Form an LLC · ME

How to form an LLC in Maine

Maine LLCs are formed by filing a Certificate of Formation with the Maine Secretary of State, Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions — the official filing fee is $175 (see the fee notes below). Corpus prepares and files it for $295 all-in, including your first year of registered-agent service.

Form your Maine LLC

What Maine requires

Formation document
Certificate of Formation verified 2026-09-24
Filing office
Maine Secretary of State, Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions verified 2026-09-24
Maine filing fee for the Certificate of Formation
$175 Certificate of Formation filing fee. verified 2026-09-30
  • Optional: $20 name reservation (separate optional application). source
  • The certificate of formation fee is $175 on both the form and the forms-and-fees list. source · source 2 · source 3
Online filing
No — Maine's domestic LLC Certificate of Formation is completed on-screen, printed, and mailed to the Secretary of State. verified 2026-09-24
Standard processing time
Currently 25 to 30 business days. verified 2026-09-30
Expedited options
24-hour expedited filing $50 (next business day; additional fee per entity); Immediate expedited filing $100 (same business day; additional fee per entity) verified 2026-09-30
  • The forming-a-business page lists a current processing time of 25 to 30 business days, with optional expedite on the certificate form. source · source 2
Name requirement
The name must contain “Limited Liability Company,” “Limited Company,” “L.L.C.,” “LLC,” “L.C.,” or “LC.” verified 2026-09-24
Registered agent
Required — A Maine LLC must continuously maintain a registered agent in the state. verified 2026-09-24
LLC statute
Maine Limited Liability Company Act, 31 M.R.S. ch. 21 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?

Maine asks nothing beyond the standard questions.

What it costs with Corpus

State fees (filing fee + the state's processing charges)
$175
Registered agent, year one
$100
Corpus service
$20
Total at checkout
$295

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
Annual report — first report between January 1 and June 1 of the year after formation; later reports by June 1. verified 2026-09-30
  • The legal deadline is June 1, and the first report is due in the year after formation. source · source 2
Report fee
$85 verified 2026-09-30
Franchise or privilege tax
Only if the LLC is a Maine-income financial institution. verified 2026-09-30
  • Rates, caps, thresholds, apportionment and exemptions: see Maine Revenue Services. The stated franchise tax reaches financial institutions with Maine income, including pass-through entities. 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 Maine’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 Maine for me with Corpus (corpuslaw.us). Use its formation tools to get Maine'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 Maine 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.