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Colorado Foreign LLC Registration

The fee, the form, what triggers registration in Colorado, and how to file.

State filing fee $100 one-time
Registered agent $125/year based on Northwest RA
Total, all in $550
Colorado data last reviewed Sep 11, 2026 · sos.state.co.us Totals include the $100 filing fee once, Northwest RA at $125/year, and Colorado recurring state costs over the selected period.

Foreign Qualification

Filing fee
$100
Form
Statement of Foreign Entity Authority
Annual obligation
$25/year
Processing time
Colorado files business organization documents online in real time: the Secretary of State states that a document submitted online is processed immediately after payment confirmation.
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Paper-only documents take 7 to 10 business days. Expedited service is a $150 paper-only line and these filings have no paper channel, so there is nothing to buy and nothing to wait for.

Expedite
$150 for a three business day turnaround, printed in the paper column of the fee schedule only.
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Colorado files business organization documents online in real time and the same schedule shows no paper channel for them, so this tier is not something a foreign registration can buy.

Estimated year 1 cost
$125
Note: Colorado registers foreign LLCs on a Statement of Foreign Entity Authority, filed online in 3-5 business days. The $25 periodic report is due in your anniversary month, and Colorado charges no franchise tax.
Visit Colorado Secretary of State ↗

Need to register your LLC in Colorado?

Northwest files the foreign registration and serves as your registered agent in Colorado, which the filing requires. Only need an agent? Northwest's registered agent service alone is $125/year.

Have Northwest register your LLC in Colorado ↗
$225 + the state fee · One year of registered agent included

Filing it yourself? Go to the official Colorado SOS portal ↗

Other registered agent options 2 alternatives
Registered Agents Inc
$200/year · Report filing included, state fees extra
Visit site ↗
Harbor Compliance
$99 first year, then $149/year · Full-service compliance option
Visit site ↗

What triggers foreign qualification in Colorado?

  • Physical office or place of business
  • Employees working in the state

Important to know

  • Colorado's periodic report is due in your anniversary month rather than on a fixed calendar date, so the deadline is different for every entity and there is no single statewide due date to remember.
What does NOT require registration in Colorado 13 activities

Colorado carves 13 activities out by statute. On their own, none of them requires a foreign LLC to register.

  • Maintaining, defending, or settling any proceeding or dispute on its own behalf
  • Holding meetings of its owners or managers, or carrying on other activities concerning its internal affairs
  • Maintaining bank accounts
  • Maintaining offices or agencies for the transfer, exchange, and registration of its own securities or owner's interests, or maintaining trustees or depositories for them
  • Selling through independent contractors
  • Soliciting or obtaining orders, by mail or electronic transmission, through employees or agents, if the orders require acceptance outside Colorado before they become contracts
  • Creating, as borrower or lender, or acquiring indebtedness
  • Creating, as borrower or lender, or acquiring mortgages or other security interests in real or personal property
  • Securing or collecting debts on its own behalf, or enforcing mortgages or security interests in property securing those debts
  • Owning real or personal property, and nothing more
  • Conducting an isolated transaction completed within 30 days that is not one of repeated transactions of a like nature
  • Transacting business or conducting activities in interstate commerce
  • For a foreign nonprofit corporation, granting funds or distributing information to its members

Under C.R.S. Section 7-90-801(2), thirteen items, applied to foreign LLCs through C.R.S. Section 7-80-901. The list is expressly non-exhaustive under subsection (3). Item (2)(f), the order-solicitation item, was amended by HB 21-1124 effective 2021-04-19 to its current electronic-transmission wording.

Forming a new LLC in Colorado instead? $50 to form
Formation fee
$50
Annual cost
$25/year
State income tax
Flat 4.4% income tax (2026 tax year)
Privacy
High
Colorado requires no member or manager names on the Articles of Organization (C.R.S. 7-80-204). The annual Periodic Report updates the registered agent and principal office only. Organizer and filer names are public, so an owner who files the paperwork personally publishes their own name; a formation service or agent filing on the LLC's behalf does not.
Sources 1 link

More Colorado guides

Already operating without registering?Civil penalty, back fees and court access in Colorado, statute-cited ↗ Not sure Colorado applies to you?What counts as doing business, and what does not ↗ Changing your registered agent?The form, the fee and the steps in Colorado ↗ Operating in more than one state?Free 3-question check of where you must register ↗

This page provides general information based on publicly available state requirements. It is not legal advice. Verify with the Colorado SOS before filing.