Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania requires
Annual Report [DSCB:15-146]
| Frequency | every year |
| Due | Corporations (business and nonprofit, domestic and foreign): filing window January 1 – June 30 each year. (LLCs: January 1 – September 30; LPs, LLGPs, business trusts and professional associations: January 1 – December 31.) |
| Fee | $7 |
| Form | Annual Report [DSCB:15-146] |
Pennsylvania 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) | $7 |
| Five-year equivalent (annualized) | $160 |
That ranks Pennsylvania 12th cheapest of 49 states on five-year corporate filing charges.
Pennsylvania corporation vs Pennsylvania 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 | $7 | $7 |
Both entities cost $125 to file in Pennsylvania, so the filing fee is not a reason to pick one over the other.
Full Pennsylvania LLC cost breakdown · LLC vs C-corp explained · LLC vs S-corp explained
State taxes a Pennsylvania corporation pays
Corporate income tax
| Applies | Yes |
| Rate | Corporate Net Income Tax 7.49% for tax year 2026. Act 53 of 2022 phase-down: 8.99% (2023), 8.49% (2024), 7.99% (2025), 7.49% (2026), 6.99% (2027), 6.49% (2028), 5.99% (2029), 5.49% (2030), 4.99% (2031 and after). Act 45 of 2025 did not change this schedule. |
Franchise or gross-receipts tax
None. Pennsylvania's Capital Stock / Foreign Franchise Tax was eliminated for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2016. There is no minimum corporate tax and no annual franchise or privilege tax on corporations.
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 Pennsylvanialevies — 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: RCT-101 (PA Corporate Net Income Tax Report)
Frequently Asked Questions
Where these numbers come from
This page covers the recurring report a for-profit corporation files with Pennsylvania. Every figure was checked against Pennsylvania'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.pa.gov/agencies/dos/programs/business/types-of-filings-and-registrations/annual-reports
- https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dos/programs/business/fees-and-payments
- https://www.pa.gov/agencies/revenue/resources/tax-rates/corporation-tax-rates
- https://www.pa.gov/agencies/revenue/resources/tax-types-and-information/corporation-taxes/corporate-net-income-tax/act-45-of-2025
- https://www.pa.gov/agencies/revenue/resources/tax-types-and-information/partnerships-s-corporations-llcs
- https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/dos/programs/business/forms/offsite-forms/15-1306-Art-of-Incorp-For-Profit.pdf