What does a Delawarecompany cost to run.
A Delaware corporation costs $225 a year at minimum, a $50 annual report plus $175 franchise tax. An LLC pays $400. Teamed files both and keeps the company in good standing.
The annual bill
What Delaware actually charges you
Delaware is cheap to keep and unforgiving about dates. The state charges little, asks for almost no information, and does not chase you. What it does instead is quietly move your company into a status that costs far more to undo than the filing would have cost.
- Corporation annual report
- $50
- Minimum franchise tax
- $175
- Corporation deadline
- On or before 1 March
- LLC, LP and general partnership tax
- $400 flat
- Partnership deadline
- On or before 1 June
- Foreign corporation annual report
- $250
- Foreign corporation deadline
- 30 June
- Registered agent
- Required every year, price set by the agent
- Corporate income tax
- 8.7%, only if you do business in Delaware
Three dates, not one
Which deadline is yours
Almost every Delaware company falls under one of three deadlines, and which one applies depends on what you formed and where you formed it. Getting this wrong is the most common way a good standing lapses, because people remember that Delaware has a deadline and remember the wrong one.
A Delaware corporation files an annual report and pays franchise tax on or before 1 March. A Delaware LLC, limited partnership or general partnership pays a flat $400 annual tax on or before 1 June and files no report at all. A corporation formed in another state but registered to do business in Delaware files a $250 annual report by 30 June.
So a group with a Delaware holding company and a Delaware LLC beneath it has two dates three months apart, and neither of them is the one most people have in their heads.
| Entity | What is due | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Delaware corporation | Annual report $50 plus franchise tax, minimum $175 | On or before 1 March |
| Delaware LLC, LP or general partnership | Annual tax $400 flat, no report | On or before 1 June |
| Foreign corporation registered in Delaware | Annual report $250 | 30 June |
The bill that arrives larger than expected
Why your franchise tax is not $175
The $175 figure is a minimum, not a price. Delaware lets a corporation compute franchise tax two ways and pay the lower of them, and the two methods can be startlingly far apart for the same company.
The authorised shares method counts the shares your certificate says you may issue, whether or not you issued any. A founder who authorised ten million shares because the number sounded sensible, and set a nominal par value or none, can open a bill for thousands of dollars against a company that has never traded. The assumed par value capital method looks at issued shares and gross assets instead, and usually produces something far smaller.
Delaware will bill you on the method you do not choose if you do not choose one. The fix costs nothing at the point of incorporation and is tedious afterwards, which is why it belongs in this page rather than in a footnote.
The cost the state does not set
The registered agent is a permanent subscription
Delaware law requires every business entity to have and maintain a registered agent in the state. Because almost no Delaware company has anybody in Delaware, this is bought from a commercial provider, every year, for as long as the company exists.
The state does not set that price and it is not included in any of the figures above. It is the one line on a Delaware budget that is genuinely open ended, and the one people forget when they compare Delaware to somewhere with a higher filing fee.
What happens if you miss
Good standing is easier to lose than to explain
Delaware does not pursue you. It applies a penalty and interest, and after enough time the company stops being in good standing. Nothing visible happens on the day.
It becomes visible later, at the worst moment. A certificate of good standing is what a bank asks for when you open an account, what an investor's lawyer pulls during diligence, and what a buyer's counsel reads before a sale. A lapse sitting in the file is a conversation you have to have at exactly the point you would rather be talking about something else.
Restoring good standing is possible and costs more than filing did. The arithmetic always favours the filing.
Before you commit
Sometimes an employer of record is the better fit
Not every team needs its own company. If the group in the United States is small, still changing shape, or you are testing whether the market works at all, an employer of record can be the better answer, and it is a fair one rather than a lesser one. The annual bill above is small, but it is the visible part of a standing obligation that somebody has to own.
Contractors, employer of record and your own entity all run on one platform at Teamed, so moving between them later does not mean changing provider or re-onboarding anybody. Real HR and legal experts handle the work rather than a ticket queue.
Talk to a member of the team and we will tell you plainly which one suits where you are. If you would rather look at the numbers yourself first, the crossover calculator models it on local salaries and employer costs rather than on a headcount rule of thumb.
Who carries it
Your own entity, when it's time. We set it up, migrate you in, and hand it back intact.
Global Entity and Employment Operations, which we call GEMO, is how Teamed forms your company, registers it for tax and payroll, runs it month to month and keeps its filings current, across 100+ countries. You stay the employer. We do the work behind it.
These are filings we already make. Teamed's American entity is Teamed US Inc., a Delaware corporation, so the 1 March report, the franchise tax method and the registered agent renewal are on our own calendar every year.
They set up our EU entity and moved hires across without missing a payroll.
Questions
Questions people ask about the annual bill
What is the minimum a Delaware company costs per year?
A domestic corporation pays $225 at minimum, being a $50 annual report fee plus $175 minimum franchise tax, both due on or before 1 March. A Delaware LLC pays a flat $400 due on or before 1 June. On top of either you pay a registered agent, whose fee Delaware does not set.
When is Delaware franchise tax due?
For a corporation, on or before 1 March, together with the annual report. LLCs, limited partnerships and general partnerships instead pay their $400 annual tax on or before 1 June. A foreign corporation registered in Delaware files its $250 annual report by 30 June.
Why is my Delaware franchise tax so high?
Almost always the authorised shares method. Delaware computes franchise tax on authorised shares or on assumed par value capital and charges the lower, but only if you compute both. A company with a large authorised share count and little or no par value can produce a bill in the thousands under the first method.
Does a Delaware LLC still pay $300 a year?
No. The Delaware LLC annual tax is $400. The $300 figure appears on a great many websites because that is what it used to be, and it is one of the most commonly repeated out of date numbers about Delaware.
What happens if I miss the Delaware deadline?
Delaware adds a penalty and interest, and in time the company loses good standing. Nothing happens visibly at first. It surfaces when a bank, an investor or a buyer asks for a certificate of good standing, which is usually the least convenient moment to discover it.
Where these figures come from
Sources
Fees, franchise tax and filing deadlines were read from the Delaware Division of Corporations annual report and tax instructions and its alternative entity tax page on 17 September 2026. The 8.7% rate and the doing business test come from the Division of Revenue.
Looking for a job in Entity Running Costs And Filings yourself? Teamed does not hire people directly. Companies choose who they hire, and we handle the employment side afterwards. Here is why we cannot help with your search.