location_on Utah State Guide

Registered Agent in Utah: requirements, cost & best options

Utah is one of the cheapest states in the country to run an LLC — $59 to form, $18 a year to renew. The catch is the calendar: your renewal comes due in your own anniversary month, and 120 days after a miss the state can administratively dissolve you.

By Luis Cornado, Founder & Editor · Published July 12, 2026 · Updated July 26, 2026

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Utah compliance, simplified

The exact Utah rules, real costs, and the right registered-agent option for your LLC — checked against the official Utah source.

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The Short Answer

Every Utah LLC must appoint a registered agent with an actual Utah street address (Utah Code 16-17-203; a PO box alone fails 16-17-202).
Forming is cheap and stays cheap: $59 Certificate of Organization, $18/yr annual report/renewal — among the lowest carrying costs in the country.
The renewal is due in your anniversary month, not a fixed statewide date — a personal deadline that's easy to forget. $10 late fee, then administrative dissolution roughly 120 days after a miss.
You can be your own agent if you're at a Utah street address in business hours; the LLC cannot name itself.
No franchise tax on LLCs, no publication requirement; register for sales tax and employer accounts in one pass through Utah's OneStop portal.

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See Northwest for Utah → $39 + state fee · registered agent free for year one · keeps your address private

boltQuick decision for Utah

chevron_rightUse a professional registered agent if you're out of state, home-based, or you know an anniversary-month deadline with no public drumbeat will slip past you.
chevron_rightServe as your own agent if you're at a Utah street address during business hours and you'll calendar your own anniversary month — Utah's $18/yr upkeep barely justifies outsourcing otherwise.
chevron_rightNorthwest fits if you want your home address off the searchable Division record plus someone tracking the one deadline Utah won't remind the whole state about.

Utah Registered Agent & LLC Facts

Requirement / Metric	Utah Specifics
Registered agent required?	Yes — every Utah LLC & corporation
Governing statute	Utah Code 16-17-203 (appointment of registered agent, Model Registered Agents Act) & 48-3a-212 (annual report)
Physical Utah address required?	Yes — the registered agent must have an actual street address (or rural route box number) in Utah; Utah Code 16-17-202
PO box allowed?	No — the statute requires an actual Utah street address or rural route box number; a PO box alone doesn't qualify
Can you be your own agent?	Yes — any individual with a Utah street address who's available during business hours can serve, including you, a member, or a manager. Unlike Kansas, the LLC cannot name itself; Utah follows the Model Registered Agents Act (Utah Code Title 16, Chapter 17), which requires a separate commercial or noncommercial agent.
LLC filing fee	$59 (confirm current)
Annual report	Annual Report / Renewal — $18 per year (the fee includes a $5 surcharge for the state's single sign-on portal), due during your anniversary month: the month your Certificate of Organization became effective (Utah Code 48-3a-212). Miss it and there's a $10 late fee; stay delinquent 60 days and the Division can start administrative dissolution — a notice, then 60 more days to cure, then a statement of administrative dissolution (48-3a-708). Reinstatement is $54 plus all back fees.
Franchise / annual tax	None on LLCs — Utah has no franchise or privilege tax on pass-through LLCs. Profits flow to members, who pay Utah's flat individual income tax (4.5% for 2025 — the Legislature has trimmed the rate almost yearly). Utah's 'franchise tax' applies to corporations, not LLCs taxed as pass-throughs.
Publication requirement	None
Change registered agent fee	$17 — file a change form (or make the change online) with the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code; the FY2026 fee schedule prices both the paper change form and online changes at $17. Naming a new agent in your annual report also works: differing agent info in the report is treated as a statement of change (48-3a-212(5)).
Official source	Utah Division / Secretary of State

Fees and rules change — always confirm the current figures on the official Utah source linked above before filing.

What Utah requires from a registered agent

Like every state, Utah requires every LLC to keep a registered agent at a physical Utah street address (a PO box won't do), staffed during business hours to receive lawsuits and official state mail.

Can you be your own registered agent in Utah?

Yes — any individual with a Utah street address who's available during business hours can serve, including you, a member, or a manager. Unlike Kansas, the LLC cannot name itself; Utah follows the Model Registered Agents Act (Utah Code Title 16, Chapter 17), which requires a separate commercial or noncommercial agent.. The catch most pages skip: that address goes on Utah's public record (scraped by data brokers if it's your home), and you must be available during business hours or risk missing a lawsuit — so home-based and remote owners usually use a service. Here's the full DIY trade-off.

thumb_upBeing your own agent — pros

addUtah's total DIY cost is tiny: $59 once, $18 a year, $17 if you ever change agents
addAny individual at a Utah street address can serve — no residency paperwork or special filing
addOneStop bundles tax and employer registration into the same formation pass

infoCons & risks

removeYour street address goes into Utah's searchable business registry
removeThe renewal hits in your personal anniversary month — no statewide deadline chorus to remind you
removeRoughly 120 days after a missed renewal, administrative dissolution — then $54 plus back fees to reinstate

Serving as your own Utah agent from home means your residence sits in a searchable state registry and you're expected to be available for service of process in business hours. Combine that with an anniversary-month renewal nobody reminds you about, and most home-based Utah founders conclude the ~$125/yr for a service buys real risk reduction — though at $18/yr state upkeep, it's a genuine judgment call, not a necessity.

Registered agent cost in Utah

Forming an LLC in Utah costs $59 up front, and a registered agent runs about $100–$150 a year on top — Northwest includes the first year free, then about $125. Full breakdown, including the DIY $0 route, in cheapest registered agent. To see Utah's filing and annual fees beside all 50 states, use our LLC cost calculator.

Privacy & the public record in Utah

Utah publishes registered-office addresses and requires the annual report to name at least one governing person, all searchable through the Division's online business entity search. The agent's address must be a real Utah street address — so a home-based founder serving as their own agent is publishing where they live, renewed on the public record every year. A commercial agent's address fills that slot instead; Utah even maintains a formal commercial-registered-agent listing system under the Model Registered Agents Act, so professional agents are a first-class concept here rather than a workaround.

Out-of-state & non-resident founders: Members and managers need no Utah connection at all, but the registered agent must sit at an actual Utah street address (Utah Code 16-17-202) — which a remote owner can't supply personally. Out-of-state founders therefore use a commercial registered agent. Foreign LLCs registering into Utah pay the same $59 and file the same $18 anniversary-month renewal, keyed to the month they registered rather than formed.

Best registered agent for Utah: Northwest

For a Utah LLC, Northwest supplies the actual Utah street address 16-17-202 requires, keeps your home out of the Division's searchable registry, and calendars the anniversary-month renewal — the personal deadline that quietly triggers administrative dissolution about 120 days after a miss.

doneFirst year free in Utah when you form ($39 + state fee), then about $125/yr
donePrivacy by Default — their Utah address on public filings instead of yours
doneUS-based support, no upsell funnel, all 50 states covered

Get Northwest for Utah →

Honest caveat: Be honest about the math: Utah costs $18 a year to maintain, with no franchise tax and no publication step. If you live in Utah, work from a staffed street address, don't mind it being public, and trust your own calendar, you genuinely don't need Northwest — the ~$125/yr buys privacy and deadline insurance, not compliance you couldn't handle yourself.

Comparing options? See our Northwest review, Northwest vs LegalZoom, or the budget pick in Northwest vs Bizee.

Best Registered Agent Services in Utah

We weigh providers on real first-year and renewal cost, privacy, upsell pressure, and support — the same way for every state. Here are the three we point Utah founders to.

starEditor's Choice

Northwest

check_circleAvailable in Utah

$125/year

First year free when you form, then a flat ~$125/year. Strong privacy and no upsell funnel.

doneRegistered agent free for year one
donePrivacy by Default® — their address, not yours
doneUS-based support, no upsells

Visit Northwest

Bizee

check_circleAvailable in Utah

$119/year

Lowest upfront cost — $0 service fee, first RA year free. Best if you'll decline the checkout add-ons.

done$0 formation service fee
done1st year registered agent free
doneLifetime compliance alerts

Visit Bizee

ZenBusiness

check_circleAvailable in Utah

$199/yr renewal

$99 intro first year

All-in-one platform with a compliance guarantee. We don't earn a commission from ZenBusiness — here's our honest comparison.

doneWorry-Free compliance guarantee
doneAll-in-one formation suite
doneHigher renewal than our top picks

Compare ZenBusiness

Pricing reflects each provider's advertised rates as of July 2026 and can change — confirm the current price on the provider's own site before you buy.

Compare your options in Utah

Every realistic way to meet the Utah registered-agent requirement — including doing it yourself.

Option	Best for	Pros	Cons
Be your own agent	Utah residents at a staffed street address with a reliable calendar	addCheapest possible: $18/yr total state upkeep addNo third party to manage	removeHome address in the searchable registry removeAnniversary-month deadline is easy to forget removeMust be available in business hours
Northwest Registered Agent	Privacy-minded, home-based, or out-of-state Utah owners	addTheir Utah street address on the record, not yours addAnniversary-month renewal tracked addFirst year free with formation, ~$125/yr after	remove~$125/year dwarfs Utah's $18 state fee removeValue is privacy + calendar, not cost savings
Bizee or another formation service	Lowest upfront cost with reminder emails	add$0 service fee to form addFirst agent year free addRenewal reminders	removeCheckout upsells removeWeaker privacy posture remove~$119/yr after year one
Utah attorney or CPA as agent	Complex structures — series LLCs, L3Cs, or DAO experiments under Utah Code 48-5	addProfessional oversight of Utah's niche entity types addTax-election advice	removeHighest cost removeOverkill for a simple single-member LLC

The deadline nobody shares: Utah's anniversary-month renewal

Most states herd every LLC toward one calendar date — April 15 in Kansas, a fixed spring deadline elsewhere — so the deadline shows up in news reminders and accountants' calendars. Utah doesn't. Your $18 renewal is due during the month your Certificate of Organization became effective (Utah Code 48-3a-212(3)): form in August, renew every August, forever. It's a personal deadline no one else is talking about when it hits, which is exactly why owners miss it. The consequences ramp politely but firmly: a $10 late fee, then once you're 60 days delinquent the Division can serve notice, and 60 days after that sign a statement of administrative dissolution (48-3a-708) — call it ~120 days from missed renewal to dissolved LLC. Coming back is a $54 reinstatement plus everything you would have owed. The flip side of the quirk: at $59 to form and $18 a year, Utah's problem is never the money — it's only the calendar.

Utah is genuinely a good fit for:

doneStartups along the Silicon Slopes corridor (Lehi, Provo, Salt Lake)
doneOwners who want the cheapest annual upkeep in the Mountain West ($18/yr)
doneFounders experimenting with Utah's DAO / blockchain-entity laws

Utah is cheap — the risk is the calendar

$59 to form, $18 a year to keep. But the renewal lands in your anniversary month — a personal deadline nobody reminds the whole state about — and about 120 days after a miss, administrative dissolution.

Utah LLC — $59 to form via OneStop, $18 renewed every anniversary month; miss it and administrative dissolution arrives in roughly 120 days ($54 + back fees to reinstate). RegisteredAgentHub original.

Utah-specific things to know

Utah's filing agency is the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code (part of the Department of Commerce), and its signature feature is OneStop Business Registration — one online pass that files your Certificate of Organization and simultaneously registers you with the Tax Commission (sales tax license, employer withholding) and Workforce Services (unemployment insurance). If you'll sell taxable goods in Utah, you leave OneStop with the tax accounts most states make you chase separately. The FY2026 fee schedule (effective July 1, 2025) prices almost everything in odd, small numbers: $59 to form, $18 to renew (that includes a $5 surcharge funding the state's single sign-on portal), $17 for changes including a registered-agent swap, $54 reinstatement, $75 per-filing expedite.

Utah's registered-agent law is the Model Registered Agents Act (Utah Code Title 16, Chapter 17), which splits agents into two kinds: a commercial registered agent — a professional firm that files a $52 listing statement with the Division and can then be appointed by name alone — and a noncommercial registered agent, i.e., any individual or entity you name with a Utah street address (16-17-203). Either way the address must be an actual street address or rural route box number in Utah (16-17-202). Appointing someone is a statutory affirmation they've consented. One housekeeping note for 2026: the Legislature's recodification (Chapter 93, 2026 General Session) renumbers Title 16 Chapter 17 and the LLC act effective October 1, 2026 — the registered-agent substance carries over unchanged, but statute numbers you see in older guides will shift.

Privacy runs thinner than in Wyoming or New Mexico: the Certificate of Organization itself only demands the principal office and agent information, but the annual report must name at least one governing person — a member or manager — and Division records are searchable online, so full anonymity isn't on the menu. Taxes are simple: no franchise tax on LLCs, pass-through profits hit Utah's flat 4.5% individual income tax (2025 rate), and there's no publication requirement. And Utah owns a genuinely novel corner of entity law: the Decentralized Autonomous Organizations Act (Utah Code Title 48, Chapter 5; 2023's HB 357, unanimous in both chambers, live since January 2024) gives blockchain-governed DAOs their own limited-liability wrapper — among the most comprehensive DAO statutes in the country, and a signal of how deliberately Utah courts the Silicon Slopes crowd.

Looking up an existing registered agent in Utah

Every Utah company's registered agent is public record — you can find any LLC's or corporation's agent, with the registered office address, free through the Division of Corporations' business entity search. Search by company name and the record shows the current agent on file.

The usual reasons to look one up: serving legal papers on a company, due diligence on a business you're about to deal with, or confirming your own record updated correctly after a change of agent (in Utah, that filing is $17).

"Registered agent near me" in Utah — explained

Searched "registered agent near me"? In Utah it's not about being near you — your agent just needs a physical Utah street address, staffed during business hours, on file with the Utah filing office. That's why a national service like Northwest works no matter where in Utah — or which state — you personally live.

How to change your registered agent in Utah

To switch in Utah, file the state's change-of-agent form ($17) and put the new agent on record before cancelling the old one — many services handle it. Full steps in how to change your registered agent.

How to start an LLC in Utah

In short: choose your name, appoint a registered agent (the step above), file your formation document with Utah ($59), and get a free EIN from the IRS. Then keep it compliant: Annual Report / Renewal — $18 per year (the fee includes a $5 surcharge for the state's single sign-on portal), due during your anniversary month: the month your Certificate of Organization became effective (Utah Code 48-3a-212). Miss it and there's a $10 late fee; stay delinquent 60 days and the Division can start administrative dissolution — a notice, then 60 more days to cure, then a statement of administrative dissolution (48-3a-708). Reinstatement is $54 plus all back fees.. For the full walkthrough see our cheapest way to start an LLC guide.

Which path is right for you in Utah?

verifiedUse Northwest if

doneYou want your home address out of Utah's searchable business registry
doneYou're forming from outside Utah (the agent needs an actual Utah street address)
doneYou want the anniversary-month renewal tracked before the ~120-day dissolution clock runs

personBe your own agent if

checkYou're at a Utah street address and available during business hours
checkYou're comfortable with the address being public
checkYou'll reliably file the $18 renewal in your anniversary month every year

compare_arrowsConsider other options if

checkUpfront formation price is your only criterion (Bizee)
checkA Utah professional already handles your filings
checkYou're weighing providers — see Northwest vs Bizee and Northwest vs ZenBusiness

Utah Registered Agent FAQ

How much does a Utah LLC cost to form and maintain?expand_more

$59 to file the Certificate of Organization with the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code, then $18 a year for the annual report/renewal (the $18 includes a $5 surcharge for the state's single sign-on portal). That's it for state-mandated costs — no franchise tax, no publication. The figures come from the Division's FY2026 fee schedule, effective July 1, 2025.

When is the Utah annual report due?expand_more

During your anniversary month — the month your Certificate of Organization became effective (Utah Code 48-3a-212(3)). There's no fixed statewide date, which is precisely why it slips: form in March, and every March is your deadline whether anyone reminds you or not. Late costs $10; 60 days delinquent starts the administrative-dissolution process.

What is Utah's OneStop Business Registration?expand_more

Utah's combined online registration: one pass files your LLC with the Division of Corporations and simultaneously registers you with the Utah State Tax Commission (sales tax, withholding) and the Department of Workforce Services (unemployment insurance). If you'll sell taxable goods or hire employees in Utah, OneStop replaces the separate agency-by-agency registrations most states require.

What's the difference between a commercial and noncommercial registered agent in Utah?expand_more

Utah adopted the Model Registered Agents Act (Utah Code Title 16, Chapter 17). A commercial registered agent is a professional firm that files a listing statement with the Division ($52) and can then be appointed by name alone; a noncommercial agent is anyone else you name — yourself, a member, a friend — with their Utah street address stated in the filing (16-17-203). Same legal duties either way.

How do I change my registered agent in Utah?expand_more

File a statement of change with the Division — $17, on paper or online, per the FY2026 fee schedule. There's also a shortcut: if your annual report lists a different agent or agent address than the Division's records, that difference is automatically treated as a statement of change under Utah Code 48-3a-212(5).

What happens if my Utah LLC misses its renewal?expand_more

First a $10 late fee. If you're still delinquent 60 days after the due date, the Division can serve notice of administrative dissolution; you then get 60 more days to cure before it signs the statement of administrative dissolution (Utah Code 48-3a-708) — roughly 120 days from missed renewal to dissolved LLC. Reinstatement (48-3a-709) costs $54 plus every fee you'd have owed in the meantime, and your name is only protected for five years.

What is Utah's DAO law?expand_more

The Decentralized Autonomous Organizations Act — Utah Code Title 48, Chapter 5, passed unanimously as HB 357 in 2023 and live since January 2024. It gives blockchain-governed DAOs their own limited-liability legal wrapper in Utah, with quality-assurance criteria for recognition and a default of no implied fiduciary duties among participants. It's one of the most comprehensive DAO statutes in the country and a distinctly Utah reason crypto-native founders form here.

Are Utah LLC members listed on the public record?expand_more

Partially. The Certificate of Organization requires only the principal office address and registered agent information — not member names (professional services companies are the exception; they must list members/managers). But the annual report must name at least one governing person (Utah Code 48-3a-212(1)(d)), and Division records are searchable online — so at least one member or manager becomes public within a year of forming.

Does Utah have a franchise tax on LLCs?expand_more

No. Utah's franchise tax applies to corporations; a standard pass-through LLC owes the state nothing beyond the $18 renewal. Members pay Utah's flat individual income tax on their share of profits — 4.5% for 2025, a rate the Legislature has been shaving almost annually. Sales tax registration, if you need it, happens through OneStop or the Tax Commission's TAP portal.

Are Utah's LLC statute numbers changing?expand_more

Yes — bookmark carefully. The 2026 recodification (Chapter 93, 2026 General Session) renumbers the Utah Revised Uniform LLC Act (Title 48, Chapter 3a) and repeals-and-relocates the Model Registered Agents Act (Title 16, Chapter 17) effective October 1, 2026. The substance of the registered-agent and annual-report rules carries over; only the citations move, so pre-2026 guides will show stale section numbers.

Official Utah sources

Comparing states?

Founders weighing Utah usually shortlist these too — or see every state's fees side by side.

Colorado →Nevada →Arizona →

Keep reading

Northwest Registered Agent: full review → Best registered agent service → Can I be my own registered agent? →

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This page is for general informational purposes and is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Utah fees and rules can change — confirm current details with the official Utah source before filing.