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Forming an LLC for Your New Hampshire Hair Salon: The Complete Filing Guide

The parent guide gives you the short version: file Form LLC-1, pay $100, file a $100 annual report by April 1. This page is the long version. It walks through choosing between an LLC, a sole proprietorship and a corporation in New Hampshire terms, what each Secretary of State filing actually does, the trade name registration most salons also need, and the spring calendar, annual report, business tax returns, and trade name renewal, that keeps a New Hampshire salon LLC in good standing year after year.

Researched from New Hampshire state sources. Our guides are free. We may earn a commission when you use a partner service, at no additional cost to you.

LLC, sole proprietorship, or corporation for a New Hampshire salon

The parent guide gives the short version of this choice. Here is the long one. A sole proprietorship is what you are by default if you open a salon in your own name and file nothing with the Corporation Division: there is no state formation step, and legally there is no business separate from you, which means the salon's debts, lease obligations, and legal claims reach your personal assets. A sole proprietor who trades under a salon name still registers that trade name with the Secretary of State, covered below, and that filing creates no shield at all.

A limited liability company creates a separate legal entity between you and the salon. New Hampshire's statute, RSA 304-C:23, states the shield in plain terms: the debts, obligations, and liabilities of the company are solely its own, and no member or manager is personally obligated for them solely by reason of being a member or manager. Two limits deserve the same plain words. The statute itself carves out a member or manager who agrees, in an operating agreement or another agreement, to be personally liable, which is what a landlord or lender guarantee does in practice. And the shield covers the business's obligations; it does not protect you from claims about your own work behind the chair, and it weakens if you run the salon's money through your personal accounts, which is why the bank account section below matters.

A corporation is the third route: a separate entity formed with the Secretary of State, owned through stock, and run with more formal machinery, directors, officers, and records, than most single salon operations need. It earns its keep for multi location groups and outside investors. For a first salon, the LLC is the structure New Hampshire owners usually land on, and it is the one the rest of this page walks through. Whichever you choose, remember that the entity is separate from licensing: your OPLC shop license and your stylists' personal licenses are still required, exactly as the New Hampshire hub lays out, and RSA 313-A:19 IV lets a non-practitioner hold the shop license only with a licensed practitioner employed as manager.

Filing the Certificate of Formation: Form LLC-1

You form a New Hampshire LLC by filing a Certificate of Formation, Form LLC-1, with the Secretary of State's Corporation Division, online through NH QuickStart. The filing fee is $100, set at RSA 304-C:191 II(c). Work through the pieces in order:

1. Choose the legal name. Under RSA 304-C:32 it must contain "Limited Liability Company" or "LLC" or a similar abbreviation, and it must be distinguishable from names already on file with the state. Search the name in NH QuickStart before you fall in love with the signage.
2. Name a registered agent. Your LLC needs a registered agent with a New Hampshire address where legal papers can be delivered. Pick someone who will actually be there and who has agreed to serve, because a missed lawsuit notice is the worst way to learn the agent moved, and going 60 days without an agent is itself a ground for dissolution, covered below.
3. File Form LLC-1 and pay the $100 fee. The Corporation Division's filing route is linked in the partner slot below. Filing creates the entity; it does not license the salon, and it does not finish your tax setup.
4. Keep the filing confirmation. Your bank, your landlord, and your payment processor will all ask for proof the LLC exists. Save the confirmation with your lease and licenses.

Two New Hampshire features shape what happens if the paperwork lapses, and both are worth knowing before you form rather than after. The first is administrative dissolution. Under RSA 304-C:136, the Secretary of State may dissolve an LLC that, for two consecutive years, fails to deliver its annual report or pay its fees within 60 days after they are due, or that sits without a registered agent or office for 60 days or more. The second is that dissolution is curable. Within three years, reinstatement under RSA 304-C:138 costs a $135 application fee plus the missed reports and late fees, and an application received more than 120 days after the dissolution notice must carry a certificate from the Department of Revenue Administration. Past three years, late reinstatement under RSA 304-C:145 costs $500 and requires a published notice. A granted reinstatement relates back to the dissolution date, so the company resumes as if the dissolution had never occurred, but no owner should budget for that rescue when a $100 spring filing prevents it. Closing a salon deliberately runs the other way: wind up, obtain the Department of Revenue Administration's certificate of dissolution under RSA 77-A:18 before distributing assets, then file a certificate of cancellation under RSA 304-C:142.

The trade name registration: RSA chapter 349

If your salon operates under a name different from your LLC's legal name, New Hampshire calls that a trade name, and you register it with the state, not the county. RSA 349:5 requires anyone conducting business under a trade name, firm or style other than their own legal name to file a registration certificate with the Secretary of State. The fee, under RSA 349:7, is $50, the registration is effective on filing for a term of five years under RSA 349:6, and renewals cost another $50. A notice of discontinuance, addition or withdrawal costs $10. New Hampshire adds a courtesy most states do not: under RSA 349:8, the Secretary of State forwards a renewal notice at least six months before the registration expires.

A trade name registration is not a license and does not create your entity. It records your claim to the name you trade under, and it is practical paperwork: your bank will typically want the names to line up before opening accounts in the salon's name, and a mismatch between your registration, your lease, and your bank records is a small thing that stalls bigger things, including the loans on our New Hampshire business loans page. Note one protection the registration buys during a crisis: for 120 days after an administrative dissolution notice is mailed, the state will not let another entity take your LLC's name or its registered trade name without your written consent. If your storefront name is exactly your LLC's legal name, you may not need a registration at all.

Your EIN from the IRS

Your EIN is the business's federal tax ID, issued by the IRS. You need one to hire employees, to file business taxes, and in practice to open the business bank account, because most banks require it even for a single member LLC. It is free. Apply directly through the IRS and ignore any website that offers to obtain one for a fee; those sites charge for a form the government gives away. Apply in the LLC's exact registered name, right after formation, and keep the confirmation letter with the entity records. New Hampshire adds a small mercy here: because the state does not tax wages, there is no state withholding account to open alongside the federal one.

New Hampshire tax accounts: no sales tax, and the two business taxes instead

New Hampshire's tax signature is an absence. The state has no general sales tax, so the haircut, the color service, and the bottle of shampoo a client takes home all ring up with no tax added, no city or town levies one underneath, and there is no sales tax permit to obtain. The state's claim on the salon arrives through two Department of Revenue Administration taxes instead, both detailed in the Department's business taxes page and summarized in the parent guide. The Business Profits Tax, RSA 77-A, takes 7.5 percent of taxable business profits, and a business files a return only when its gross business income from all activities passes $103,000, the threshold for taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2023. The Business Enterprise Tax, RSA 77-E, takes 0.55 percent of the enterprise value tax base, the sum of compensation, interest and dividends the business pays, and its filing threshold is $281,000 of gross receipts or of tax base on the same vintage. Both thresholds are adjusted biennially, so confirm the current figures with the Department before your first filing season.

The interaction between the two is the planning point. BET is measured on what the salon pays out, so a payroll heavy salon can owe BET in a thin profit year; BPT is measured on profit. BET paid is a credit against BPT, and unused credit carries forward ten taxable periods. Every business that files either return also files Form BT-SUMMARY, and the return itself is Form NH-1040 for a proprietorship, NH-1065 for a partnership or NH-1120 for a corporation, due in the spring following the tax year. The hiring accounts sit elsewhere: register with New Hampshire Employment Security on the Employer Status Report when you hire your first employee, where unemployment tax is fully employer paid and new employers start at 2.7 percent on the first $14,000 of wages per employee. The owner's personal side got simpler in 2025: the Interest and Dividends Tax was repealed for tax periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, so no new liability accrues under it.

The business bank account, and keeping the separation real

Open a business bank account in the LLC's name as soon as the EIN arrives, using your formation confirmation, your EIN letter, and your trade name registration if you filed one. Then run everything through it: card settlements, booth rent, payroll, product purchases, rent. The liability separation RSA 304-C:23 promises is only as strong as the separation you actually keep. Money that flows back and forth between the salon and your personal account blurs the line the LLC exists to draw, and it makes your bookkeeping, your business tax returns, and any future loan application harder than they need to be. Pair the account with the insurance decision in our New Hampshire salon insurance guide, and your salon's legal and financial structure is genuinely in place rather than filed and forgotten.

Your New Hampshire LLC annual duties calendar

• January 1 to April 1, every year: annual report to the Secretary of State, $100. The first report is due the year after formation, and an LLC formed between December 1 and April 1 is excused from that year's report. After April 1, add the $50 late filing fee.
• Spring following the tax year: Business Profits Tax and Business Enterprise Tax returns plus Form BT-SUMMARY, but only in years the salon passes a filing threshold. April 15 is the date for calendar year proprietorships and corporations.
• Every two years: OPLC personal license renewals at $50 and the shop license renewal at $100, each on its own two year clock from issuance.
• Every five years: trade name renewal at $50, with the Secretary of State's reminder arriving at least six months ahead.
• Quarterly, once you hire: unemployment filings with New Hampshire Employment Security, and new hire reports to the same agency as stylists join.
• As things change: keep your registered agent and address current with the Secretary of State. Sixty days without an agent, or two consecutive years of missed reports, is a dissolution ground, not a grace period.

That calendar is the whole recurring burden of a New Hampshire salon LLC at the state level, and its shape is unusual: no sales tax returns, no withholding, and a single spring cluster of filings. The expensive mistakes are not missed fees. They are the skipped April 1 report in a year nobody was watching, and the personal card swiped for salon expenses until the entity and the owner are the same pile of money again.

This page is general information researched from official New Hampshire and federal sources, not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Requirements, fees and forms change; verify the current rules with the agency or regulator linked above before you file, sign or spend.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to form an LLC in New Hampshire?

The state filing fee for the Certificate of Formation, Form LLC-1, is $100, paid to the Secretary of State's Corporation Division through NH QuickStart. That fee is the same whether you file it yourself or pay a formation service to file it for you. The recurring cost is the $100 annual report, due between January 1 and April 1 every year.

Does a New Hampshire LLC file an annual report?

Yes, every year. The annual report costs $100 and is filed with the Secretary of State between January 1 and April 1, starting with the year after formation; an LLC formed between December 1 and April 1 is excused from that year's report. Missing April 1 adds a $50 late filing fee, and failing to file or pay for two consecutive years exposes the LLC to administrative dissolution.

Where do I register a trade name for a salon in New Hampshire?

With the Secretary of State, under RSA chapter 349. Anyone conducting business under a name other than their own legal name files a registration certificate; the fee is $50, the registration lasts five years, and renewal is another $50. The Secretary of State sends a renewal notice at least six months before the registration expires.

What happens if a New Hampshire LLC is administratively dissolved?

It can be reinstated. Within three years of dissolution, the LLC applies to the Secretary of State under RSA 304-C:138, pays a $135 reinstatement fee plus the missed reports and late fees, and, if the application arrives more than 120 days after the dissolution notice, includes a tax certificate from the Department of Revenue Administration. After three years, late reinstatement under RSA 304-C:145 costs $500. A granted reinstatement relates back, so the LLC resumes as if the dissolution had never occurred.

Does a New Hampshire salon LLC owe sales tax?

No. New Hampshire has no general sales tax, so services and retail product sales alike ring up untaxed, and there is no sales tax permit to obtain. The state taxes that can reach a salon LLC are the Business Profits Tax at 7.5 percent and the Business Enterprise Tax at 0.55 percent, each only above its filing threshold, and there is no state income tax on wages, so there is no state withholding account either.