West Virginia 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 West Virginia requires
Annual Report for Corporations
| Frequency | every year |
| Due | Filed each year between January 1 and July 1; $25 if paid by the July 1 deadline ($75 for profit entities after July 1, which includes a $50 late fee) |
| Fee | $25 |
| Form | Annual Report for Corporations (filed through the WV One Stop Business Portal / Secretary of State) |
Sourcing note: no separately numbered paper form
West Virginia 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) | $25 |
| Five-year equivalent (annualized) | $225 |
That ranks West Virginia 21st cheapest of 49 states on five-year corporate filing charges.
West Virginia corporation vs West Virginia 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 | $100 |
| Report cadence | Every year | Every year |
| Report fee | $25 | $25 |
| Entity-level tax on the LLC side | — | West Virginia Business Registration Certificate |
Both entities cost $100 to file in West Virginia, so the filing fee is not a reason to pick one over the other.
Full West Virginia LLC cost breakdown · LLC vs C-corp explained · LLC vs S-corp explained
State taxes a West Virginia corporation pays
Corporate income tax
| Applies | Yes |
| Rate | 6.5% flat on West Virginia taxable income (starting point is federal taxable income); no income threshold or exemption bracket |
Franchise or gross-receipts tax
West Virginia repealed its Business Franchise Tax effective January 1, 2015; there is no franchise tax. Corporations pay only the flat 6.5% Corporation Net Income Tax.
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 West Virginialevies — 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 WV/CNF-120 (West Virginia Corporation Net Income Tax Return)
Frequently Asked Questions
Where these numbers come from
This page covers the recurring report a for-profit corporation files with West Virginia. Every figure was checked against West Virginia'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.