Doing Business in Another State

Doing Business in Another State › States › Massachusetts

Doing business in Massachusetts from another state

If your LLC does business in Massachusetts as Massachusetts defines it, you register with the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Corporations Division for $500.

Step 1: put these questions to Massachusetts’s law

  1. An employee or contractor works from the state. Ask whether the statute counts work done by people located in the state, and whether employees and independent contractors are treated alike.
  2. You sell to customers there but have no one on the ground. Ask whether the statute treats sales from outside the state differently from activity inside it.
  3. The LLC owns or leases property there. Ask whether owning or leasing real estate is listed as an activity that does, or does not, count.
  4. You open an office, shop or warehouse. Ask whether a fixed place of business is named in the statute. Settle the answer before you sign a lease.
  5. You hold meetings or keep a bank account there. Ask whether the statute lists these ancillary activities, and whether they count by themselves.

Massachusetts’s sources do not name a statute on this page; start at the Massachusetts filing page.

Step 2: if the answer is yes

Form
Foreign Limited Liability Company Application for Registration (General Laws Chapter 156C, Section 48)
Fee
$500
Paper from your home state
Certificate of legal existence or good standing, no older than 90 days
Agent
A resident agent in Massachusetts

Best 3 Foreign Registration Services in Massachusetts (2026)

Step 3: if you would rather not file it yourself.

#ServiceService feeMassachusetts feeAgent
1Mainstay Filing$199$500Year one included, then $149/yr
2MA Registered Agent.org$199$500Year one included, then $99/yr
3Massachusetts Registered Agent.co$199$500Year one included, then $99/yr

Mainstay Filing: Its Massachusetts checkout showed $719 in total on October 28, 2026, including $20 in state processing charges.

Service prices read from each provider’s Massachusetts page on October 28, 2026. The state fee is the official figure below and is paid to the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Corporations Division.

Massachusetts questions

When does an LLC from another state have to register in Massachusetts?

When its activity in Massachusetts meets Massachusetts’s own definition of doing business. We do not paraphrase it; read it through the Massachusetts filing page.

What does registering in Massachusetts cost?

$500 to the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Corporations Division.

What is required after registering?

Foreign LLC annual report (Secretary of the Commonwealth), $500 (due: anniversary of registration), and a resident agent in Massachusetts.

Sources