Massachusetts Corporation Annual Report
By Edmond Hui · Facts verified July 29, 2026 against primary state sources
Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC
Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.
What Massachusetts requires
Annual Report for Domestic and Foreign Corporations
| Frequency | every year |
| Due | Must ARRIVE at the Corporations Division (not merely be postmarked) within two and one-half months after the close of the corporation's fiscal year — March 15 for a calendar-year corporation |
| Fee | $125 |
| Form | Annual Report for Domestic and Foreign Corporations (M.G.L. c. 156D, s. 16.22; 950 CMR 113.57) — no form number assigned |
Massachusetts is one of 41 states on an annual corporate reporting cycle. Nationally, 41 states require an annual corporate report, 7 require one every two years, and 2 require none.
What the filings cost over five years
State filing charges only — incorporation plus five years of reporting, annualized. Corporate income tax and franchise tax are excluded, because both depend on income or net worth.
| Period | State filing charges |
|---|---|
| Incorporation | $275 |
| Each year after (report, annualized) | $125 |
| Five-year equivalent (annualized) | $900 |
That ranks Massachusetts 46th cheapest of 49 states on five-year corporate filing charges.
Massachusetts corporation vs Massachusetts LLC
State filing charges only. Corporate income tax and franchise tax are excluded because both depend on income or net worth, so no flat figure exists for either entity.
| Corporation | LLC | |
|---|---|---|
| Formation filing fee | $275 | $520 |
| Report cadence | Every year | Every year |
| Report fee | $125 | $520 |
Worth noticing: a corporation is $245 cheaper to file here than an LLC. That is the exception nationally — corporations are the cheaper filing in only 15 of the 50 states, the two entities cost the same in 25, and the LLC is cheaper in 10.
Full Massachusetts LLC cost breakdown · LLC vs C-corp explained · LLC vs S-corp explained
State taxes a Massachusetts corporation pays
Corporate income tax
| Applies | Yes |
| Rate | Massachusetts has no separate 'corporate income tax'; corporations pay a single corporate excise whose income measure is 8.0% of net income for tax years beginning on or after 1/1/2012 (M.G.L. c. 63, s. 39(a)(2)). S corporations pay 0% on the income measure unless total receipts reach $6M (see s_corp_entity_level_tax_note). |
| Minimum tax | $456 |
Franchise or gross-receipts tax
The Massachusetts corporate excise (M.G.L. c. 63, s. 39) has TWO measures: (1) an income measure of 8.0% of net income and (2) a non-income measure of $2.60 per $1,000 of taxable Massachusetts tangible property or taxable net worth. A corporation may never pay less than the $456 minimum excise, and Massachusetts law makes no provision for prorating it — a corporation operating at a loss still owes $456.
The $456 minimum tax is deliberately left out of the filing-charge totals on this page. A minimum tax is owed to the state tax authority on a tax return, not to the business filing office — but unlike an income-based tax it is a floor, so treat it as a recurring cost of keeping the corporation alive here.
What these totals leave out: the filing-charge figures on this page are what you pay the business filing office. They exclude corporate income tax and any franchise or gross-receipts tax, because both depend on income, net worth or receipts. The section above sets out what Massachusettslevies — or that it levies neither. Where a state's franchise tax carries a flat minimum, that minimum is an unavoidable annual cost these totals do not include, and over five years it can be the larger number.
C-corp return: Form 355, Business/Manufacturing Corporation Excise Return (Form 355U for combined reporting; Form 355SBC for qualifying small business corporations)
Frequently Asked Questions
Where these numbers come from
This page covers the recurring report a for-profit corporation files with Massachusetts. Every figure was checked against Massachusetts's own published sources on July 29, 2026— the state business filing agency's fee schedule, the governing statute, and where a state tax applies, the state Department of Revenue. Commercial formation-service pages were used as leads only and are never cited. Anything the review could not confirm from an official source is left blank on this page rather than filled with an estimate.
Corporate income tax and franchise tax are quoted as the state publishes them, as rate schedules and thresholds, and are excluded from every dollar total here. They depend on income or net worth, so there is no flat figure that would be true for every corporation.
Primary sources:
- https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/corporations/general-information/corporations-filing-fees.htm
- https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/corporations/download/Fee_Schedule.pdf
- https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/corporations/filing-by-subject/corporations/corporations-domestic.htm
- https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleIX/Chapter63/Section39
- https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleIX/Chapter63/Section32D
- https://www.mass.gov/lists/2025-massachusetts-corporate-excise-tax-forms-and-instructions