California business filings, and where the $800 comes from
Two agencies, two calendars, and one number everybody has heard of.
California runs two separate obligations. The Secretary of State wants a Statement of Information, yearly from a corporation and every two years from an LLC. The Franchise Tax Board wants $800 a year, whether or not the company traded, until the entity is formally canceled.
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What we take on
Statement of Information: the Secretary of State
A corporation files Form SI-550 every year. An LLC files Form LLC-12 every two years. Both are due in the six month window ending on the last day of the anniversary month of formation.
The fees are small, the penalty is not
A corporation pays $25, being a $20 filing fee plus a $5 disclosure fee. An LLC pays $20. Missing it draws a $250 penalty assessed by the Franchise Tax Board, and can lead to suspension or forfeiture.
The $800 is a different agency entirely
The minimum franchise tax and the annual LLC tax are both $800, and both are owed to the Franchise Tax Board rather than the Secretary of State. Filing the Statement of Information does nothing about them.
It is due whether or not you traded
A corporation owes the minimum whether it is active, inactive, not doing business or running at a loss. An LLC owes the annual tax until the LLC is canceled, and stopping work is not canceling.
New corporations get the first year
A corporation newly incorporated or qualified on or after January 1, 2020 does not pay the minimum franchise tax in its first taxable year. A corporation also escapes if it did no California business and the tax year ran fifteen days or fewer.
An LLC also pays a fee on top, by income
Separate from the $800, an LLC pays a fee based on California total income: $900 from $250,000, $2,500 from $500,000, $6,000 from $1,000,000 and $11,790 from $5,000,000. It is due on the 15th day of the sixth month.
What usually goes wrong
Almost every California problem starts the same way. Somebody files the Statement of Information, sees the $20 clear, and believes California has been handled for the year. The $800 belongs to a different agency and nothing connects the two.
The second is the biennial trap. An LLC files in 2024, files nothing in 2025 because nothing was due, and then forgets that 2026 is a filing year. Two year cycles are much easier to lose than annual ones.
The third is closing a company by stopping. An LLC that has not traded for three years is still accruing $800 a year until somebody files the cancellation. People discover this when they try to open something new.
The dates themselves are unusual and worth reading twice. The Statement of Information is not due on a fixed calendar date. It is due in a six month window that ends on the last day of your own anniversary month.
That is why this is a calendar job rather than a filing job. Checked against the official state pages in September 2026.
Questions we get
Do we still owe $800 if we made nothing?
Yes. A corporation owes the minimum franchise tax whether it is active, inactive, not doing business or operating at a loss. An LLC owes the annual tax until it is formally canceled.
The only routine escape is the first year exemption for a new corporation.
How often does an LLC file the Statement of Information?
Every two years, in the six month window ending on the last day of the anniversary month. A corporation files the same form yearly.
A corporation pays $25 for it and an LLC pays $20.
What is the penalty for missing it?
$250, assessed by the Franchise Tax Board rather than the Secretary of State, and the entity can be suspended or forfeited on top.
A suspended entity cannot enforce its own contracts in California, which is the part that actually costs money.
How do we stop the $800 clock?
By formally canceling or dissolving the entity with the Secretary of State. Ceasing to trade does not stop it, and neither does closing the bank account.
If the company is genuinely finished, canceling it is usually the cheapest thing on your list this year.
Is the LLC fee the same as the $800?
No, they are two separate amounts. The $800 is flat. The fee is tiered on California total income and starts at $900 once income reaches $250,000.
A profitable LLC pays both.
Can you handle this for us?
We keep the books and run the compliance calendar so the anniversary month and the tax dates do not arrive unannounced. Your CPA files the return.
Most of the pain here is not the filing. It is not knowing the date exists.
For the fixed date version of the same job, Florida business filings.
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Shaheer leads the work, with engineers, writers, filers and analysts behind him. C-suite operations for a San Francisco AI company, Six Sigma on the process side, Anthropic certified on the Model Context Protocol, ten years across eight industries. See what we have built