Delaware LLC vs Mississippi LLC (2026)
Written for owners based in Delaware.
Verdict: for most owners, form where the business is based
Mississippi's domestic LLC is close to free to maintain: $50 once, then a $0 annual report every April 15, filed online because there is no paper route. The generosity stops at the state line. An out-of-state LLC pays $250 to register and $250 again every year for the foreign version of that same report. Delaware charges $110 to form and $400 a year in tax, with no report in either direction. Reverse the geography and a Mississippi LLC run from Delaware pays $200 here plus the $400.
Based in Mississippi? Read Mississippi LLC vs Delaware LLC →
Compare Delaware LLC vs Mississippi LLC on filing fees, taxes, privacy laws, and annual costs. Find out which state is actually better for your business.
By Edmond Hui · Last updated: October 5, 2026
Using a formation service? We compare the 4 formation services that pay us a commission, on three-year service cost, BBB rating and Trustpilot score.
Compare LLC formation services →Or by state: Best LLC services in Delaware, Best LLC services in Mississippi
Ready to file? Our affiliate partner ZenBusiness files your LLC formation paperwork, from $0 + state fee.
Start your LLC with ZenBusiness →Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no cost to you. MyStateLLC is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
| Factor | Delaware | Mississippi |
|---|---|---|
| Filing Fee | $110 | $50 |
| Processing Time | Not published by the state | Same day (online) |
| Annual Report Fee | None ($400/yr entity tax instead) | $0 |
| Annual Report Due | None required | April 15 |
| State Income Tax | Yes | Yes |
| Anonymous LLC | Yes | No |
| Publication Requirement | No | No |
| Foreign LLC Cost (if forming out-of-state) | N/A, you're in your home state | $200 + registered agent ~$150/yr |
Full fee breakdown for either state: Delaware LLC cost and Mississippi LLC cost. Owner privacy options for either state: Delaware anonymous LLC guide and Mississippi anonymous LLC guide.
Business Climate: Delaware vs Mississippi
| Factor | Delaware | Mississippi |
|---|---|---|
| 5-year business survival rate | 48.1% (#37 of 51) | 53.5% (#15 of 51) |
| Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months)) | +2.5% YoY (#33 of 51 by volume) | +29.5% YoY (#32 of 51 by volume) |
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics · U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics (BFS)
Compare LLC Costs: Delaware vs Mississippi
Delaware
Mississippi
A figure shown as "from" is the least the state can charge, not a price. Tennessee's report is $300 for up to six members and $50 for each member above six, its franchise tax is the greater of $100 or 0.25% of Tennessee net worth, Wyoming's report is the greater of $60 or $.0002 per dollar of in-state assets, Kentucky's entity tax is $175 up to $3 million of gross receipts and graduated above it, and New York's annual filing fee is graduated on New York source gross income. A total that contains one of those is shown as "from" for the same reason. Costs include every mandatory state charge: the filing fee, the report fee (annualised where a state files biennially), any state entity-level tax shown in its own row above, a one-time publication cost where the state publishes a rate for it, and any one-time registration charge a state requires before the LLC may trade. Two exclusions follow from that wording. Arizona and Nebraska require publication and publish no rate, so no newspaper cost is carried for either and their totals are not the whole cost. Alaska's $50 annual state business licence is a separate charge from the Secretary of State fees and is not carried here either. Annualising makes the 1, 3 and 5 year rows a cost of ownership rather than a payment schedule: a biennial state charges its whole report fee in the years it falls due and nothing in between. Entity-level taxes that only apply after a corporate election, or above an owner or income threshold, are excluded and flagged on the state's own cost page. New York's publication cost is carried at a $250 floor, roughly $200 of newspaper cost in a low-cost county plus the $50 Certificate of Publication fee. No county-clerk-designated New York City newspaper publishes a rate card, so the four-figure NYC estimates in wide circulation cannot be traced to a primary source and are not asserted here; budget for materially more than the floor if you file in a NYC county. Every fee was verified against the state's own fee schedule, statute, or revenue authority on 29 July 2026. Excludes registered agent and legal fees. For informational purposes only, not legal or tax advice.
Filing Fees & Formation Costs
Delaware charges $110 to form an LLC, while Mississippi charges $50. Mississippi is $60 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Mississippi but operate in Delaware, you must also register as a foreign LLC in Delaware (a $200 filing) and maintain a registered agent in Mississippi (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the Mississippi route at roughly $400, versus $110 for simply forming in Delaware. Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Mississippi publishes a standard turnaround (same day, online), while Delaware publishes no standard processing time, so the two can't be ranked against each other on speed.
Taxes: Delaware vs Mississippi
Both Delaware and Mississippi levy a personal income tax on pass-through business income, and your LLC's profits will be taxed where you live and operate. Forming in Mississippi doesn't change what a Delaware-based owner pays. Mississippi taxes individual income at a flat 4.0% on taxable income over $10,000 for tax year 2026 (down from 4.4% in 2025); the 2025 'Build Up Mississippi Act' schedules further phase-down toward eventual elimination, subject to revenue triggers. Delaware LLCs owe a flat $400 annual LLC tax (no report required). No franchise or privilege tax on a default LLC (Mississippi's corporate franchise tax reaches an LLC only if it is taxed as a corporation, and none is levied for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2028); note the foreign LLC annual report carries a $250 fee while the domestic LLC annual report is $0.
Privacy & Asset Protection
Delaware, your home state, actually offers more formation privacy than Mississippi: Delaware allows anonymous LLC formation, while Mississippi requires owner or manager information on public filings. The Certificate of Formation doesn't list members, but Mississippi's mandatory annual report requires the names and business addresses of managers (if manager-managed) or the name and address of at least one member (if member-managed), plus principal officers if any. Both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members, and for most small businesses the practical difference in asset protection between the two is minimal. From a privacy standpoint there's no reason for a Delaware-based business to form in Mississippi.
Annual Maintenance Costs
Delaware LLCs file no annual report at all, and Mississippi LLCs file a free annual report (due April 15). If you form in Mississippi while operating in Delaware, you maintain filings in both states, Mississippi's report, though Delaware asks for nothing on the foreign-registration side, and pay a Mississippi registered agent roughly $150 per year. Counting report fees, the agent and any entity-level tax, that brings the Mississippi route to roughly $150 a year, versus about $400 to keep a domestic Delaware LLC in good standing. The taxes inside those totals: Delaware LLCs owe a flat $400 annual LLC tax (no report required). No franchise or privilege tax on a default LLC (Mississippi's corporate franchise tax reaches an LLC only if it is taxed as a corporation, and none is levied for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2028); note the foreign LLC annual report carries a $250 fee while the domestic LLC annual report is $0.
When Mississippi Actually Makes Sense
Forming in Mississippi makes sense in a few specific situations: your business genuinely operates in Mississippi, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to Mississippi in the near future. For a typical small business based in Delaware, none of these usually apply. Registering a Mississippi LLC to do business back home means $200 in Delaware foreign-registration fees, on top of Mississippi's $50 formation fee, while Delaware itself never asks for an annual report at all. Delaware already allows anonymous formation, so the privacy argument for Mississippi doesn't apply to a Delaware-based owner. Trading Delaware's no-annual-report status for Mississippi's filing calendar is a step backwards for most owners. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to form your LLC?
Using a formation service? We compare the 4 formation services that pay us a commission, on three-year service cost, BBB rating and Trustpilot score.
Compare LLC formation services →Or by state: Best LLC services in Delaware, Best LLC services in Mississippi
Our affiliate partner ZenBusiness files your LLC formation paperwork, from $0 + state fee.
Start your LLC with ZenBusiness →Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no cost to you. MyStateLLC is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
More State Comparisons
Embed this comparison, free
Add the Delaware vs Mississippi cost calculator to any page. Works in WordPress, Squarespace, Webflow, and any HTML site.
<iframe src="https://www.mystatellc.com/tools/compare-states?embed=1&stateA=DE&stateB=MS" width="100%" height="720" frameborder="0" style="border:0;max-width:900px;display:block;margin:0 auto;" title="Delaware vs Mississippi LLC Cost Comparison" loading="lazy"></iframe> <p style="text-align:center;font-size:.8125rem;color:#6b7280">Source: <a href="https://www.mystatellc.com/llc/compare/delaware-llc-vs-mississippi-llc">MyStateLLC, Delaware vs Mississippi LLC Comparison</a></p>
Sources
Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so. Where we hold the citation but no stable public link, the citation is printed on its own rather than pointed at a guessed address.
- Delaware statute: 6 Del. C. § 18-1107(b) (annual LLC tax)
- Mississippi statute: Miss. Code § 79-29-215 (annual report contents)
- Mississippi law: HB 1 (2025) (income tax phase-down)
- corp.delaware.govDelaware Division of Corporations: business entity filings
- corpfiles.delaware.gov/AugustFee2024.pdfDelaware LLC filing fees
- sos.ms.gov/business-servicesMississippi Secretary of State: business entity filings
- sos.ms.gov/content/documents/Business/FeeSchedule.pdfMississippi LLC filing fees
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.