What does Kansas actually require of an LLC each year?
People searching for a “Kansas LLC annual report” sometimes find conflicting information, because Kansas used to pair its annual report with a franchise tax and no longer does. Here is the current picture: a Kansas LLC files one yearly filing, the annual reportwith the Kansas Secretary of State, and there is no separate LLC franchise tax on top of it. That change trips up older guides, so it is worth stating plainly up front.
The annual report is an informational filing. It confirms the LLC's registered agent's name and address, its principal office, and its members or managers, telling the state the company still exists and is still reachable. It does not report income and does not calculate a tax. The fee is modest, and the process is quick, the one wrinkle is the deadline, which Kansas ties to your LLC's tax year rather than to a single statewide date.
Alongside the annual report, an operating Kansas LLC keeps its state tax accounts current, income, sales and withholding, with the Kansas Department of Revenue. Those are separate obligations from the annual report, and filing the report does not satisfy them. The annual report keeps the entity alive at the Secretary of State; the tax accounts are handled with the Department of Revenue.
When is the Kansas annual report due and what does it cost?
Kansas ties the deadline to your LLC's tax year. The annual report is due by the 15th day of the fourth month after the close of the LLC's tax year. For an LLC on a calendar tax year, which is most single-member and small LLCs, that lands on April 15. If your LLC uses a fiscal year, count four months from your year-end. Because it is tied to your tax year, confirm the exact date with the Secretary of State if your year-end is anything other than December 31.
The fee is modest, commonly cited at around $50 when filed online, with a higher amount for paper filing. Fees change without much announcement, so treat $50 as the expected figure and confirm the current amount with the Secretary of State when you file. The state may send a reminder to the address on file, but the obligation does not pause because a reminder went astray. Confirm the exact current deadline and fee on the Secretary of State's portal if you are unsure.
How do you file the Kansas annual report?
The fastest route is online through the Kansas Secretary of State's business filing system, which also carries the lower fee. You look up the LLC, review the information on record, correct anything that has changed, pay, and receive confirmation. Paper filing is possible but slower and usually costs more. When nothing has changed, the report takes only a few minutes, but Kansas still requires you to file it every year, so a quiet year is not a skip year.
You will need your registered agent's current name and address and the LLC's principal office address. Keeping the registered agent accurate matters because that is the address the state uses for its reminders, and a stale agent record is the usual reason an LLC drifts out of good standing without the owner noticing. If the agent has moved or resigned, update the record promptly rather than waiting for the next report.
What happened to the Kansas franchise tax?
This is the source of most of the confusion around Kansas. For years, Kansas businesses paid an annual franchise tax in addition to the annual report. The state phased that franchise tax out more than a decade ago, so LLCs today file the annual report and pay its fee, but do not owe a separate franchise tax on top. If you read an older guide that mentions a Kansas franchise tax on LLCs, it is describing a system that no longer applies.
The practical upshot is that the recurring Secretary of State cost of a Kansas LLC is just the annual report fee, modest and predictable. The larger recurring obligations, where they exist, are the state income and sales taxes handled with the Department of Revenue, which apply based on the LLC's activity rather than as a flat privilege tax. For anyone weighing whether to keep or close a dormant LLC, that means the Kansas “cost of doing nothing” is lower than in franchise-tax states, but it is not zero, and the report obligation still runs until dissolution.
What happens if you file late, or not at all?
Miss the annual report and the LLC falls out of good standing. Continued failure to file leads the Secretary of State to forfeit or administratively dissolve the LLC, the state ends the entity for you. A forfeited LLC loses the authority to operate under its name, which can interrupt contracts, banking and financing, and can free the name for another party to take.
Kansas allows reinstatement after forfeiture by filing the delinquent reports and paying the fees. But reinstatement is more work than filing on time, and it leaves a visible gap in the LLC's standing. If you meant to keep the company, staying current is cheaper. If you had already moved on, a forfeiture is a messier ending than a clean voluntary dissolution, which is the choice the rest of this page comes back to.
Updating information you already filed
If your registered agent, principal office, or management changes between reports, you can update the record with the Secretary of State when it happens rather than waiting for your next deadline. Keeping the registered agent accurate is what ensures the state's notices reach you. This is separate from formally amending the LLC's articles of organizationwhich is what you do when the LLC's legal name or other formation details change. The annual report reflects the current operating picture; an amendment changes the charter itself.
How does dissolving your Kansas LLC stop the annual report?
Here is the part most compliance guides skip. Every obligation on this page, the annual report and its fee, exists only because the LLC exists. Formally dissolving the LLC ends it.
In Kansas, an LLC winds down by filing articles of dissolution with the Secretary of State and by closing out its accounts with the Kansas Department of Revenue. Once the dissolution is processed, the LLC no longer exists, so there is no annual report to file next year and no entity for the tax accounts to attach to. Your final returns need to be filed and marked final as part of the wind-down.
This is why, if you have stopped using a Kansas LLC, the honest math usually favours closing it rather than paying another annual report fee every year. We walk through the exact steps, forms and order on our guide to dissolving an LLC in Kansasand the broader mechanics on how to dissolve an LLC. If the company ever obtained an EIN, remember that the state dissolution does not close your IRS business accountthat is a separate final step, and the IRS will not close it while final returns are outstanding.
Deciding what to do next
If the LLC is active and you intend to keep it, the path is simple: file the annual report by the 15th day of the fourth month after your tax year ends, pay the modest fee, keep your registered agent current, and keep your Department of Revenue accounts in order. If the LLC has served its purpose, the more sensible move is usually to close it cleanly so the obligation ends for good, rather than paying to keep a dormant company alive and risking a later forfeiture.
We do not sell annual-report filing, our work is dissolution, closing a Kansas LLC properly so both the Secretary of State and the Department of Revenue agree it is finished. If you are weighing keep-it versus close-it, a specialist can talk it through with you first and tell you plainly which way the numbers point for your situation. Compare the wider picture on the LLC annual report hub.