Home / North Dakota / Hair Salon / LLC

Forming an LLC for Your North Dakota Hair Salon: The Complete Filing Guide

The parent guide gives you the short version: file Articles of Organization, pay $135, get on with your salon. This page is the long version. It walks through choosing between an LLC, a sole proprietorship and a corporation in North Dakota terms, the trade name filing the cosmetology board turns into a licensing step, and the accounts and dates that keep a North Dakota salon LLC in good standing, including the one date, November 15, that can end the company if it is ignored long enough.

Researched from North Dakota 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 North Dakota 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: 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 still registers a trade name with the Secretary of State if she trades under anything but her own name, and that filing creates no shield at all.

A limited liability company creates a separate legal entity between you and the salon. North Dakota's Secretary of State describes the business LLC as a hybrid offering the liability protection of a corporation with the pass through taxation of a partnership, recognized as a separate legal entity with its own rights, privileges and liabilities distinct from its members. Two limits deserve plain words. 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 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 North Dakota owners usually land on, and it is the one the rest of this page walks through. Whichever you choose, the entity is separate from licensing: your establishment license, your stylists' cosmetology licenses and each renter's independent licensee license are still required, exactly as the North Dakota hub lays out. One North Dakota nuance: workers compensation treats the structures differently at the owner level, because owners, partners, corporate officers and spouses are all exempt from Title 65 and elect coverage voluntarily, a point our North Dakota salon insurance guide covers in full.

Filing the Articles of Organization

You form a North Dakota LLC under Century Code chapter 10-32.1 by filing Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State through the FirstStop portal. The registration fee is $135. Work through the pieces in order:

1. Choose the legal name. The Secretary of State's naming guideline requires the name to contain the words "limited liability company" or the abbreviation "LLC" or "L.L.C." Pick the name with the storefront in mind, because the cosmetology board licenses the establishment under a name that is already registered with the Secretary of State.
2. Name a registered agent. The articles name the company and its registered agent and office in the state, the 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.
3. File the articles and pay the $135 fee. The Secretary of State's LLC page, linked in the partner slot below, is the official route. Filing creates the entity; it does not license the salon, and it does not finish your tax setup.
4. Sequence the board application after the filing. The establishment application, form SFN 11795, must be notarized and submitted two weeks before the opening date, and the business name on it must already be registered as a trade name, LLC, LLP or corporation. The LLC therefore comes first in the opening calendar.
5. Keep the filing confirmation. Your bank, your landlord, your payment processor and the board will all ask for proof the LLC exists. Save the confirmation with your lease and licenses.

Later filings are priced on the same Secretary of State schedule: an amendment costs $50, and dissolving the company voluntarily costs $20 for the dissolution and termination filing, which is the clean way to close a salon rather than letting the annual report lapse, for reasons the calendar section below makes concrete.

The trade name registration: North Dakota files it at the state level

If your salon operates under a name different from your LLC's legal name, North Dakota calls that a trade name, registered with the Secretary of State under Century Code chapter 47-25. The Secretary of State states the trigger plainly: a business using a name other than the original name registered with the office must file a Trade Name Registration. Registration costs $25 through FirstStop, the registration expires every five years, and renewal costs another $25, with cancellation priced at $10.

In North Dakota the filing is also a licensing step, not just branding. The establishment application will not proceed on an unregistered name: the business name must be registered as a trade name, LLC, LLP, or corporation before the board licenses the premises under it. If your storefront name is exactly your LLC's legal name, the articles themselves satisfy that requirement and no separate trade name filing is needed. A trade name is not a license and does not create your entity; it puts the public on notice of the name you trade under, and a mismatch between your trade name, your lease, your bank records and your establishment license is a small thing that stalls bigger things, including the loans on our North Dakota business loans page.

Your EIN from the IRS

Your EIN is the business's federal tax ID, issued by the IRS. A salon with employees needs one before the first payroll, because federal withholding, the Job Service unemployment account, Workforce Safety and Insurance coverage, and new hire reporting all key off the business identity it anchors. 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 early, right after the LLC is formed, so the EIN never becomes the bottleneck when you sign a lease or set up payroll.

North Dakota tax and payroll accounts

Three state accounts follow formation, and all of them run through state portals rather than paper. The first is the sales and use tax permit from the Office of State Tax Commissioner, applied for through ND TAP, the Taxpayer Access Point; the permit application itself costs nothing. The rule that matters at your register: North Dakota taxes retail sales of tangible personal property at the 5 percent state rate plus city and county taxes where they apply, and hair and other personal services are not on the list of taxable services. Shampoo and styling products you sell are taxable; the cut and color are not. Itemize services and products separately on every ticket so tax is collected only on the products.

The second is the withholding account, also issued by the Tax Commissioner through ND TAP, for the state income tax you withhold from stylist wages. The third is the unemployment insurance account with Job Service North Dakota. The payroll number that surprises out of state owners is the wage base: Job Service sets the taxable wage base at 70 percent of the statewide average wage, which produces $46,600 per employee for 2026, among the highest bases in the country. The rate on that base starts low: a new non-construction employer pays 1.00 percent with a positive balance, before experience rating moves it within a published range of 0.07 percent to 9.67 percent. North Dakota imposes no franchise tax on LLCs, so unlike salons in many states there is no entity level tax report to file each year; the annual report in the next section is a Secretary of State filing, not a tax.

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 you paid $135 for 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 sales tax returns, and any future loan application harder than they need to be. Pair the account with the insurance decisions in our North Dakota salon insurance guide, including the WSI account that must exist before your first employee works, and your salon's legal and financial structure is genuinely in place rather than filed and forgotten.

Your North Dakota LLC annual duties calendar

• November 15, every year: the LLC annual report to the Secretary of State, $50. The first report is due in the year following the year the LLC was registered. A report filed after November 15 draws a $50 late fee, doubling the filing to $100.
• If you miss it: the Secretary of State places the company in Not Good Standing status. Typically, a business that does not file its past due annual report within 6 to 12 months of being placed in Not Good Standing is involuntarily terminated. You have 1 year to reinstate to Good Standing; if the past due report is not filed within that year, the business is involuntarily dissolved or terminated.
• December 31, every year: every cosmetology license in the building renews at once: the establishment license at $100, independent licensee licenses at $100, and personal licenses at $50, each with its own late penalty.
• Every fifth year: trade name renewal with the Secretary of State, $25.
• Quarterly: unemployment insurance reports and payments to Job Service North Dakota on wages up to the $46,600 per employee wage base for 2026, and sales tax returns through ND TAP at your assigned frequency for retail product sales.
• Before the first employee works: the Workforce Safety and Insurance account, opened by application with your estimated payroll for the coming 12 months, then kept current with payroll reporting through myWSI.
• Not on your calendar: a franchise tax report or a second annual entity filing. North Dakota requires neither from an LLC.
• As things change: keep your registered agent and address current with the Secretary of State (an amendment costs $50), and your trade name, lease, bank account and establishment license all showing the same name.

The rhythm of a North Dakota salon year is two dates and a season: November 15 carries the company, December 31 carries every license in the building at once, and the quarterly payroll and sales tax filings run underneath both. The expensive mistakes are not the $50 fees. They are the report left unfiled until the company stops existing on the register, discovered at a loan closing or a lease renewal, 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 North Dakota 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 North Dakota?

The Secretary of State's registration fee for Articles of Organization is $135, filed through the FirstStop portal. The name must contain the words limited liability company or the abbreviation LLC or L.L.C., and the articles name a registered agent and office in the state.

When is the North Dakota LLC annual report due, and what does it cost?

November 15 every year, on a fixed statewide date rather than your formation anniversary, and the fee is $50. The first annual report is due in the year following the year the LLC was registered. A report filed after November 15 draws a $50 late fee, doubling the cost of the filing.

What happens if a North Dakota LLC misses its annual report?

The Secretary of State places the company in Not Good Standing status. Typically, a business that does not file its past due annual report within 6 to 12 months of being placed in Not Good Standing is involuntarily terminated. The company has 1 year to reinstate to Good Standing; if the past due report is not filed within that year, the business is involuntarily dissolved or terminated.

Where does a North Dakota salon register a trade name?

With the Secretary of State, under Century Code chapter 47-25. Registration costs $25 through the FirstStop portal, the registration expires every five years, and renewal costs another $25, with cancellation priced at $10. A business using a name other than the one registered with the Secretary of State must file the registration, and the cosmetology board will not license an establishment under an unregistered name.

Does a North Dakota LLC file a franchise tax report or a second annual filing?

No. North Dakota has no franchise tax and no second entity level annual filing for an LLC. The recurring state obligations are the $50 annual report each November 15, sales tax returns through ND TAP if the salon sells retail products, quarterly unemployment insurance reports to Job Service North Dakota if it runs payroll, and the December 31 license renewals.