The Delaware LLC, on Delaware's Own Published Numbers
This guide reads what an LLC formed in Delaware costs from three of the state's own documents: a fee schedule, a statute and the Division of Corporations' annual tax information page.
The state's fee schedule, self-dated as revised on the first of August 2026, puts domestic LLC formation at one hundred and ten dollars.
The Division of Corporations sets out a distinction: although limited partnerships, limited liability companies and general partnerships formed in Delaware do not file an annual report, they are required to pay an annual tax.
No annual report, but a tax: four hundred dollars, due on the first of June. The statute and the Division's own page state the same amount.
Delaware's figures in one table
Every cell that states a figure is taken from Delaware's own fee schedule, its statute or its Division of Corporations, with the source under the table.
| Delaware | |
|---|---|
| Filing fee to form | $110.001 |
| The annual payment | $4002 |
| Annual report | None. LLCs formed there do not file one3 |
| When the annual payment is due | 1 June, following the close of the calendar year, or on cancellation of the certificate of formation4 |
| Paying late | $200, the statute's penalty for the company5 |
| Interest if unpaid | 1½% for each month or portion thereof until fully paid6 |
| Not paying when due | The company ceases to be in good standing7 |
| Registered agent | Required8 |
| What the Division says of agents | Registered Agents are not regulated by the State of Delaware9 |
Every figure above, and where it was published:
- corpfiles.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- delcode.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- corp.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- delcode.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- delcode.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- delcode.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- delcode.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- delcode.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- corp.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
Four hundred dollars a year, and the statute prices paying it late.
Book Your Assessment CallWhat the state charges to form it
The Division of Corporations publishes a fee schedule, and the line for this entity reads: Limited Liability Companies Formation, domestic, $110.00.
The same row prices three separate services in their own columns: fifty dollars for a certified copy, one hundred dollars for same-day service and fifty dollars for twenty-four hour service.
The document that schedule sits in is self-dated as revised on the first of August 2026.
No annual report, but an annual tax
The Division states it directly: although limited partnerships, limited liability companies and general partnerships formed in the State of Delaware do not file an Annual Report, they are required to pay an annual tax.
So there is a payment, and there is no report attached to it. Corporations in Delaware have both, due on a different date.
June the first, and what late costs
The statute sets the timing and it is not the calendar year end. The annual tax for a domestic limited liability company, it reads, shall be due and payable on the first day of June following the close of the calendar year, or upon the cancellation of a certificate of formation.
Late has a published price in the same section. The statute provides that the company shall pay the sum of $200, and a registered series shall pay the sum of $50, and it adds interest at the rate of one and a half percent for each month or portion thereof until fully paid.
“For each month or portion thereof” is the phrase to notice. Interest attaches to a partial month as it does to a whole one.
The state's numbers are one layer. The federal ones are the other.
Book Your Assessment Call$400, in the statute and on the state's own page
The two Delaware sources read for this guide that state this number agree, as of this reading.
Delaware's code, at 6 Del. C. § 18-1107(b), states that the company shall pay an annual tax, for the use of the State of Delaware, in the amount of $400.
The Division of Corporations' own annual tax information page states that they are required to pay an annual tax of $400.00. Read on 22 October 2026.
That page used to say something else. When this guide was first written, on 5 August 2026, the same sentence read $300.00, on a page whose own metadata dated it to 2022, and this guide printed both figures rather than pick one. The page's metadata now gives 21 September 2026 as its last-modified date, and its figure is the statute's.
Writing that relied on the Division's page before the change may still give $300. Neither the statute nor the Division's page, read on 22 October 2026, gives $300 for this tax.
The due date, the $200 penalty and the monthly interest read in the statute exactly as they did in August.
What Delaware requires you to maintain
Delaware asks for the same two things Wyoming does. Each limited liability company, section 18-104(a) of its code reads, shall have and maintain in the State of Delaware a registered office, which may but need not be a place of its business in the state, and a registered agent for service of process having a business office identical with that registered office.
The Division states the agent's side in plainer words, citing 8 Del. C. § 132: the legal requirements to be a registered agent in Delaware are to maintain a street address and office located in Delaware and be open during normal business hours for the purpose of accepting service of process.
And it publishes a line worth knowing as a buyer, on the same page: registered agents are not regulated by the State of Delaware.
The same page puts the choice on the buyer: it is the consumer's responsibility to exercise due diligence in selecting a Registered Agent for representation. What the role actually involves, in both states, is set out from the statutes themselves.
The federal side is unchanged by the state
Classification is federal. For income tax purposes, a single-member LLC is treated by the IRS as an entity disregarded as separate from its owner unless it files Form 8832 and elects otherwise; for employment tax and certain excise taxes it is still a separate entity. The certificate's state has nothing to do with either. The defaults and the window sit on their own page.
The EIN is federal, with its own published constraint: applicants with no legal residence, principal place of business, or principal office or agency in the United States or US territories are told by the IRS that they cannot use the online application. The alternative routes are here.
And the reporting obligation that attaches to a foreign-owned LLC follows the ownership rather than the state. That filing, and what missing it costs, has its own page.
Four hundred dollars a year, and the statute prices paying it late.
Book Your Assessment CallWhat the pages read here do not publish
The two statutory pages read for this guide carry no currency marker: no statement of the form current through a given date. Currency is evidenced only by the amendment credits under the text.
First Class Citizen publish one formation figure rather than a figure per state, and no state annual-report or franchise-fee amount appears on their service page or in their LLC FAQ. Whether their price moves with the state, and whether the state can be changed after filing, are not answered on that service page or in that FAQ.
Both are short questions for their team, and both are cheaper to ask before the filing than after it.
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FAQ
What does Delaware charge to form an LLC?
Does a Delaware LLC file an annual report?
How much is the Delaware LLC annual tax?
When is it due, and what does late cost?
Does Delaware regulate registered agents?
Does forming in Delaware change my federal position?
Sources
The published pages this guide draws on, each read on the date shown.
- corpfiles.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- corp.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- delcode.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- delcode.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- corp.delaware.gov read 2026-10-22
- irs.gov read 2026-08-02
- irs.gov read 2026-10-22
Get the whole stack straight, not just the certificate
A state settles a fee and a date. Classification, the number and the reporting are federal. First Class Citizen's work covers the sequence, and the call is where yours gets mapped.
Book Your Assessment CallThis guide reports what the authorities and institutions involved publish, quoted, with the date each source was read. It is not tax, legal or immigration advice. Published rules change, and an individual case can turn on facts no page can see.
Founder & CEO, The First Class Citizen