Is it cheaper to form an LLC in Delaware than Maryland?

No. Delaware costs more upfront ($110 vs $100), and if you operate in Maryland you must also register there as a foreign LLC ($100) plus pay a Delaware registered agent. Realistic first-year cost is roughly $360 versus $100 for forming locally.

Can I form my Maryland business in Delaware?

Yes. Any Maryland business can form its LLC in Delaware. But if the business operates in Maryland, it must also register there as a foreign LLC ($100 filing fee) and maintain a registered agent in Delaware, so you take on two states' fees and filings instead of one.

Does Delaware have better asset protection than Maryland?

Delaware offers more formation privacy. It allows anonymous LLCs while Maryland doesn't. Core asset protection is similar, though: both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members. For most small businesses the practical difference is modest.

State Comparison

Maryland LLC vs Delaware LLC (2026)

Written for owners based in Maryland.

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

Delaware costs more than Maryland in both directions, $110 to form against $100 and $400 a year against $300. Delaware LLCs file no annual report; the $400 is a flat alternative entity tax owed regardless of income, raised from $300 by a change in state law and payable each June 1 for the prior calendar year, with no proration for a December formation. Delaware does keep members off the public certificate, which Maryland does not. Weigh that privacy against $100 to register in Maryland and a $300 Form 1 that follows the company home.

Based in Delaware? Read Delaware LLC vs Maryland LLC →

Compare Maryland LLC vs Delaware 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: September 23, 2026

If your business is based in Maryland, a Maryland LLC needs no foreign registration there; a Delaware LLC run from Maryland generally must also register in Maryland as a foreign LLC (Maryland's $100 filing fee). If your business is based in Delaware, a Delaware LLC needs no foreign registration there; a Maryland LLC run from Delaware generally must also register in Delaware as a foreign LLC (Delaware's $200 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 Maryland LLC runs $400 in year one and $300/yr after; a Delaware LLC runs $510 and $400/yr. See the full breakdown below.

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Factor	Maryland	Delaware
Filing Fee	$100	$110
Processing Time	6 to 8 weeks	Not published by the state
Annual Report Fee	$300	None ($400/yr entity tax instead)
Annual Report Due	April 15	None required
State Income Tax	Yes	Yes
Anonymous LLC	No	Yes
Publication Requirement	No	No
Foreign LLC Cost (if forming out-of-state)	N/A, you're in your home state	$100 + registered agent ~$150/yr

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

Business Climate: Maryland vs Delaware

Factor	Maryland	Delaware
5-year business survival rate	50.1% (#31 of 51)	48.1% (#37 of 51)
Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months))	+11.8% YoY (#18 of 51 by volume)	+2.5% YoY (#33 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: Maryland vs Delaware

State A

State B

Maryland

✓ Cheaper Upfront✓ Cheaper Long-Term

Formation fee$100

Annual report fee$300

State entity taxNone

Report dueApril 15

Processing time6 to 8 weeks

Late penalty$0

Delaware

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

Total Cost

Maryland

Delaware

1 Year

$400

$510

3 Years

$1,000

$1,310

5 Years

$1,600

$2,110

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

Maryland charges $100 to form an LLC, while Delaware charges $110. Maryland is $10 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Delaware but operate in Maryland, you must also register as a foreign LLC in Maryland (a $100 filing) and maintain a registered agent in Delaware (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the Delaware route at roughly $360, versus $100 for simply forming in Maryland. Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Maryland publishes a standard turnaround (6 to 8 weeks), while Delaware publishes no standard processing time, so the two can't be ranked against each other on speed.

Taxes: Maryland vs Delaware

Both Maryland and Delaware 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 Delaware doesn't change what a Maryland-based owner pays. Maryland LLCs owe a $300 minimum annual Personal Property Return fee. Delaware LLCs owe a flat $400 annual LLC tax (no report required).

Privacy & Asset Protection

Delaware allows anonymous LLC formation. Member and manager names don't appear on routine public filings. Delaware's Certificate of Formation requires no member or manager names, and LLCs file no annual report, so ownership never appears on a public filing. Maryland doesn't offer that same privacy. Maryland requires an authorized person on the Articles and files a Personal Property Return; management information is available on public filings. 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. One important caveat: if you register your Delaware LLC as a foreign LLC in Maryland, that Maryland registration is itself a public record, which can undercut much of the privacy benefit for a business that operates in Maryland.

Annual Maintenance Costs

Maryland LLCs file an annual report ($300, due April 15), and Delaware LLCs file no annual report at all. If you form in Delaware while operating in Maryland, you maintain filings in both states, Delaware asks for no report, but Maryland still wants its equivalent for your foreign registration, and pay a Delaware registered agent roughly $150 per year. Counting report fees, the agent and any entity-level tax, that brings the Delaware route to roughly $850 a year, versus about $300 to keep a domestic Maryland LLC in good standing. The taxes inside those totals: Maryland LLCs owe a $300 minimum annual Personal Property Return fee. Delaware LLCs owe a flat $400 annual LLC tax (no report required).

When Delaware Actually Makes Sense

Forming in Delaware makes sense in a few specific situations: you need anonymous ownership. Maryland puts owner or manager information on public filings and Delaware doesn't (usually via a holding company, since operating in Maryland still requires a public foreign registration there), you're raising venture capital or institutional investment. Many investors specifically prefer or require Delaware entities, your business genuinely operates in Delaware, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to Delaware in the near future. For a typical small business based in Maryland, none of these usually apply. Registering a Delaware LLC to do business back home means $100 in Maryland foreign-registration fees, on top of Delaware's $110 formation fee, while Maryland's own annual report runs $300 a year and is due April 15. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.

Frequently Asked Questions

: No. Delaware costs more upfront ($110 vs $100), and if you operate in Maryland you must also register there as a foreign LLC ($100) plus pay a Delaware registered agent. Realistic first-year cost is roughly $360 versus $100 for forming locally.
: Yes. Any Maryland business can form its LLC in Delaware. But if the business operates in Maryland, it must also register there as a foreign LLC ($100 filing fee) and maintain a registered agent in Delaware, so you take on two states' fees and filings instead of one.
: Delaware offers more formation privacy. It allows anonymous LLCs while Maryland doesn't. Core asset protection is similar, though: both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members. For most small businesses the practical difference is modest.
: It depends on where the business is based. For a Maryland-based business, Maryland: forming where the business is based keeps costs and compliance simple, and Delaware is worth considering only if you actually do business there, want an anonymous holding company there or have investor requirements that point there. For a Delaware-based business, the same reasoning points to Delaware.
: Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Maryland publishes a standard turnaround (6 to 8 weeks), 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 Delaware while operating in Maryland means you're not fully set up until the Maryland 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 Maryland versus Delaware, contrasting filing fees, annual report cost and ongoing obligations across 8 factors. — Maryland and Delaware 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

Maryland vs Florida →Maryland vs Georgia →Maryland vs Hawaii →Maryland vs Wyoming →Delaware vs Wyoming →

Maryland LLC Guide →Delaware 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 bill: HB 400 (alternative entity tax increase)
dat.maryland.gov/businesses/Pages/default.aspxMaryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation: business entity filings
dat.maryland.gov/businesses/Documents/FEES.pdfMaryland LLC filing fees
corp.delaware.govDelaware Division of Corporations: business entity filings
corpfiles.delaware.gov/AugustFee2024.pdfDelaware 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.