Bill
SB 1549
Illinois SB 1549 cuts LLC filing fees by ~50% for domestic/foreign LLCs, lowering formation and maintenance costs once law takes effect.
Note: the materials you provided include multiple different bills from different states that share the number “SB 1549” (Arizona — conservation easements; Hawaii — a $15 million bond/appropriation for a community hale; and Illinois — an amendment to LLC filing fees). The summary below focuses on the LLC-related measure (Illinois SB 1549 / amendment to the Limited Liability Company Act) described in the LRB text you included and titled “LLC — REDUCE FILING FEES.”
Purpose and intent
- SB 1549 amends Section 50‑10 of the Illinois Limited Liability Company Act (805 ILCS 180/50‑10) to reduce numerous Secretary of State filing and related fees for domestic and foreign limited liability companies (LLCs) by approximately 50%. The stated policy objective is to lower costs for businesses that form and maintain LLCs in Illinois.
Key provisions and changes
- Amends the fee schedule in Sec. 50‑10 to cut many enumerated fees roughly in half. Specific categories affected (examples pulled from the bill text) include:
- Filing articles of organization (domestic), restated articles, and applications for foreign admission — fee reduced (bill text halves existing amounts).
- Filing amendments (domestic or foreign).
- Name services: reserving a name, cancelling a reserved name, transferring a reserved name, name registration and renewal.
- Assumed name filings, renewals, changes, cancellations (including tiered renewal rates by year).
- Annual report filing fee for LLCs and foreign LLCs (including per‑series surcharge where a series is designated).
- Reinstatement applications for administratively dissolved LLCs.
- Articles of merger (base fee plus additional per‑party charge).
- Change of registered office/agent statements and corrections.
- Certificates of designation for series LLCs.
- Filing, amending, cancelling statements of authority; statements of denial.
- Fees for copies and certified copies of documents.
- The bill replaces the statutory fee amounts in Section 50‑10 with the lower amounts (approximately 50% reductions, per the bill synopsis).
- Effective date: the act takes effect upon becoming law.
Who is affected
- Directly affected: domestic and foreign LLCs and persons/entities that file organizational, annual, and other statutory documents with the Illinois Secretary of State (organizers, registered agents, members/managers, attorneys, incorporation services).
- Indirectly affected: businesses that use series LLC structures (per‑series fees are reduced), providers of commercial filing services, and the Secretary of State’s filing operations.
- Fiscal effect: lowering fees will reduce fee revenue received by the Secretary of State and may reduce net General Revenue or special fund receipts depending on how fee revenue is allocated. The bill text does not include an explicit fiscal note.
Procedural/timeline aspects
- The bill text includes an explicit effective-date clause: takes effect upon becoming law, so reductions would apply as soon as the governor signs and the law is enacted.
- Sponsor listed in the LRB text: Senator Andrew S. Chesney (introduced 2/4/2025 in the Illinois General Assembly in the materials provided).
Potential impacts and considerations
- Businesses: lowers the upfront and recurring administrative cost of forming and maintaining LLCs in Illinois — may encourage formation and compliance.
- State finances: reduces fee revenue to the Secretary of State; the magnitude depends on filing volumes and the particular fee reductions (no revenue estimate provided in the text).
- Implementation: Secretary of State administrative rules, online filing systems, and fee schedules would need updating to reflect new statutory amounts.
If you want, I can:
- Produce a side‑by‑side table of the current vs. proposed fees (if you provide the current fee schedule you want compared), or
- Summarize the other SB 1549 texts you provided (Arizona conservation‑easement valuation change and the Hawaii $15 million appropriation) in separate short summaries.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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