FiLLiP Form for LLP Incorporation: What It Is, the Fee Slabs and How to File It

FiLLiP — Form for Incorporation of Limited Liability Partnership — is the MCA's single web form that creates an LLP. One filing reserves the name, allots DPINs, registers the LLP, and issues the LLPIN with PAN and TAN. The fee follows the partners' contribution: ₹500 up to ₹1 lakh, rising in six slabs to ₹25,000.

What FiLLiP actually is

Before FiLLiP existed, incorporating an LLP meant queuing at several counters — one for the name, one for partner IDs, one for the registration itself, and then separate applications for PAN and TAN. FiLLiP folds all of that into a single filing. Think of it as one window at the registrar's office that hands you everything in one visit: the name approval, the designated partner numbers, the certificate of incorporation, the LLPIN, and the PAN and TAN.

The form is governed by Rules 8, 10, 11 and 18 of the LLP Rules, 2009, and it runs on the MCA V3 portal. It is processed in Non-STP mode, which is the detail most guides skip. Non-STP means a human officer at the registrar's office actually examines your filing. Nobody waves it through automatically. That is why the documents have to be right the first time — and why the two clocks in this guide matter more than the fee.

One filing does seven jobs: name reservation, DPIN allotment, LLP registration and LLPIN, consent of designated partners, conversion of a partnership firm into an LLP, conversion of a private or unlisted public company into an LLP, and PAN/TAN allocation. If you are starting a fresh LLP, you use the first four. The conversion jobs only apply when an existing firm or company is becoming an LLP, and they ride along as linked forms — Form 17 for a firm, Form 18 for a company.

What FiLLiP costs: the six fee slabs

The fee depends on one number only: the partners' total contribution — what the partners agree to bring into the LLP. Contribution is what partners promise to bring. It need not be paid on day one. But the number you declare picks your slab, and the slab picks your fee.

Here is the table as it stands today, from Annexure A of the LLP Rules, 2009, as substituted by the LLP (Amendment) Rules, 2022 (G.S.R. 109(E), dated 11 February 2022, effective 1 April 2022):

Read that table carefully, because a surprising number of guides still print the old one. Before April 2022 there were only four slabs and the fee stopped at ₹5,000. The 2022 amendment added two more. If your contribution is ₹30 lakh, the FiLLiP fee is ₹10,000, not ₹5,000 — and I have seen founders budget the old figure and get a nasty surprise at the payment screen. The same six slabs apply to Form 3, the form that carries your LLP agreement after incorporation.

Three small fixed items sit on top. Name reservation through RUN-LLP costs ₹200. Each DPIN costs ₹100 per designated partner who needs one. PAN and TAN together add ₹155. So a two-partner LLP with a ₹1 lakh contribution pays ₹950 in MCA fees — RUN-LLP ₹200, FiLLiP ₹500, Form 3 ₹50, two DPINs at ₹100 each — plus ₹155 for PAN and TAN, which comes to ₹1,105 all-in on the government side. Digital signatures and stamp duty on the agreement sit outside that figure, and stamp duty varies by state. Our full LLP registration cost breakdown walks through the whole bill, including the DSC and professional-fee parts.

One more slab warning. The fee works like a toll slab on a highway: the heavier the load you declare, the higher the toll. Declare ₹25 lakh and you pay ₹5,000. Declare ₹26 lakh — one lakh more — and the fee doubles to ₹10,000. If you raise the contribution later into a higher slab, you pay only the difference, through Form 3. So pick the contribution the partners genuinely plan to bring in. Inflating it buys you nothing and costs you twice: a higher MCA fee now, and higher stamp duty on the agreement.

Two ways to reserve the name

You have two routes to the name, and the choice is yours.

Route one is RUN-LLP first. You file a standalone name application, propose up to two names, pay ₹200, and the approved name is reserved for 90 days. You must file FiLLiP inside that window or the reservation lapses and you pay again. This route suits you if the name matters enough to lock it down before you assemble the rest of the filing.

Route two is proposing the name inside FiLLiP itself. The ₹200 is built into the form, so you skip the separate application. This suits a straightforward filing where everything is ready at once. Either way, the same user ID that applied for the name must be the one that files FiLLiP — the portal enforces it, and a mismatch is a rejection waiting to happen.

Documents you need before you open the form

Have these ready before you start. FiLLiP is a web form with a 15-day clock ticking on it (more on that below), so gathering documents mid-filing is how applications die.

• Digital signature certificates (DSCs) for every designated partner who signs. Each DSC must be registered on the MCA portal against that person's DIN, DPIN, PAN or professional membership number, and it must be valid — not expired, not revoked.
• ID and address proof of every partner, with photographs.
• Proof of the registered office: a recent utility bill, plus a rent agreement and a no-objection certificate from the owner if the premises are rented. The form also asks for the office's geo-location — latitude and longitude.
• Consent of each designated partner in Form 9. This can ride along as a PDF attachment or as a linked filing, depending on whether the partner already holds a DPIN. There is no fee for Form 9.
• The NIC code matching your main business activity. Choose it with care — it appears on your MCA record.
• For conversions: the documents evidencing the conversion, filed with Form 17 (firm into LLP) or Form 18 (company into LLP) as a linked form.

Attachments go in as PDF or JPG, generally up to 2 MB each. The form itself must be certified by a practising professional — a CA, CS, CMA or advocate.

How to file FiLLiP, step by step

1. Reserve the name through RUN-LLP and note the SRN — or decide to propose it inside FiLLiP.
2. Log in to the MCA portal with the same user ID that applied for the name.
3. Open Form FiLLiP and fill it in: name and RUN-LLP SRN, partner and designated partner details, registered office with geo-location, contribution and profit-sharing ratio, NIC code, and the linked Forms 9, 17 or 18 where they apply.
4. Save as a draft if you need to pause. This is the safe place to stop — not after the SRN is generated.
5. Submit the web form and note the SRN.
6. Affix the DSCs and upload the DSC-affixed PDF on the portal.
7. Pay the fee. On successful processing, the LLP is registered: the certificate of incorporation, the LLPIN, PAN and TAN are allotted, and the DIN/DPIN certificates are emailed to the filing user, the LLP and the designated partners.

A clean filing typically takes 7 to 15 working days from submission to certificate. That is a practitioner's estimate, not a promise — the MCA gives no guaranteed timeline, and a Non-STP filing waits in an officer's queue. If the officer raises a query, it appears against your SRN and you respond through the portal.

The two clocks that cancel applications

This is the part of FiLLiP that nobody warns you about, and it is the part that actually kills filings.

Clock one: 15 days to upload the DSC-signed PDF. Once the SRN is generated, you have 15 days to upload the DSC-affixed PDF. Miss it and the SRN is cancelled — the whole application goes, and you start again. Payment has its own deadline too: within 7 days of upload, or the due date plus 2 days, whichever is earlier.

Clock two: 30 days to answer a resubmission. If the officer marks the form "Resubmission Required", you have 30 days from that date to fix it and send it back. The original application stays available in your application history, and the choice you made on "whether name is already approved" must stay unchanged on resubmission. Let the 30 days lapse and the application is gone. And while a resubmission is pending against a RUN-LLP SRN, you cannot file a fresh FiLLiP against that same SRN.

Two smaller traps sit beside the clocks. First, the same user ID rule: the person who applied for the name must be the one who files FiLLiP. Second, the RUN-LLP SRN you quote must be valid and approved, with no other FiLLiP pending or approved against it, and the reserved name must not have expired or been withdrawn. Check all of it before you submit, because the portal will not forgive a stale SRN.

What happens after FiLLiP is approved

Approval gives you the certificate of incorporation, the LLPIN, PAN and TAN. It does not finish the job. Within 30 days of incorporation, the partners must execute the LLP agreement, get it stamped under state law, and file it in Form 3. The fee follows the same six slabs — ₹50 to ₹600. Miss the 30 days and the late fee is no longer the old flat ₹100 a day. Since 1 April 2022 it is a multiple of the normal fee that rises with the delay: 1× to 15× for a small LLP, and up to 30× for others. A small LLP is one with contribution up to ₹25 lakh and turnover up to ₹40 lakh in the preceding financial year. Our Form 3 guide covers the agreement, the stamping and the amendment rules in full.

After that, GST registration is a separate filing (REG-01) if your turnover crosses the threshold or you need it for input tax credit, and EPFO/ESIC registrations follow if you hire. The compliance fee calculator helps you tot up the running costs once the LLP exists.

Converting a firm or a company through FiLLiP

FiLLiP is also the form for conversions. A partnership firm converts with Form 17 filed alongside FiLLiP; a private or unlisted public company converts with Form 18. The company being converted must be private or unlisted public — not a Section 8 company — with no open form work items, no unsatisfied charges, no pending inspection, investigation or prosecution, and no management dispute on record. Our proprietorship-to-LLP guide covers the one route FiLLiP does not offer: a sole proprietorship has no conversion route at all, so it becomes an LLP by forming a fresh one and transferring the business.

One related note for founders with partners abroad: a non-resident can be a partner in an LLP, but the sector must allow 100% FDI under the automatic route and the money must come through the right channels. Our LLP registration guide for NRIs and foreign nationals covers the FEMA side in detail.

Five mistakes that cost founders a filing

• Budgeting the old fee table. Four slabs ended in April 2022. Check your contribution against all six.
• Letting the 15-day DSC clock run out. Get the DSCs registered on the portal before you generate the SRN, not after.
• Filing FiLLiP from a different user ID than the RUN-LLP applicant. The portal rejects the mismatch.
• Picking the wrong NIC code. It stays on your MCA record and it shapes how your business is classified.
• Forgetting Form 3. Incorporation is not the finish line. The agreement filing has a 30-day deadline and a multiplier late fee.

Frequently asked questions

Is FiLLiP the only form needed to register an LLP?
It is the only incorporation form. You still need Form 3 for the LLP agreement within 30 days, and GST registration separately if it applies to you.

What is the minimum contribution for an LLP?
There is none. The fee slabs start at ₹500 for a contribution up to ₹1 lakh, but the contribution itself can be as low as the partners agree. Remember it need not be paid on day one — it is what the partners promise to bring.

Can I apply for a DPIN through FiLLiP?
Yes. FiLLiP allots DPINs to designated partners who do not already hold one, up to five DPINs through the form. Details of up to 500 partners and designated partners can be filed, with any excess as an Excel attachment.

How is FiLLiP different from SPICe+?
SPICe+ incorporates companies. FiLLiP incorporates LLPs. They are parallel forms for different entities — an LLP never files SPICe+, and a private limited company never files FiLLiP.

What if MCA rejects my FiLLiP?
A rejection usually comes as a resubmission query, not a flat refusal. You have 30 days from the date it is marked "Resubmission Required" to correct the form and send it back through the portal.

Do I need a professional to file FiLLiP?
The form must be certified by a practising CA, CS, CMA or advocate, so a professional signs off on it either way. Many founders prepare the documents themselves and have a professional certify and file — that is the usual middle path.

If you are still deciding whether an LLP is the right structure at all, start with our LLP registration service page — it lays out who an LLP suits, what it costs end to end, and what you need before you file. The form itself is the easy part. Getting the contribution, the name and the documents right before you open it is the work that actually matters.