Pennsylvania Certificate of Organization for an LLC

1. 1.Return name, address and emailWhere the Bureau sends the filed certificate or any correspondence. It is required for the filing to be returned, and whatever name, mailing address and email are entered here become part of the public record.
2. 2.Item 1: NameThe exact name, with spelling and punctuation, ending in a designator: company, limited, limited liability company or an abbreviation of one of them. It may not contain words that imply a corporation, such as corporation or incorporated, and may not be the same as a name already on the Department of State's records.
3. 3.Item 2: Registered officeComplete (a) or (b), not both. (a) is a Pennsylvania street address with its county; a PO box alone is refused. (b) is the name of a Commercial Registered Office Provider and the county of venue, the option for a company with no physical location in Pennsylvania. The company should have a contract with the provider before listing it.
4. 4.Item 3: OrganizersThe name of each organizer. An organizer can be a person or a company, and does not have to be a member. A filing service can act as organizer.
5. 5.Item 4: Effective dateEffective on filing, or on a later date and hour you set. The date cannot be earlier than the day the certificate reaches the Department. A delayed date with no time takes effect at 12:01 a.m.
6. 6.Item 5: Restricted professional companies onlyChecked only if the company will render a restricted professional service: chiropractic, dentistry, law, medicine and surgery, optometry, osteopathic medicine and surgery, podiatric medicine, public accounting, psychology or veterinary medicine. Everyone else leaves it blank.
7. 7.Item 6: Benefit companies onlyChecked only if the company is organized as a benefit company with a purpose of creating general public benefit, optionally with one or more specific public benefits listed. Benefit companies file an annual benefit report.
8. 8.Item 7: Additional provisions (optional)Extra provisions on attached sheets. They may not conflict with the operating-agreement rules the statute fixes.
9. 9.Organizer signaturesEvery organizer signs. If an organizer is a company, its authorized representative signs for it. Signing is an affirmation, under the state's unsworn-falsification law, that the facts are true.
10. 10.Docketing Statement: tax responsible partyThe name and mailing address, including county, of the individual responsible for the company's initial tax reports.
11. 11.Docketing Statement: business activity and fiscal year endA short description of what the company does, and the month and day its tax year ends (12/31 for a calendar year).

• The Bureau reviews and files the certificate. The Department's Business Filing Services help guide gives 3 to 5 business days as typical, and the online dashboard shows the past week's average. The filed certificate is downloaded from the Business Filing Services work queue, where it stays for 60 days.
• Pennsylvania offers expedited handling for an extra fee: $100 same-day if received before 10 a.m., $300 for 3-hour service before 2 p.m., and $1,000 for 1-hour service before 4 p.m. Expedited requests are not accepted by mail.
• From the year after formation, the LLC owes a $7 annual report between January 1 and September 30. The requirement began in 2025, and for reports due in 2027 and later, a company that does not file is administratively dissolved six months after the due date.
• Restricted professional companies also file a Certificate of Annual Registration by April 15 of the following year. Pennsylvania does not require a domestic LLC to advertise its formation.

More on filing in Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania LLC filing through Pennsylvania Business Filing Services (the Business One-Stop Hub).