How do you set up a company in Connecticut.

Forming a domestic LLC in Connecticut carries a registration fee of $120 paid to the Secretary of the State. Once you're operating, the state applies a corporate income tax of 7.5%, plus an additional surcharge of 10.0% on top of that liability for companies with $100 million or more of gross income, or in a combined unitary group. Every corporation also owes a minimum franchise tax of $250, calculated as a flat amount rather than scaling with revenue or shares.

You form a domestic LLC by filing formation documents with the Connecticut Secretary of the State and paying the registration fee of $120. A stock corporation pays at least $250, including a minimum $150 franchise tax. You'll also need a registered agent with a physical Connecticut address, since the state requires someone reachable to accept legal and tax correspondence on the entity's behalf.

After formation, you apply for a federal employer identification number, open a business bank account, and register the entity with the relevant state tax and labor agencies before you can legally run payroll. None of this is difficult on its own, but it's sequential, and skipping a step tends to cause delays later when you're trying to pay your first employee.

Connecticut taxes corporate income at 7.5%, and then layers an additional surcharge of 10.0% on top of the tax otherwise due for companies with $100 million or more of gross income, or in a combined unitary group. That combination makes Connecticut's effective corporate tax burden meaningfully higher than the headline 7.5% rate alone suggests, so budget for both when you're modeling entity costs.

Every corporation also owes a minimum franchise tax of $250. This is a flat amount, not a percentage of revenue or paid-in capital, so a small subsidiary and a large one owe the same base figure regardless of how much business either does in the state.

Once your entity exists, you're on the hook for recurring obligations: filing a corporate income tax return, paying the flat franchise tax, keeping your registered agent current, and filing whatever periodic report the Secretary of the State requires to keep the entity in good standing. Missing any one of these can put the entity out of good standing, which then complicates payroll, banking, and contracting.

This is the part founders usually underestimate. Setting up the entity is a one-time task; staying compliant with it is a permanent one, and it's the reason many companies choose to run their first hires through an employer of record while they decide whether a Connecticut entity is worth the long-term overhead.

When you're ready to stop leasing an employment structure and own one outright, Teamed's Global Entity & Employment Operations (GEMO) sets up and manages entities in 100+ countries, and moves your people across from its EOR.

A company formed in another state or another country does not need a second company to hire in Connecticut. It registers with the Connecticut Secretary of the State as a foreign company before it starts doing business there, a step usually called foreign qualification.

Connecticut law sets the test for what counts as doing business in the state, and putting employees to work there on a regular basis will usually meet it. States give the filing different names, among them a certificate of authority and an application for registration.

In Connecticut, the filing is an Application for Certificate of Authority. The Connecticut Secretary of the State charges a corporation $385 to file it, according to its published fees. That is the fee Connecticut publishes; we are waiting on a second, direct confirmation from the Connecticut Secretary of the State before we treat it as settled. It does not cover the cost of a registered agent, or of a certificate of good standing from your home state if one is needed. An LLC formed elsewhere goes through a similar filing, and its fee can be different.

Foreign qualification does not make you an employer in the state. That is a separate registration with the state tax and unemployment insurance agencies, due by the state's own deadline, which usually falls at or soon after your first payroll there.

You can register a company in Connecticut yourself or pay someone to do it, and the right choice turns on whether the company will employ people there.

You can file the formation documents yourself with the Connecticut Secretary of the State. That suits a founder with no staff and the time to work through the forms.

A formation agent will handle the company formation quickly and cheaply. That suits a company that will have no employees.

A law firm or corporate-services firm suits complex group structures and tax planning, such as setting up a subsidiary inside a wider group, where the advice matters more than the filing.

For companies that will employ people in Connecticut, Teamed is the best choice. Teamed gives you a designated person who has done this before, pricing with no hidden costs and Ted, Teamed's AI agent, to answer questions from your live employment data. Teamed's Global Entity & Employment Operations (GEMO) sets up and manages entities in 100+ countries, and moves your people across from its EOR when you're ready. Teamed already owns an entity in the United States.

If you are a solo founder with no staff, you do not need Teamed for this. The registry or a formation agent is the cheaper route.

Figures on this page come from the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services - CT-1120 corporation business tax general instructions, and the Connecticut Secretary of the State - domestic LLC forms and fees.