Tennessee 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 Tennessee requires
Annual Report - For-Profit Corporation
| Frequency | every year |
| Due | On or before the first day of the fourth month following the close of the corporation's fiscal year (April 1 for calendar-year filers). Not April 15 and not the last day of the anniversary month. |
| Fee | $20 |
| Form | Annual Report - For-Profit Corporation (Form SS-4444) |
Tennessee 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 | $100 |
| Each year after (report, annualized) | $20 |
| Five-year equivalent (annualized) | $200 |
That ranks Tennessee 18th cheapest of 49 states on five-year corporate filing charges.
Tennessee corporation vs Tennessee 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 | $100 | $300 |
| Report cadence | Every year | Every year |
| Report fee | $20 | $300 |
| Entity-level tax on the LLC side | — | Franchise and Excise Tax |
Worth noticing: a corporation is $200 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 Tennessee LLC cost breakdown · LLC vs C-corp explained · LLC vs S-corp explained
State taxes a Tennessee corporation pays
Corporate income tax
| Applies | Yes |
| Rate | 6.5% excise tax on net earnings/income apportioned to Tennessee (Tennessee's corporate-level income tax) |
Franchise or gross-receipts tax
Franchise tax of 0.25% ($0.25 per $100) of net worth, minimum franchise tax $100. Per the 2024 Tennessee Works Tax Act, the alternative minimum franchise-tax base measured by the value of real and tangible property located in TN (the property measure / Schedule G) was repealed effective for tax years ending on or after Jan 1, 2024; franchise tax is now computed on net worth only. Applies to all corporations, LLCs and LPs doing business in TN.
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 Tennesseelevies — 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: FAE 170 (Franchise and Excise Tax Return)
Frequently Asked Questions
Where these numbers come from
This page covers the recurring report a for-profit corporation files with Tennessee. Every figure was checked against Tennessee'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.tn.gov/revenue/taxes/franchise---excise-tax.html
- https://www.tn.gov/revenue/taxes/franchise---excise-tax/due-dates-and-tax-rates.html
- https://www.tn.gov/revenue/taxes/franchise---excise-tax/forms.html
- https://sos.tn.gov/businesses/services/business-forms-fees
- https://sos.tn.gov/business-services/for-profit-corporations