All 50 states › Massachusetts
Massachusetts writes its LLC annual-report rule directly into statute: every LLC files an annual report with the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and the fee is $500 — set by MGL Chapter 156C, §12(d) itself, the highest flat annual-report fee any state charges a standard LLC. The due date is unusual too: on or before the anniversary date of the day your original certificate of organization was filed. Not the end of your anniversary month, not a fixed calendar date — the exact day. An LLC organized on March 9 owes its report by March 9, every year.
| Item | Rule |
|---|---|
| Who files | Every Massachusetts LLC — domestic and foreign (registered) alike. Both pay the same $500 |
| When | On or before the anniversary date of the filing of the original certificate of organization — the exact date, unique to each entity |
| Fee | $500 (statutory, MGL 156C §12(d)). Electronic and fax filings add a $20 expedited service fee — $520 total |
| Late fee | None listed for LLCs on the Division's fee schedule — the cost of a miss arrives later, as stacked back reports |
| Consequence | Administrative dissolution. Reinstatement requires filing all annual reports owed ($500 each) plus a $100 reinstatement fee |
| Where | Secretary of the Commonwealth, Corporations Division — online filing system, fax, mail, or walk-in |
The same fee schedule that charges an LLC $500 charges a Massachusetts corporation $125 for its annual report — and gives the corporation a discount to $100 for filing electronically. The LLC gets the opposite treatment: electronic filing costs $20 more, not less. So a Massachusetts LLC pays four to five times what a corporation pays for the same yearly ritual. (It's not just LLCs: limited partnerships and LLPs also pay $500 in Massachusetts.) This asymmetry is worth knowing before choosing an entity type here — and it mirrors, at a bigger scale, the North Carolina LLC-vs-corp gap, where the LLC pays eight times more.
Most anniversary states give you until the end of your anniversary month — Nevada and New Jersey work that way. Massachusetts does not: the Division's own guidance says the report is due "on or before the anniversary date of the filing of its original certificate of organization." Owners who mentally file Massachusetts under "month-end like my other states" build in up to three weeks of phantom slack that doesn't exist. And because every entity's date is different, a multi-entity owner holding a March 9 LLC, a July 22 LLC, and an October 3 LLC has three unrelated deadlines — none of which the calendar will volunteer.
Like Michigan and North Carolina, Massachusetts publishes no flat late penalty for a delinquent LLC report (its corporations, notably, do get one: $125 becomes $150 if not filed timely). Silence is not forgiveness. The Division may administratively dissolve a delinquent LLC, and its reinstatement rule makes the real price explicit: "In order to reinstate the limited liability company, all annual reports owed must be filed" — at $500 each — plus a $100 application fee. Skip two years and the road back is $1,100+; skip four and it's over $2,100. The absence of a late fee doesn't make the miss cheap — it just delays the invoice and grows it.
A $500 deadline deserves better than memory. EntityMinder puts your exact Massachusetts anniversary date on one calendar with every other state you hold an entity in — and nudges you before the $500s start stacking, not after.
Try EntityMinder free →