How To File Your LLC North Carolina Annual Report (Aug. 2026)

To keep your North Carolina Limited Liability Company (LLC) in good standing, you have to submit the North Carolina Annual Report and pay the $200 fee. The report is due each year by April 15 following your LLC’s formation date.

You can file it by opening an account with the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office. In this article, I cover everything you need to know about the North Carolina LLC Annual Report and provide step-by-step instructions for completing your filing.

North Carolina Annual Report Overview

Each year, LLCs must file an Annual Report in North Carolina online and pay a $200 fee to keep their business details current with the Secretary of State under GS § 57D-2-24.(a). You can only file this online.

This filing verifies essential information about your LLC, which includes the business name, principal office address, Registered Agent, and registered office. Plus, it confirms the names and addresses of company executives.

1. When Is The North Carolina Annual Report Due?

Under G.S. § 57D-2-24(b), the Secretary of State will send a reminder 30 days before the deadline. They either do this by email (If on file) or by mail to your Registered Agent.

However, even if your LLC doesn’t get a notice, you’re still responsible for filing on time.

For example, if your LLC is accepted on March 15, 2026, you’ll need to file your first Annual Report by April 15, 2027.

You can submit it as early as January 1 of the applicable filing year. For instance, the 2027 Annual Report, due April 15, 2027, can be submitted starting January 1, 2027.

This annual filing schedule continues each year after that.

How To File Your LLC Annual Report In North Carolina Online?

Your Annual Report and the required fee must be filed online with the North Carolina Secretary of State via the Annual Report online portal.

To get started, you need to open an account with the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office. Read the instructions in the sections below to register your account.

1. Locate Your LLC’s Annual Report

First of all, log in to the system, and then you’ll be taken to the homepage. Click the “File Your Business Annual Report” button to start filing your Annual Report.

2. Search Business Registration

a. Use The Search Tool

Now you need to find your LLC’s record. The best way to search for your LLC name is exactly as on your Articles of Organization, but you can also just enter the first one or two words. Then select “Search”.

Note that you can leave the boxes “Search For” and “Words” selected by default.

b. Choose Your LLC Details

Now find your LLC and click “File Annual Report” to begin!

3. Certify Your Authorization for Filing

You need to confirm that you’re allowed to file the Annual Report for the LLC. All you need to do is check the boxes as in the picture below.

4. Pick The Report Year

For the report date, you can select the year from the dropdown box.

5. Answer The Veteran-Owned Business Question

You’ll also need to provide details on whether your LLC is a veteran-owned small business (at least half of the members need to be veterans).

If you select No, proceed to the next step.

If you select Yes, you will be prompted to answer additional questions. These concern disabled veteran ownership and whether the company’s net receipts are under $1,000,000.

6. Enter Your Registered Agent Details

The state requires every LLC to appoint and maintain a Registered Agent to do business legally. LLCs must follow this law by providing Registered Agent information in their Annual Report every year.

There are 3 situations that an LLC can have with its Registered Agent.

• Its Registered Agent is still the same. Then that business only needs to confirm it.
• Its owner appoints a new Registered Agent who is already recorded with the state. These are called “Commercial Registered Agents“.
• Its owner appoints a whole new Registered Agent, which can be a person or an entity, and not on the state’s list.

a. Keeping Your Current Registered Agent

To maintain your old Registered Agent, choose the first option and click “Next“.

b. Appointing A New Commercial Registered Agent

If you want to hire a new Commercial Registered Agent, select the second option, and choose them from the drop-down menu right under the option.

c. Designating A Registered Agent That Isn’t Listed

If you want to appoint a brand new person/ entity to be your LLC’s registered agent, or your current one has already filed the form but doesn’t show up on the list, or you need to fix information for the current one, you need to use this option.

Click the third button, and do as follows for each situation.

c1. New Commercial Registered Agent

For a commercial entity, enter the agent’s name and email address.

c2. New Individual Registered Agent

For an individual acting as your Registered Agent, provide the agent’s full name and email address.

c3. New Registered Agent Street Address

For both options above, the next step is the same. You need to provide the Registered Agent’s physical street address after inputting their name and email.

P.O. boxes are not permitted in this section.

Then, specify if your LLC’s Registered Agent’s mailing address is the same as this street address. Note that most people also check the box for this option and just continue to the principal office section later. If it isn’t the same, then you still have to fill in the mailing address manually.

c4. New Registered Agent Mailing Address

As I just said above, if your Registered Agent’s mailing address differs from the physical address, complete the mailing address fields.

P.O. boxes are permitted for mailing addresses.

7. Provide The Principal Office Details

You first need to write a brief introduction of your LLC’s products and services. Just keep it simple; one short line is enough.

Then you need to provide your business phone number.

There are also two mail fields, one for the principal office and the other for annual report receipts. There are no asterisks here, which means they are optional and you can leave them blank, but I suggest filling them out anyway. The state will use these email addresses to notify you anytime documents are filed for your LLC.

This information will not go on public record, unlike your phone number.

8. Update The Principal Office Street Address

You’ll need to provide a physical address (no P.O. box is allowed here) for your LLC’s principal office. It’s the main location the state uses to identify where your business operates.

This address can be in North Carolina, or it can be located in any state.

Then the system asks whether your mailing address is the same as the one you just provided. Most people also check off “This address is also the Principal Office Mailing Address”. But if your LLC’s mailing address isn’t the same as the Principal Office Street Address, you can enter a different mailing address.

9. Set Up The Principal Office Mailing Address

If your mailing address isn’t the same as your main office address, you’ll need to enter it separately. P.O. boxes are acceptable.

10. Verify The LLC’s List Of Officials

This part is basically your “who’s tied to the LLC” section. Just skim through the Company Officials list and make sure nothing looks off.

If something’s wrong or missing, just use the blue buttons. Add, edit, remove.

a. Add An Official

So the flow to add a new official is that the first thing is their role. Then you pick if it’s a person or a business. After that, you assign a title.

What you choose depends on how your LLC is set up.

Once you’re past that, you’ll need to enter their info:

• Full legal name. Person or company, depending on what you picked.
• Real address. No P.O. box here; the form won’t take it.

b. Modify An Official

If something looks off, just open their profile and fix it. Save and move on.

c. Remove An Official

You can delete an official too.

Just know once they’re gone, they’re gone. Doesn’t stick around in your records.

11. Enter Filing Executor Details

You’ll need to identify who’s actually submitting the filing here.

Note that:

• In a Member-managed LLC, this can be any Member.
• In a Manager-managed LLC, this can be any Manager.

You start by picking the responsible party from the dropdown, then type in the executor’s full name.

12. Preview The Filing

This section lets you review all your LLC’s information, and you can guarantee that everything is correct. First, the system shows you a PDF preview, and you can scroll up and down on this page to check.

I suggest you check every name, address, email, and phone number that appears on the list to avoid leaving any spelling errors.

If something looks wrong, you can go back and fix it before paying.

You can’t change anything after submitting, and if you want to fix anything later, you may have to file an Amendment form and pay another fee, which is a waste of money and time.

13. Make The Payment

You are charged $203 in total. This covers both the filing and the processing fee.

Using a checking account or paying with a credit/debit card are both possible. All you need to do after is enter your billing and payment information and then click “Pay and Submit” to complete your filing.

14. Annual Report Approval

Once you see the system show that the transaction is completed, that means your annual report is successfully filed with the state.

In a few minutes, you will then receive an email that confirms your annual report filing and fee one more time.

How To Create A North Carolina Online Filing Account

Before you can even file anything, you’ll need an account. No way around that. Pick a username, set a password, fill in the usual login.

1. Enter Your Account Information

Begin by making a unique username. There’s no restriction for this one, so just make sure the system says your username is available; then it’s good to go.

Now the annoying part is the password rules. They’re strict:

• It has to be at least 8 characters.
• You need at least one number in there.
• Uppercase + lowercase both required.
• And at least one special character (stuff like @, #, $, %, &, *, !, ? all work).

Be sure to re-enter the same password in the Confirm Password field.

2. Enter Your Name

In this step, you will need to enter your name (including your first and last name) into the system. You should pay attention to the fields marked with an asterisk (*). The form won’t allow the user to proceed without completing these.

There are also additional & optional fields, such as middle name, suffix, and entity name. Leaving them blank will not cause any issues. However, I still highly recommend you fill out additional fields. They help ensure your records are more complete on the state’s end, which can be useful in certain situations later on.

3. Input Your Mailing Address

Enter your mailing address in the fields shown on the page. P.O. boxes are acceptable for this address.

4. Enter Your Contact Information

Last here: your contact info. Just fill in the fields with the * icon. That’s where you’ll drop your email(s), including the one for contact, notifications, and billing.

There’s also a phone number field, which is totally optional. You can skip it, but if you actually want updates or for them to reach you quickly, adding a number helps.

Late Filing Sanctions For Your Annual Report

Missing your Annual Report deadline doesn’t immediately break your LLC or anything like that, but it kind of starts a chain of issues if you leave it sitting too long.

1. Loss Of Good Standing

Once you miss the filing, your LLC basically falls out of “good standing” with the state.

At this point, there isn’t really an extra penalty yet. You’re still just dealing with the standard $200 fee. But staying in that status for too long is where problems start to build up.

For example, you might run into issues if you need official documents or try to handle certain business matters.

2. Administrative Dissolution

Under GS § 57D-6-06(a), if nothing gets fixed, then the state will eventually send out a formal notice. It’s usually called a Notice of Grounds for Administrative Dissolution, and it is sent in the 4th quarter every year.

From there, you get about 60 days to fix your problem by filing the report. No extra fees during that window, but if you still don’t take action after that, then the state can go ahead and dissolve the LLC.

To avoid administrative dissolution, your LLC must file the Annual Report and pay the North Carolina LLC Annual Report fee of $200. If the LLC is dissolved, you must also submit a reinstatement application and pay a $100 reinstatement fee to regain good standing.

Filing your Annual Report on time helps prevent administrative dissolution and ensures your LLC remains in good standing.

Contact Details For The North Carolina Secretary Of State

If you need assistance with your LLC’s Annual Report, reach out to the North Carolina Secretary of State – Business Registration Division.

Frequently Asked Questions