Can I form my Delaware business in Pennsylvania?

Yes. Any Delaware business can form its LLC in Pennsylvania. But if the business operates in Delaware, it must also register there as a foreign LLC ($200 filing fee) and keep a Pennsylvania registered office, usually through a commercial registered office provider, so you take on two states' fees and filings instead of one.

Does Pennsylvania have better asset protection than Delaware?

Not meaningfully. Both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members, and neither offers a decisive asset-protection edge for a typical small business. Sound insurance and clean separation of business and personal finances matter more in practice.

State Comparison

Delaware LLC vs Pennsylvania LLC (2026)

Written for owners based in Delaware.

Verdict: for most owners, form where the business is based

Pennsylvania has the cheapest recurring state charge in this comparison: $7 a year. A 2022 Pennsylvania law replaced the old decennial report with that annual filing starting in 2025, so an LLC formed years ago now has a September 30 deadline it never had before, and the reports due in 2027 carry dissolution risk. Formation is $125, and the Bureau takes only a check or money order for ordinary filings, never a card. Delaware costs $400 a year against that $7, plus $200 to register a Pennsylvania LLC here.

Based in Pennsylvania? Read Pennsylvania LLC vs Delaware LLC →

Compare Delaware LLC vs Pennsylvania 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

If your business is based in Delaware, a Delaware LLC needs no foreign registration there; a Pennsylvania LLC run from Delaware generally must also register in Delaware as a foreign LLC (Delaware's $200 filing fee). If your business is based in Pennsylvania, a Pennsylvania LLC needs no foreign registration there; a Delaware LLC run from Pennsylvania generally must also register in Pennsylvania as a foreign LLC (Pennsylvania's $250 filing fee). An LLC formed in one of these states and run from the other owes whatever filings, fees and taxes each state requires. A Delaware LLC runs $510 in year one and $400/yr after; a Pennsylvania LLC runs $132 and $7/yr. See the full breakdown below.

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Factor	Delaware	Pennsylvania
Filing Fee	$110	$125
Processing Time	Not published by the state	2 to 4 days
Annual Report Fee	None ($400/yr entity tax instead)	$7
Annual Report Due	None required	September 30
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 office provider (est. ~$150/yr)

Full fee breakdown for either state: Delaware LLC cost and Pennsylvania LLC cost. Owner privacy options for either state: Delaware anonymous LLC guide and Pennsylvania anonymous LLC guide.

Business Climate: Delaware vs Pennsylvania

Factor	Delaware	Pennsylvania
5-year business survival rate	48.1% (#37 of 51)	57.1% (#1 of 51)
Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months))	+2.5% YoY (#33 of 51 by volume)	+6.5% YoY (#12 of 51 by volume)

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics · U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics (BFS)

See the full 50-state survival ranking.

Compare LLC Costs: Delaware vs Pennsylvania

State A

State B

Delaware

✓ Cheaper Upfront

Formation fee$110

Annual report feeNo report required

State entity tax$400/yr, Annual LLC Tax (alternative entity tax)

Report dueNone required

Processing timeNot published by the state

Late penaltyNo report to file late. The annual tax carries its own penalty

Pennsylvania

✓ Cheaper Long-Term

Formation fee$125

Annual report fee$7

State entity taxNone

Report dueSeptember 30

Processing time2 to 4 days

Late penalty$0

Total Cost

Delaware

Pennsylvania

1 Year

$510

$132

3 Years

$1,310

$146

5 Years

$2,110

$160

Will you operate outside your home state?

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 Pennsylvania charges $125. Delaware is $15 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Pennsylvania but operate in Delaware, you must also register as a foreign LLC in Delaware (a $200 filing) and keep a Pennsylvania registered office, usually through a commercial registered office provider (we budget about $150 a year; providers set their own fees). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the Pennsylvania route at roughly $475, versus $110 for simply forming in Delaware. Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Pennsylvania publishes a standard turnaround (2 to 4 days), while Delaware publishes no standard processing time, so the two can't be ranked against each other on speed.

Taxes: Delaware vs Pennsylvania

Both Delaware and Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania doesn't change what a Delaware-based owner pays. Pennsylvania levies a flat 3.07% personal income tax. Delaware LLCs owe a flat $400 annual LLC tax (no report required).

Privacy & Asset Protection

Delaware, your home state, actually offers more formation privacy than Pennsylvania: Delaware allows anonymous LLC formation, while Pennsylvania requires owner or manager information on public filings. Pennsylvania's annual report names at least one governor (a member or manager with management responsibility). 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 Pennsylvania.

Annual Maintenance Costs

Delaware LLCs file no annual report at all, and Pennsylvania LLCs file an annual report ($7, due September 30). If you form in Pennsylvania while operating in Delaware, you maintain filings in both states, Pennsylvania's report, though Delaware asks for nothing on the foreign-registration side, and pay a Pennsylvania commercial registered office provider, which we budget at about $150 a year (providers set their own fees, and another Pennsylvania street address also works). Counting report fees, the provider and any entity-level tax, that brings the Pennsylvania route to roughly $157 a year, versus about $400 to keep a domestic Delaware LLC in good standing. The tax inside those totals: Delaware LLCs owe a flat $400 annual LLC tax (no report required).

When Pennsylvania Actually Makes Sense

Forming in Pennsylvania makes sense in a few specific situations: your business genuinely operates in Pennsylvania, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to Pennsylvania in the near future. For a typical small business based in Delaware, none of these usually apply. Registering a Pennsylvania LLC to do business back home means $200 in Delaware foreign-registration fees, on top of Pennsylvania's $125 formation fee, while Delaware itself never asks for an annual report at all. Delaware already allows anonymous formation, so the privacy argument for Pennsylvania doesn't apply to a Delaware-based owner. Trading Delaware's no-annual-report status for Pennsylvania's filing calendar is a step backwards for most owners. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.

Frequently Asked Questions

: No. Pennsylvania costs more upfront ($125 vs $110), and if you operate in Delaware you must also register there as a foreign LLC ($200) plus pay a Pennsylvania commercial registered office provider unless you have another Pennsylvania street address to list. Realistic first-year cost is roughly $475 versus $110 for forming locally.
: Yes. Any Delaware business can form its LLC in Pennsylvania. But if the business operates in Delaware, it must also register there as a foreign LLC ($200 filing fee) and keep a Pennsylvania registered office, usually through a commercial registered office provider, so you take on two states' fees and filings instead of one.
: Not meaningfully. Both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members, and neither offers a decisive asset-protection edge for a typical small business. Sound insurance and clean separation of business and personal finances matter more in practice.
: It depends on where the business is based. For a Delaware-based business, Delaware: forming where the business is based keeps costs and compliance simple, and Pennsylvania is worth considering only if you actually do business there. For a Pennsylvania-based business, the same reasoning points to Pennsylvania.
: Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Pennsylvania publishes a standard turnaround (2 to 4 days), while Delaware publishes no standard processing time, so the two can't be ranked against each other on speed. Whichever you pick, remember that forming in Pennsylvania while operating in Delaware means you're not fully set up until the Delaware foreign registration is also processed, so the out-of-state route is rarely the faster path end to end. If your timing is genuinely fixed, buy the state's expedite tier rather than relying on a standard turnaround.

Comparison chart of forming an LLC in Delaware versus Pennsylvania, contrasting filing fees, annual report cost and ongoing obligations across 8 factors. — Delaware and Pennsylvania side by side on the factors that decide where to form. Source: MyStateLLC 50-state cost dataset, verified against each Secretary of State's published fee schedule, July 2026.

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More State Comparisons

Delaware vs Rhode Island →Delaware vs South Carolina →Delaware vs South Dakota →Delaware vs Wyoming →Pennsylvania vs Wyoming →

Delaware LLC Guide →Pennsylvania LLC Guide →

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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)
Pennsylvania law: Act 122 of 2022 (annual report replaces decennial report)
corp.delaware.govDelaware Division of Corporations: business entity filings
corpfiles.delaware.gov/AugustFee2024.pdfDelaware LLC filing fees
pa.gov/agencies/dos/programs/businessPennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations: business entity filings
pa.gov/agencies/dos/programs/business/fees-and-paymentsPennsylvania 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.