Forming a South Dakota LLC: 2026 Secretary of State Steps and Fees
You need one document, one fee, and one agent. The document is the Articles of Organization, the fee is $150 online or $165 by mail ($200 if you write series powers into the articles), and the agent is a registered agent with a South Dakota street address. File with the South Dakota Secretary of State and your LLC is real. Everything below is the detail behind those three things.
Key Facts Before You File
- Formation document: Articles of Organization, per SDCL 47-34A-203
- State fee: $150 electronic, $165 paper, $200 for series articles, set by SDCL 47-34A-212
- Form number: none, because South Dakota leaves its business forms unnumbered
- Where to file: the SOS Enterprise portal at sosenterprise.sd.gov, or paper by mail
- Agent: required from day one under SDCL ch. 59-11
- Recurring filing: an Annual Report every year during your anniversary month, $55 online or $70 paper
- Our package: $199 with year one of agent service built in, then $99 a year
Six Steps, Start to Finish
- Run the name search. South Dakota wants a distinguishable name that includes "Limited Liability Company," "LLC," or "L.L.C." Confirm yours is free in the state database before you get attached to it.
- Lock in a registered agent. No agent, no filing. Who can hold the job, and the one arrangement the statute forbids, is spelled out on our registered agent rules page.
- Submit the Articles of Organization. Quickest route is the SOS Enterprise portal at $150. Prefer paper? Print it, sign it, mail it with $165.
- Grab the EIN. Straight from IRS.gov, free, usually instant. No bank opens a business account without it.
- Sign an operating agreement. The state never collects this one, but it decides who owns what and what happens when someone walks away. Skip it and the defaults in SDCL ch. 47-34A decide for you.
- Circle your anniversary month. The Annual Report comes due during that month, every year. Fee and deadline mechanics are on the annual report page.
About Those Unnumbered Forms
Ready to get started?
Get StartedPlenty of states stamp codes on their filings. South Dakota does not, so stop hunting for a form number that does not exist. Online filers never touch a PDF at all; the portal walks through the same fields the paper articles contain.
What Filing Sets in Motion
The agent seat can never sit empty, and the report clock runs every year. Skip the Annual Report and a $50 penalty lands; hold out roughly two months past that and SDCL 47-34A-809 lets the Secretary of State dissolve the company outright.
The $199 Package
We draft the articles, file them, and serve as your registered agent for the first year at no extra charge. From year two the agent service is a flat $99 a year. Add South Dakota's $150 filing fee and year one through us totals $349. Full math is on the fees page.