Your Michigan LLC’s annual renewal is a single filing: an annual statement submitted to the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) by February 15 each year, with a $25 fee. Miss the date and LARA adds a $50 penalty. Miss it long enough and your LLC loses good standing.
Filing the Annual Statement
Every Michigan LLC, domestic or foreign-qualified, owes an annual statement by February 15. The form asks for three things: the LLC’s name, the resident agent’s name, and the Michigan address of the registered office. The fee is $25.
You can file online through LARA’s Corporate Online Filing System or mail in a paper form. Online filing returns immediate confirmation, which is worth saving. One useful exception: if your LLC was formed after September 30, you skip the February 15 that falls right after formation and start filing the following year.1Michigan Legislature. MCL 450-4207 Maintaining Registered Office and Resident Agent
LARA mails reminders to the registered office on file. If you’ve moved or switched agents without updating the record, that reminder goes to an address you no longer read, and the first sign of a problem is the late fee.
Late Fees and Loss of Good Standing
File after February 15 and LARA adds a $50 penalty on top of the $25 fee, so the year’s total becomes $75.2State of Michigan. Annual Reports and Annual Statements That is the cost of a single late year. Repeated misses escalate.
Skip two consecutive annual statements and LARA sends a notice about what happens next. If you don’t file within 60 days of that notice, the LLC drops out of good standing. Three consequences follow at once: LARA won’t issue a certificate of good standing for the company, the LLC’s name becomes available for another business to claim, and LARA won’t accept any filing from the LLC other than a certificate of restoration.3Michigan Legislature. MCL 450-4909 Annual Report Filing Fee Penalty for Late Filing
Losing good standing doesn’t dissolve the LLC. It does freeze it on paper. Banks, lenders, and prospective partners routinely ask for a certificate of good standing before closing, and without one, deals stall.
Restoring an LLC That’s Fallen Behind
The fix is a Certificate of Restoration of Good Standing (Form 770 or 771), filed with every delinquent annual statement and the fees for each. Restoration itself costs $50. Each missed annual statement costs $25. If you’re filing after February 15, the current year’s statement is due too, with its own $25 fee.4State of Michigan. Restore My LLC
An LLC that skipped three years, for example, is looking at roughly $125 to $150 depending on timing: $50 restoration, $25 per missed year, and possibly the current year. Not devastating, but not automatic either. You’ll need a MiLogin for Business account and should confirm which years are actually delinquent through LARA’s Business Entity Search before you submit.
The costlier risk during the gap is your name. If another business registers it before you restore, you’ll have to file restoration under a different name and then work through the fallout: contracts, bank accounts, marketing, licenses, and anything else tied to the old name.
Keeping Your Registered Agent Current
Michigan LLCs must continuously maintain a registered office and a resident agent in the state. The agent can be an individual who lives in Michigan or a business entity with a Michigan office, and the agent’s address must match the registered office on file with LARA.1Michigan Legislature. MCL 450-4207 Maintaining Registered Office and Resident Agent
The resident agent receives lawsuits, government notices, and the annual statement reminders. When the agent is unreachable and the state can’t locate the LLC through reasonable effort, service can be made directly through the LARA administrator, which means a lawsuit can proceed without you ever seeing it.
Serving as your own registered agent works if you have a stable Michigan address and are consistently there during business hours. If that isn’t realistic, commercial registered agent services generally run $100 to $300 per year.
If You’re Done With the LLC
Letting an LLC lapse is not the same as closing it. An LLC out of good standing still legally exists and can still accumulate obligations. If the business is finished, file a Certificate of Dissolution with LARA. The fee is $10.5State of Michigan. Domestic and Professional Corporation Filing Fees
Dissolution requires unanimous approval of the members entitled to vote, unless the articles of organization or operating agreement set a different threshold or triggering event.6Michigan Legislature. MCL 450-4801 Dissolution and Winding Up Before filing, settle outstanding debts, distribute remaining assets, and file final tax returns with Michigan and the IRS. If the LLC had employees, close out the withholding and unemployment insurance accounts with the Michigan Department of Treasury too.
A $10 dissolution filing is a cheap way to end the story cleanly, rather than leaving a neglected entity behind to attract penalties, name losses, or worse.