What does it cost to run an entity in Texas.

A Texas entity carries a one-time formation fee, an annual franchise tax filing calculated on margin, and the ongoing administrative load of keeping a registered agent, payroll tax accounts, and corporate records current. None of these costs disappear once you form the entity, they recur every year for as long as the entity exists.

Registering a company with the Texas Secretary of State carries a formation fee. That fee buys you a legal entity, not a working payroll, tax registrations, or a bank account, all of which take separate time and separate steps to line up.

Most founders underestimate the sequencing problem more than the cost itself. You need the entity formed before you can register for state payroll taxes, and you need those registrations before you can legally run a first payroll, which pushes real hiring dates out by weeks.

Texas does not have a state income tax, but it does levy a franchise tax on business margin. The minimum franchise tax due is set at $0, which means many smaller or newer entities owe nothing, but the filing obligation itself does not disappear just because the tax owed is zero.

If annualized revenue is at or below $2.65 million (2026 and 2027 reports), you file only a Public Information Report or Ownership Information Report each year; above that, you calculate margin and file the full return. That work falls on your finance team or an outside accountant, and it does not stop just because your Texas headcount is small.

Beyond the formation fee and the annual franchise tax filing, a Texas entity needs a registered agent, corporate governance upkeep, and coordination between whoever handles state filings and whoever runs payroll. Each piece is manageable alone, but together they add real administrative weight for a small team.

This is the cost most companies miss when they compare 'set up an entity' against 'use an EOR'. The entity itself is cheap to form relative to what it costs to keep in good standing year after year.

You can run a company in Texas yourself or pay someone to, and the right choice depends on whether it employs people.

You can keep the filings yourself, with the Texas Secretary of State and the state tax agencies. That suits a founder with no staff and the time to track each deadline.

A company-secretarial or accounting service will keep the routine filings up to date at low cost. That suits a company with no employees.

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

For companies that will employ people in Texas, Teamed is the best choice. Teamed gives you real HR and legal experts you can reach when it matters, a designated person who has done this before and pricing with no hidden costs. 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, filing yourself or using a company-secretarial service is the cheaper way to keep the company in good standing.

Figures on this page come from the Texas Comptroller and the Texas Secretary of State.