Form an LLC · IA

How to form an LLC in Iowa

Iowa LLCs are formed by filing a Certificate of Organization with the Iowa Secretary of State — the official filing fee is $50 (see the fee notes below). Corpus prepares and files it for $250 all-in, including your first year of registered-agent service.

Form your Iowa LLC

What Iowa requires

Formation document
Certificate of Organization verified 2026-09-24
Filing office
Iowa Secretary of State verified 2026-09-24
Iowa filing fee for the Certificate of Organization
$50 Certificate of Organization. verified 2026-09-30
  • Optional: $10 reservation of name (optional; applicable to chapter 489). source
Online filing
Yes — A domestic Certificate of Organization can be filed online through the Iowa Fast Track system. verified 2026-09-24
Standard processing time
No standard Fast Track duration was stated on the pages opened. Expedited surcharges are optional and in addition to the filing fee. verified 2026-09-30
Expedited options
Five-business-day expedite $15 (per document, in addition to the filing fee); Two-business-day expedite $50 (per document, in addition to the filing fee); Same-business-day expedite $125 (per document, in addition to the filing fee); One-hour expedite $200 (per document, in addition to the filing fee) verified 2026-09-30
  • A 2010s Fast Track press release on sos.iowa.gov no longer states a five-minute-to-two-day standard turnaround. source
Name requirement
The name must contain “limited liability company,” “limited company,” “L.L.C.,” “LLC,” “L.C.” or “LC”; “Ltd.” and “Co.” may abbreviate words. verified 2026-09-24
Registered agent
Required — An Iowa LLC must designate and maintain a registered agent in Iowa. verified 2026-09-24
LLC statute
Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, Iowa Code chapter 489 verified 2026-09-24

What you’ll need

The Corpus intake collects this information to prepare the filing. Some questions are asked only when they apply — for example, the management question is asked only when the company has more than one owner.

  • What do you want to name the company?
  • In a sentence, what will the business actually do?
  • Where should official mail go — street, city, state, ZIP?
  • What email should we use for this order?
  • Which industry code fits this business?
  • Besides you, will anyone else have authority to make decisions for the business?
  • Who owns this company?

Iowa asks nothing beyond the standard questions.

What it costs with Corpus

State fees (filing fee + the state's processing charges)
$50
Registered agent, year one
$100
Corpus service
$100
Total at checkout
$250

Registered agent renews at $99/yr after the included first year — cancel anytime. Itemized pricing for every state is on the price grid; how Corpus compares to other formation services is on the comparison page.

After you form: staying in good standing

Annual report
Biennial report — every odd-numbered year, beginning January 1 and due by April 1. verified 2026-09-30
  • The asterisk on that fee line is explained on the same page: nonprofit corporations do not pay a biennial-report fee. The $30 and $45 figures are the LLC amounts. source
Report fee
$30 by online filing or $45 by paper (one of the listed methods) verified 2026-09-30
Franchise or privilege tax
Only if a partnership-classified LLC elects Iowa pass-through entity tax. verified 2026-09-30
  • Rates, caps, thresholds, apportionment and exemptions: see Iowa Department of Revenue. Corporate income tax requires corporate classification, and a disregarded single-member LLC cannot make its own pass-through entity tax election. source · source 2

Comparing what registered-agent service costs after year one across providers? The comparison page publishes renewal prices.

Form it with your AI agent

You don’t have to do the intake here. Any agent that can open a link can run the whole thing — Corpus’s formation tools give it Iowa’s requirements and live price, it asks you the questions above, and it hands back a prefilled link you review and pay. Paste this into your assistant:

Form an LLC in Iowa for me with Corpus (corpuslaw.us). Use its formation tools to get Iowa's requirements and price, ask me what you need, and give me the prefilled link.

The guide is on /agents, the protocol reference is /docs/mcp, and the installable skill for this state is the Iowa SKILL.md.

Sources

Every verified fact above names where Corpus read it and the date it was last verified. Sources marked secondary are third-party write-ups used only where an official page did not publish the answer.

Corpus is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Fees and rules change — each verified fact above shows the date Corpus last verified it; anything marked “not yet verified” should be confirmed with the filing office.