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North Carolina keeps its LLC annual report simple on the surface: every LLC files once a year, on a fixed calendar date, with the Secretary of State. The traps are in the details — the fee is eight times what a North Carolina corporation pays, the due date collides with federal Tax Day so owners assume their CPA handled it, and the state charges no flat late fee, which lulls people into thinking a miss is free. It isn't: 60 days late starts a statutory path that ends in administrative dissolution.
| Item | Rule |
|---|---|
| Who files | Every North Carolina LLC (and L3C), starting the year after the year of creation |
| When | April 15, every year — a fixed date, same for every LLC regardless of formation date |
| Fee | $200 paper · $203 online with a credit card ($202 by ACH) |
| Where | N.C. Secretary of State — online 24/7, or a pre-populated paper form downloaded from the SOS site and mailed |
| Flat late fee | None — but see the 60-day dissolution clock below |
Your first report is due April 15 of the year following the year your LLC was formed. An LLC organized anytime in 2026 — January or December — files its first annual report by April 15, 2027, and every April 15 after that.
North Carolina prices its annual reports very differently by entity type: a business corporation's report is $25 on paper ($21 online), while an LLC's is $200 ($203 online) — the LLC pays roughly eight times as much for the same one-page filing. The Secretary of State's own FAQ acknowledges the fee difference question. If you chose an LLC over a corporation "because it's cheaper," budget accordingly: in North Carolina the recurring cost runs the other way.
April 15 is also the federal income-tax deadline, and that's exactly why this filing gets missed. The annual report is a Secretary of State filing, not a tax filing — it isn't part of your federal or state tax return, and a CPA who files your taxes has not necessarily filed your annual report (many don't, unless you've engaged them to). Every April, owners see "April 15 — done" in their head and skip the second, separate obligation. If someone else does your taxes, confirm explicitly who files the annual report.
North Carolina doesn't charge a flat late penalty the way Florida ($400) or Nevada ($175 stacked) do. Instead, the cost of a miss is structural:
A dissolved LLC can't properly conduct its business, and operating through one creates exactly the personal-liability exposure the LLC existed to prevent. The full dissolution-and-reinstatement picture across states is in our missed-annual-report guide.
Fixed-date deadlines hide inside Tax Day noise. EntityMinder puts North Carolina's April 15 on one calendar with every other state you hold an entity in — and reminds you that the annual report is a separate filing from your taxes, before the 60-day clock starts.
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