To renew an LLC in Florida, file an annual report through Sunbiz between January 1 and May 1 and pay the $138.75 filing fee.1Florida Department of State. File Annual Report – Division of Corporations Miss May 1 and the state adds a $400 late fee automatically. Skip the filing entirely and your LLC is administratively dissolved in late September. The filing itself takes about ten minutes online.
The Deadline and What It Costs
The filing window opens January 1 and closes at 11:59 PM Eastern Time on May 1 each year. The base fee is $138.75. File one minute past that cutoff and the $400 late fee attaches. Florida does not grant extensions or waive the penalty for any reason, so treat May 1 as a hard deadline.
Even with the late fee, you still have until the third Friday in September to file and keep the LLC active. At that point you are paying $538.75 for a report that would have cost $138.75 in April.2The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 605.0714 – Administrative Dissolution
What to Have Ready Before You File
Pull these details together before you log in. Everything you enter becomes part of the public record, so it is worth having the information in front of you rather than guessing.
- Florida Document Number. The 6- or 12-digit number assigned when your LLC was originally filed. You can look it up in the Division of Corporations’ free online search.3Florida Department of State. Annual Report Instructions – Division of Corporations
- Federal Employer Identification Number. The 9-digit number the IRS assigned your business. If your LLC does not have one and has not applied, indicate that on the form, but do not enter a Social Security number in its place.4Internal Revenue Service. Employer Identification Number
- Principal office address. The physical street address where the LLC conducts business, plus a mailing address if it differs.5The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 605.0212 – Annual Report for Department
- Registered agent details. The name and Florida street address of your registered agent. A P.O. Box will not work. Your LLC cannot serve as its own registered agent, though a member or manager can fill that role personally.3Florida Department of State. Annual Report Instructions – Division of Corporations
- Manager or member information. The name, title, and address of at least one person authorized to manage the LLC.5The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 605.0212 – Annual Report for Department
Everything must be current as of the day you submit. If a manager changes or you move offices later in the year, Florida does not require an update until the next annual report, though you can file an amended report voluntarily.
Filing Through Sunbiz
The renewal runs entirely through Sunbiz.org. Open the annual report filing page, enter your Document Number, and the system pulls up your LLC’s existing record so you are reviewing and correcting rather than starting from scratch. Update anything that has changed, then move to the payment screen.
Sunbiz accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, debit cards with a Visa or MasterCard logo, and prepaid Sunbiz E-File accounts. After paying, click the final confirmation button to transmit the filing. Credit card filings post immediately and you will receive a confirmation email as your receipt. Save that email.
New LLCs: When the First Report Is Due
Your first annual report is due the calendar year after the year your articles of organization became effective. An LLC formed in January 2025 and one formed in December 2025 both face the same May 1, 2026 deadline. This catches people off guard when they form an LLC late in the year and assume they have extra time.
Fixing a Mistake After You File
Once you submit an annual report, you cannot edit it, cancel it, or get a refund. You can, however, file an amended annual report through the same Sunbiz portal.6Florida Department of State. Forms and Fees – Division of Corporations Florida treats any additional report filed in the same calendar year as an amendment to the original. Expect to pay another filing fee for the correction.
If You Miss May 1
The $400 late fee attaches automatically and cannot be removed. You can still file and keep the LLC active, but you will pay $538.75 instead of $138.75. Travel, illness, and honest oversight do not change this. Most preventable financial damage happens here, with owners who intended to file but did not get to it in time.
If You Still Have Not Filed by Late September
If the report is not filed by 5:00 PM Eastern on the third Friday in September, the Department of State administratively dissolves the LLC the following Friday. Dissolution is not a label. It strips the LLC of its legal authority to operate in Florida: no enforcing contracts, no filing lawsuits, no doing business as that entity.
The Risk of Operating While Dissolved
An administratively dissolved LLC is supposed to do nothing except wind down. If you keep running the business, the people acting on behalf of the dissolved entity risk being held personally liable for the obligations they take on. The whole point of an LLC is to separate personal assets from business debts, and dissolution can undo that protection.
Florida courts have applied this directly. A manager or member who knowingly operated after dissolution has been held personally liable for debts incurred during that period, and federal courts applying Florida law have reached the same conclusion on contracts signed while the company was dissolved. Reinstating later can cure some of the exposure but not always, particularly when the person acting knew the LLC was dissolved at the time.
Reinstating a Dissolved LLC
Reinstatement is available at any time after dissolution. It costs $100 plus $138.75 for each year of annual reports the LLC missed.7Florida Department of State. File Reinstatement – Division of Corporations An LLC dissolved in September 2026 that reinstates in 2028 would owe the $100 fee plus $138.75 for each missed report year, on top of late fees already accrued.
The reinstatement application requires the LLC’s name, principal office address, mailing address, date of organization, and FEIN. Both the registered agent and an authorized representative of the LLC must sign it.8The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 605.0715 – Reinstatement The filing goes through Sunbiz. Once approved, the LLC returns to active status and its legal authority is restored going forward.
The Annual Report Is Not a Tax Filing
The Florida annual report keeps your LLC’s public record current with the state. It has nothing to do with federal taxes, and filing one does not satisfy IRS obligations. Multi-member LLCs taxed as partnerships still owe Form 1065 to the IRS by March 15 each year, with a penalty of $255 per partner for each month the return is late, up to 12 months.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1065 (2025) Owners who stay on top of their Sunbiz filing sometimes miss this separate federal deadline entirely.