No mid-year surprise
The two payments that fall outside filing season are on your calendar and ours, with the amount estimated from real figures.
Business
California charges you for existing. Plan for it
The $800 minimum, the LLC fee, the vouchers that are easy to forget and the returns they attach to — tracked, paid on schedule, and put right when they were not.
California is unusual. Most states tax profit; California also taxes the privilege of having an entity at all. An LLC or corporation registered here owes an $800 annual minimum franchise tax in a year it makes nothing, in a year it loses money, and in a year the owner forgot it existed. It is not a penalty and it is not negotiable — it is the price of the registration.
On top of that, an LLC with meaningful California income owes a separate LLC fee that steps up in tiers as total income rises — and it is due on an estimate, in the middle of the year, before anyone knows the final number. That estimate is the single most commonly missed California payment we see. We track both, pay them on their own dates, and file the Form 568 or Form 100S they belong to.
Scope
What’s included
The $800 minimum, on schedule
Form 3522 prepared and paid by its due date — the 15th day of the fourth month of the tax year, not with the return.
Estimated LLC fee
Form 3536 estimated from your actual year-to-date income and paid by the 15th day of the sixth month, which is where most penalties start.
Form 568 and Form 100S
The LLC return or the S-corporation return prepared, with the fee, the minimum tax and the members’ or shareholders’ schedules reconciled.
Fee tier forecast
Where your total California income is heading, so a jump into the next fee tier is known in advance rather than in March.
First-year and short-year checks
Whether a first-year exemption applies to your entity type and formation date, and whether the short-period rules avoid a year of tax entirely.
Suspension and revivor
Where an entity has been suspended or forfeited, we file the missing returns, clear the balance and apply for the Certificate of Revivor.
Outcome
Why it matters
Penalties stop compounding
An underpaid LLC fee attracts a penalty on the shortfall. Estimating it properly is cheaper than correcting it later.
The entity stays active
Suspension is what unpaid franchise tax eventually becomes, and it costs the entity the right to operate and to defend itself.
Process
How it works
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Account review
Your FTB entity account read year by year — what was assessed, what was paid, and what is still open.
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Clear the backlog
Missing Form 568 or 100S returns prepared and filed, and the outstanding minimum tax and fees quantified.
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Set the payment calendar
Form 3522 and Form 3536 dates diarised with an estimate prepared ahead of each, not on the day.
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Restore standing
Where the entity is suspended, revivor filed and confirmed, and the record checked afterwards to be sure it took.
Suited to
Who this is for
- LLCs that keep missing the mid-year fee payment
- S-corporations filing Form 100S in California
- Entities suspended by the FTB or Secretary of State
- New owners who did not know the $800 existed
- Investors holding property in several separate LLCs
FAQ
Questions
It is tiered, not a single figure. An LLC with total California income below the first threshold owes no fee at all — only the $800 minimum tax. Above that threshold the fee steps up in bands as income rises, so the amount depends entirely on which band you land in. The amounts are set by statute and we work from the current schedule rather than memory, because the band you finish the year in is what matters and it is not always the one you started in.
Sometimes, and it depends on the entity type and when it was formed. The rules differ between corporations and LLCs, and some of the LLC relief was temporary rather than permanent, so a blog post written three years ago may be wrong for your year. There is also a separate short-period rule for entities registered very late in the year that do no business before it ends. We check which applies to your specific formation date rather than assuming.
A suspended entity loses the right to do business in California. In practice that means it cannot legally enter into contracts, it can lose the exclusive right to its own name, agreements made while suspended can be voidable, and it cannot bring or defend a lawsuit. The route back is a revivor: file every missing return, settle the balance, and apply for the Certificate of Revivor. It is procedural work rather than negotiation, and it is worth doing before you need the entity for something.
Often needed alongside this
Other services
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Business Tax Returns & Compliance
K-1s flow straight through to the owners without a hand-off — which removes the single most common source of filing errors in business.
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Registered Agent & State Filings
The routine filings nobody puts in a calendar — Statement of Information, agent for service of process, city licence, DBA — held and filed by us so the entity stays current.
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Entity Conversion & Dissolution
Moving from one structure to another, or closing one down for good — done in the order California and the IRS expect, so nothing keeps billing you afterwards.
Let’s find out what you should actually be paying.
Thirty minutes with an Enrolled Agent, at no charge. Bring last year’s return and we will tell you plainly what we would do differently — and what it would cost.