How to Form an LLC in Kansas

What is distinct about forming in Kansas

The Kansas Articles of Organization ask for four things. Form DL collects the name of the limited liability company, the name of its resident agent, the Kansas street address of the registered office, and the signature of an authorized person under penalty of perjury. There is no principal office field, no member or manager names, no purpose statement and no duration field, because the contents K.S.A. 17-7673(a) calls for are the name, the registered office and the resident agent, plus any other matters the members determine to include.

Two features shape the rest. Every Kansas price is three fees added together, under regulations rewritten effective February 27, 2026, and the recurring report is biennial, with the reporting year fixed by the parity of the formation year.

Filing the Articles of Organization

The governing law is the Kansas revised limited liability company act, K.S.A. 17-7662 through 17-76,155. K.S.A. 17-7673(a) provides that one or more authorized persons must execute articles of organization and that the articles shall be filed with the secretary of state. Its clauses call for the name, the address of the registered office and the name of the resident agent, any other matters the members determine to include, each profession if the company is organized to exercise the powers of a professional association or corporation, and the matters required of a company with series. The general form is Form DL.

Fees by method

Form DL's fee schedule lists $85 for online Articles of Organization and $90 on paper. Both are three charges added together: K.A.R. 7-50-1 sets a $75 application and recording fee for a domestic limited liability company's articles, K.A.R. 7-16-1 adds a $10 information and services fee on a formation filing, and K.A.R. 7-16-2 adds a technology communication fee of $5 on paper and $0 online. All three took effect February 27, 2026.

What Kansas publishes about speed

Form DL directs the filer to file the document directly online at the Secretary of State's Register a Business page, and only the general Articles of Organization carry a File Online option. Forms LAO, PDL, PBL and LCD quote a paper price only, at $90 for Form LAO and $35 for Form LCD.

Form DL says of an online filing that "Processing happens within minutes and your certified copy of the Articles of Organization can be printed from the above website without delay." Paper documents go to the Kansas Secretary of State, Docking State Office Building, 915 SW Harrison Street, Topeka KS 66612. The Secretary of State's fee regulations contain no expedite, rush, priority or same-day tier.

The Attorney General notice printed on the form

Form DL carries a Kansas Attorney General notice stating that effective July 1, 2025, it is required for businesses or individuals owning or acquiring any interest in real property located within 100 miles of the boundary of any military installation located in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma, Iowa and Texas to register that interest with the Kansas Attorney General's office. The notice applies to a business or individual connected to one of six named foreign governments or to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and registration is due within 90 days of registering with the Secretary of State or acquiring the property.

Naming a Kansas LLC

K.S.A. 17-7920(a) requires the name to contain the words "limited liability company" or "limited company", the abbreviation "L.L.C." or "L.C.", or "LLC" or "LC".

The name must be distinguishable on the Secretary of State's records. K.S.A. 17-7918(a) measures it against any other covered or foreign covered entity, any non-covered entity on file other than a general partnership, any series with a filed certificate of designation, any reserved name, and any entity whose organic document or registration was canceled or forfeited within the previous one year. Where a name is in use, subsections (b) and (c) allow the filing on the other entity's written consent, given on Form CN, or on a court judgment establishing the right to the name. Form DL points filers to the Secretary of State's online name availability search.

Reserving a name

Form NR, Reservation of Exclusive Right to Entity Name, costs $35. Under K.S.A. 17-7923(b), a name the Secretary of State finds available is reserved for the exclusive use of the applicant for 120 days. The section carries no renewal provision.

Trade names

Form FA states that DBA, fictitious, assumed and trade names are not registered with the Kansas Secretary of State's office. Form DL's name field is headed with an instruction not to include them.

Resident agent and registered office

Kansas says resident agent. K.S.A. 17-7925 is headed "Resident agent; requirement to maintain," and provides that wherever the term "resident agent" or "registered agent" is used it means the resident agent that section requires. The agent may be the company itself, an individual resident in this state, a domestic corporation, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, limited liability company or business trust, or a foreign entity of one of those types.

The same section sets the obligations: an entity agent must be in good standing and keep a business office identical with the registered office that is generally open, and an individual agent must be generally present at a designated location at sufficiently frequent times to accept service of process. Form DL states that the registered office must be an address in Kansas where the resident agent may be regularly present and cannot be a PO box. The Kansas registered agent guide covers the role.

Changing the agent, and the deadlines if one is lost

Form ROA, Certificate of Amendment, Change of Resident Agent and/or Registered Office, is filed online, by mail or in person, and its fee schedule lists $35 on paper and $30 online.

K.S.A. 17-7926(b) gives the company 30 days from the death or move of its resident agent to designate and certify another agent, after which the Secretary of State may, on 30 days notice of the intended action, declare its public organic document forfeited. Under K.S.A. 17-7929 a resignation does not take effect until 30 days after the certificate is filed, and a company that fails to designate a new agent within 60 days of that filing has its organizing documents declared forfeited.

The biennial information report

K.S.A. 17-76,139 calls it the business entity information report. It is biennial and keyed to parity: a company whose formation documents were filed in an even-numbered year reports in each succeeding even-numbered year, and one that filed in an odd-numbered year reports in each succeeding odd-numbered year. It is due not later than April 15.

Form ILC's fee schedule lists $90 online and $110 on paper. The statute sets the fee at $80 plus the amount specified in the Secretary of State's regulations, with K.A.R. 7-16-1 adding $5 online or $25 on paper and K.A.R. 7-16-2 adding $5 either way.

The report asks for the Kansas Secretary of State business identification number, the principal office street address with no PO box, the reporting year, and, for a domestic company, each member owning 5% or more of the capital with an address. A series submits its own Form ILC and cannot file it online.

What happens when the report is missed

The Secretary of State's information reports page describes a three-month delinquency interval after the due date, during which the report may still be filed. Once a business is delinquent, it is limited in what documents it may file.

K.S.A. 17-7510(a), applied to limited liability companies by K.S.A. 17-76,139(g), provides that failure to file the report and pay within 90 days of the time for filing works the forfeiture. A forfeited business cannot file any other document with the Secretary of State until it has submitted past due reports and has been reinstated.

Form RL prices reinstatement for a limited liability company at $35 plus an $85 penalty plus $110 for each missed report, which totals $230 for one missed report and $670 for five, and states that a business that forfeited for failure to maintain an active resident agent may ignore the penalty. Reinstatement reaches back a maximum of the last 10 years, or five reporting years. Closing instead is covered in the Kansas LLC dissolution guide.

Kansas taxes that reach an LLC

Kansas charges no franchise tax. K.S.A. 79-5401(g) provides that the section does not apply to any tax year commencing after December 31, 2010.

Income passed through to members is taxed at the rates in K.S.A. 79-32,110(a), which for tax year 2024 and all years thereafter sets 5.2% on taxable income up to $23,000, or $46,000 for married individuals filing joint returns, and 5.58% on the excess. A company may instead elect an entity-level pass-through tax under K.S.A. 79-32,287, open to taxable years commencing on or after January 1, 2022.

The state retailers' sales tax rate is 6.5% under K.S.A. 79-3603, and the state rate on food and food ingredients has been 0% since January 1, 2025, with prepared food excluded. A company selling tangible personal property at retail or furnishing taxable services needs a registration certificate first, issued for each place of business. Tax types are registered through a Kansas Department of Revenue Customer Service Center account. The Kansas LLC taxes guide goes further into the filings.

Licenses and permits

Kansas Business One Stop publishes the list of businesses and occupations that require registration, licensing or permits from specific agencies, and states that businesses should also check with the county and local government where they are doing business to determine any local permitting, filing and reporting requirements.

Professional and series companies

A Kansas professional limited liability company files Form PDL, which states that PLLC is not allowed as a word of formation. The name must match identically the name approved by the Kansas regulatory board on the certificate. K.S.A. 17-7673(e) requires a certificate by the licensing body that each of the members is duly licensed to practice that profession and that the proposed company name has been approved. Form PDL requires an original certificate for each professional service to be practiced, and states that a copy of a license cannot be used in lieu of the original.

K.S.A. 17-76,143 requires notice of the limitation on liabilities of a series to appear in the Articles of Organization, and a certificate of designation for each series that is to have limited liability, filed on Form LCD.

Operating agreement and EIN

No operating agreement is filed with Kansas, and it need not be written. K.S.A. 17-7663(m) defines it as any agreement, written, oral, or implied, of the member or members as to the affairs of the company and the conduct of its business, and provides that the agreement of a one-member company is not unenforceable by reason of there being only one person party to it. K.S.A. 17-76,116 gives the company perpetual existence unless the operating agreement sets a time. See the operating agreement guide.

An EIN is issued by the IRS rather than by any Kansas agency. The EIN guide sets out the application steps.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to file Kansas Articles of Organization?

Form DL's fee schedule lists $85 for an online filing and $90 on paper. That price is the $75 application and recording fee in K.A.R. 7-50-1, plus a $10 information and services fee under K.A.R. 7-16-1, plus a technology communication fee under K.A.R. 7-16-2 that is $5 on paper and $0 online.

What does Kansas Form DL ask for?

Four numbered items: the name of the limited liability company, the name of the resident agent, the Kansas registered office street address, and the signature of an authorized person under penalty of perjury. K.S.A. 17-7673(a) requires only the name, the registered office and the resident agent, plus any other matters the members determine to include.

When is the Kansas information report due?

By April 15, and biennially. K.S.A. 17-76,139(b) keys the reporting year to the year the formation documents were filed: a company formed in an even-numbered year reports in each succeeding even-numbered year, and one formed in an odd-numbered year reports in each succeeding odd-numbered year.

Does Kansas publish an expedited filing option?

The Secretary of State's fee regulations, K.A.R. 7-16-1, 7-16-2 and 7-50-1, contain no expedite, rush, priority or same-day tier, and Form DL's fee schedule lists two prices. On speed, Form DL says an online filing processes within minutes.

Can a Kansas professional LLC use PLLC in its name?

No. Form PDL states that PLLC is not allowed, so the name uses one of the words of formation in K.S.A. 17-7920(a), and it must match identically the name approved by the Kansas regulatory board on the certificate.

What does it cost to reinstate a forfeited Kansas LLC?

Form RL's fee schedule prices reinstatement for an LLC at a $35 filing fee plus an $85 penalty plus $110 for each missed information report, which totals $230 for one missed report and $670 for five.