The Florida $400 late fee: what it is, and what happens if you keep waiting

Florida's annual report is due May 1. File on May 2 and the Division of Corporations adds a flat $400 late fee on top of the normal filing fee - $138.75 for an LLC, $150 for a profit corporation. The fee is automatic, set by statute, and the state does not waive it. Non-profit corporations are the one exception: they still must file, but the $400 does not apply to them.

That $400 is the state's charge, not any filing service's. Anyone who files for you pays the same $400 to Florida, so nobody can discount it - and anyone who implies they can is telling you something false.

The three dates that actually matter

January 1 to May 1: the normal filing window. The state fee is $138.75 for an LLC ($150 profit corp, $61.25 non-profit) and nothing more.

After May 1: the report is still accepted, but with the $400 added. For an LLC that makes the state's total $538.75. This stays true through most of September.

The fourth Friday of September: administrative dissolution. Entities that still haven't filed are dissolved at close of business - the state accepts card-paid reports until 5 PM that day (checks stop a week earlier, the third Friday). After this, an annual report can no longer fix the problem at all.

Why filing late still beats waiting for dissolution

Dissolution is not a bigger late fee - it's a different, worse problem. A dissolved company loses the legal right to operate under its name, the name becomes available for someone else to register, banks and licensing authorities can refuse renewals, and the liability protection you formed the company for gets murky exactly when you least want it to.

Getting back requires a reinstatement filing: $100 for an LLC (a profit corporation pays $600) plus every missed annual report fee. The one silver lining in Florida's rules: the reinstatement is filed in place of the past-due reports, so the $400 late penalty does not stack on top of it. But a company that files its late report before the September cutoff pays $538.75 and keeps its standing; one that waits pays reinstatement money and spends weeks dissolved.

Every way to handle it, including the free one

File it yourself at Sunbiz (dos.fl.gov): you pay the state exactly $538.75 for a late LLC report ($550 for a profit corporation), by card, and it posts within a day or two. This option is free of any service fee and always will be.

Have us file it: our flat $159 service fee on top of the state's charge, itemized so you can see exactly what goes where. We prepare the report from your Sunbiz record, file it, and send the confirmation - and if the state already shows your company as dissolved, we'll tell you it needs a reinstatement instead of selling you a report that can't help.

Whichever you choose, do it before the fourth Friday of September. Every option gets worse after that date, and none of them gets better.