Illinois LLC Formation
In order to form an LLC in Illinois, you'll need to register your LLC with the Corporations
Division of the Secretary of State of Illinois.
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Steps to forming an Illinois Limited Liability Company
In order to form a Limited Liability Company in Illinois, you'll have to file Articles
of Organization. These are your entity's formation documents, and the state will
use them to record basic information about your LLC.
The state allows both online and paper filings, but there are some restrictions
to filing online. Most LLCs will find that these restrictions will not apply to
them.
At minimum, your articles must include:
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Name: Your LLC name must end with "Limited Liability Company," "LLC," or "L.L.C."
The name itself must be distinguishable from any other entity filed with the state
of Illinois, regardless of the corporate ending or entity type. For instance, "Illinois
Trucking, LLC" would not be accepted for filing if there is already an "Illinois
Trucking Corporation" on file. There are some restrictions—"bank," "trust," and
so on, which require permission from certain government agencies, and offensive
or inappropriate words, which are not allowed in any case. ClickandInc.com can perform
a business name search
to determine the availability of your name, reducing your chances of being rejected
for an unacceptable name.
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Principle place of business: You must specify where the business will be located.
This location is not required to be located in Illinois.
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Registered agent: This is the contact address on record with the state. The address
must be a physical address in the state and will be used as the person who will
accept service of process, correspondence from the state, and other documentation
on behalf of the LLC. The registered agent can be either a person or a commercial
registered agent registered as such in Illinois. (If you do not have a person to
act as your registered agent in Illinois, ClickAndInc.com can appoint a commercial
agent for you.)
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Governing authority: Your LLC will be managed by either the managers or the members.
Those managers or members may change, but authority to make decisions for the company
(i.e., signing future documents filed with the state) will remain with either the
managers or the members—whichever are specified in this document.
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Purpose: You must list a purpose for your LLC. The state of Illinois allows a general
business purpose, which would allow you to conduct any business activities under
the law, but you should check with the IRS and any other governmental agencies to
determine if your specific intentions for your business must be laid out in the
Articles.
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Effective Date: Your articles will, by default, be filed on the date that they are
processed. However, you may instead specify in your Articles of Organization a future
date, as long as it is within 60 days of when the state receives and processes your
Articles.
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Duration: Most LLCs register their businesses with a perpetual duration—meaning
that the business will not expire, but can still be terminated with the proper paperwork—but
you can give an end date to your LLC in these Articles.
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Organizer: The articles of organization will be signed by the person who drafted
the articles; this can be a member or manager of the limited liability, but it is
not required to be. You can have multiple Organizers, but you must have at least
one.
If any of the above information about your business changes, you will need to file
Articles of Amendment to reflect those changes. It is very important that your registration
remains current.
Additional Requirements for Forming an LLC in Illinois
Illinois requires that LLCs file an Annual Report, which is due every year before
the first day of the month of Organization. (For example, if you were filed on July
15th, 2010, your Annual Report would be due before July 1st, 2011.) These Annual
Reports may be filed online; if they are not paid by the due date, the state will
penalize you with a late fee. Continued failure to pay the Annual Report may result
in the state compulsorily revoking your LLC's status.
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