How much is the North Carolina corporation annual report?

$25, filed every year. It is filed as the Business Corporation Annual Report (filed with the NC Secretary of State; no numbered form).

North Carolina Corporation Annual Report

By Edmond Hui · Facts verified July 29, 2026 against primary state sources

A North Carolina corporation files the Business Corporation Annual Report every year and pays $25. By the 15th day of the 4th month following the close of the corporation's fiscal year (April 15 for calendar-year corporations)

Filing for an LLC instead? See the North Carolina LLC annual report.

North Carolina corporation annual report requirements: North Carolina files an annual corporate report for $25. North Carolina imposes a corporate income tax. — The report fee shown is the state filing charge only; income or franchise tax, where owed, is covered separately on this page. Source: MyStateLLC 50-state corporation dataset, compiled from state filing offices and revenue departments, July 2026; any figure we could not confirm is labeled on the page.

Filing cadenceEvery year

Report fee$25

Corporate income taxYes

What North Carolina requires

Business Corporation Annual Report

Frequency	every year
Due	By the 15th day of the 4th month following the close of the corporation's fiscal year (April 15 for calendar-year corporations)
Fee	$25
Form	Business Corporation Annual Report (filed with the NC Secretary of State; no numbered form)

North Carolina 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	$125
Each year after (report, annualized)	$25
Five-year equivalent (annualized)	$250

That ranks North Carolina 25th cheapest of 49 states on five-year corporate filing charges.

North Carolina corporation vs North Carolina 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	$125	$125
Report cadence	Every year	Every year
Report fee	$25	$200
Entity-level tax on the LLC side	N/A	Franchise Tax (only LLCs that elect corporate tax treatment)

Both entities cost $125 to file in North Carolina, so the filing fee is not a reason to pick one over the other.

Full North Carolina LLC cost breakdown · LLC vs C-corp explained · LLC vs S-corp explained

State taxes a North Carolina corporation pays

Corporate income tax

Applies	Yes
Rate	2.00% flat for tax year 2026 (down from 2.25% in 2025; statutorily phasing down toward 0% in future years)

Franchise or gross-receipts tax

NC franchise (privilege) tax applies to both C and S corporations at $1.50 per $1,000 of the corporation's tax base with a $200 minimum; for tax years 2025 forward the tax on the first $1,000,000 of base is capped at $500 (holding companies capped at $150,000).

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 North Carolina levies, 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: CD-405 (C-Corporation Tax Return)

Frequently Asked Questions

: $25, filed every year. It is filed as the Business Corporation Annual Report (filed with the NC Secretary of State; no numbered form).
: By the 15th day of the 4th month following the close of the corporation's fiscal year (April 15 for calendar-year corporations).

Where these numbers come from

This page covers the recurring report a for-profit corporation files with North Carolina. Every figure was checked against North Carolina'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:

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It describes rules that can differ from state to state, and fees, rates, forms and deadlines can change after we review them. It cannot tell you what applies to your own business: that turns on where the business is formed, where it operates and how it is taxed. Confirm anything you rely on with the state or federal agency concerned, or with a licensed attorney or CPA, before you act on it.

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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.

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