Best Hawaii LLC Services of April 2025 (Reviewed by ZenBusiness)

We invite you to take a look at our comprehensive guide to forming a limited liability company in Hawaii. This article walks you through the LLC formation process in this state step by step, ensuring that you don’t miss any crucial elements.

One of the most important steps in forming a Hawaii LLC is choosing a business name. Once you come up with ideas for your name, you should search through the Business Registration Division’s business search to make sure your desired name is available. For more information on conducting a business name search in Hawaii, check out Hawaii business search on the topic.

You can fill out the Hawaii Articles of Organization on the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs website.

All LLCs operating in the state of Hawaii are required to submit an annual report to the Business Registration Division. It’s due by the end of your registration quarter each year, and it costs $15.

Chances are, you’ll require at least one license or permit to operate your LLC in compliance with Hawaii state law. For more information about general excise tax business licenses and more in this state, check out Hawaii’s “Starting a Business” guide. Looking for info about professional licensing? Take a look at the state’s Professional Licensing page.

It’s difficult to determine how long it takes the state of Hawaii to form an LLC. The state provides no guidelines for turnaround times on its website, and repeated efforts to contact the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs via phone were unsuccessful. Skimming various LLC formation service websites presents estimates ranging from just a few days all the way up to a month-plus. In general, you should form your LLC well in advance to ensure that the state processes your documents in time for you to start conducting business.

If you want more details about what these companies can offer in this state, or you’d like to take a look at some other options, check out our complete guide to Hawaii registered agents.

Unfortunately, not all businesses last forever. If the time comes when you need to close your LLC’s doors, you’ll need to do so in a manner consistent with the state’s regulations. That’s why we wrote our guide to Hawaii LLC dissolutions, so you can complete the process in a compliant manner.

If your LLC already exists in another state, you don’t actually need to “form” it in Hawaii. Instead, you’ll need to foreign qualify the business in this state. This process is somewhat similar to LLC formation, but there are some crucial differences as well. Take a look at our guide to foreign qualifications in Hawaii for more information.