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A Veteran-Owned Business Pays No Filing Fee to Come Into Existence

A veteran-owned business organised after 1 August 2018 is exempt from the filing fees for the documents that create and amend it: articles of incorporation for a corporation or a nonprofit corporation, articles of organization for a limited liability company, a statement or renewal of statement of partnership, a statement of partnership authority, a certificate of limited partnership, or a declaration of trust for a business trust — and the amendments and restatements of each.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

A veteran-owned business organised after 1 August 2018 is exempt from the filing fees for the documents that create and amend it: articles of incorporation for a corporation or a nonprofit corporation, articles of organization for a limited liability company, a statement or renewal of statement of partnership, a statement of partnership authority, a certificate of limited partnership, or a declaration of trust for a business trust — and the amendments and restatements of each.

What it's worth: No filing fee on the formation documents, and none on later amendments or restatements

  • The statute names the documents, not the amounts. The fee schedule sits with the Secretary of State and was not read this session, so no figure is claimed.
  • The exemption is not once-only. Each of the six categories in the section covers amendments, restatements, and amended and restated versions, so a business that later changes its articles is inside it again.
  • It is a fee exemption, not a tax exemption. Annual report obligations, taxes and licence fees are outside the section.

Who is entitled to it

  • The exemption follows the veteran’s ownership of the business.
  • Your discharge is inside the chapter’s definition of veteran.
  • You are in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

Deadline: At the time the document is filed
  1. 1Check the date first, because it is a hard cut-off: the exemption is written for a veteran-owned business ORGANISED AFTER 1 August 2018. A business formed before then does not come inside it by later change of ownership.
  2. 2Check the ownership share against the definition. KRS 14A.1-070(45) requires at least fifty-one percent unconditional ownership by one or more veterans; for a publicly owned business, at least fifty-one percent of the stock; and for a nonprofit, at least fifty-one percent unconditionally MANAGED by one or more veterans.
  3. 3Currently serving counts. The definition of veteran in KRS 14A.1-070(44) reaches any person who currently serves in the United States Armed Forces, Reserves or National Guard, as well as a person separated with an honorable discharge, a discharge under honorable conditions, or a general discharge under honorable conditions.
  4. 4Know which six filings are covered, and file the right one: articles of incorporation under KRS Chapter 271B or, for a nonprofit, KRS Chapter 273; articles of organization under KRS Chapter 275; a statement or renewal of statement of partnership under KRS Chapter 362; a statement of partnership authority under Subchapter 1 of that chapter; a certificate of limited partnership under Subchapter 2; or a declaration of trust under KRS Chapter 386.
  5. 5Have the DD214 ready when you file, or the current service documentation if you are still serving — the section itself prescribes no proof, so the office will ask for what it usually asks for.
  6. 6A nonprofit is inside this section, which is unusual and easy to miss: the management test rather than the ownership test is what a veteran-run nonprofit satisfies.
  7. 7The section has been amended once since it was created, in 2020, and the amendment is what added the restatement and amended-and-restated language — so an older write-up may describe a narrower exemption than the one now in force.
Form
The ordinary formation filing, claiming the exemption at filing
File with
Kentucky Secretary of State
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
Worth knowingThe word "unconditionally" is doing work in the ownership test. Shares subject to an option, a buy-back or an unexercised conversion may not count towards the fifty-one percent, which is worth checking before relying on the exemption in a business with outside investors.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.