planning to raise funding later | Actually operating in Texas |
The thing worth really internalizing about that Delaware column is the franchise tax โ it's owed every single year whether or not the company turned a profit, and it just went up. That's the fundamental thing separating Delaware from states like Florida and Wyoming, which charge neither state income tax nor franchise tax. If your business is purely online, has no physical office, and you're not planning to raise funding anytime soon, Florida and Wyoming generally come out ahead cost-wise. If fundraising or an equity structure is genuinely on your roadmap, Delaware's more established corporate law framework might be worth the extra annual cost.
If you're set on Florida and ready to move, the full process to form an LLC online as a non-resident โ from state selection to EIN โ is laid out in our step-by-step guide.