South Carolina LLC vs Delaware LLC (2026)
Written for owners based in South Carolina.
Verdict: for most owners, form where the business is based
Delaware charges exactly what South Carolina does to file, $110, and then $400 a year in alternative entity tax on every domestic and foreign LLC, whatever it earned. There is no proration, so an LLC organized in late December owes the full year, and the tax rose from $300 to $400 effective January 1, 2026, first reaching a payment on June 1, 2027. Delaware does keep member names off the public filing, which South Carolina does not. Weigh that against $510 in year one and $110 to register the entity in South Carolina.
Based in Delaware? Read Delaware LLC vs South Carolina LLC →
Compare South Carolina 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
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| Factor | South Carolina | Delaware |
|---|---|---|
| Filing Fee | $110 | $110 |
| Processing Time | Not published by the state | Not published by the state |
| Annual Report Fee | None | None ($400/yr entity tax instead) |
| Annual Report Due | None required | 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 | $110 + registered agent ~$150/yr |
Full fee breakdown for either state: South Carolina LLC cost and Delaware LLC cost. Owner privacy options for either state: South Carolina anonymous LLC guide and Delaware anonymous LLC guide.
Business Climate: South Carolina vs Delaware
| Factor | South Carolina | Delaware |
|---|---|---|
| 5-year business survival rate | 55.9% (#2 of 51) | 48.1% (#37 of 51) |
| Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months)) | +14.7% YoY (#19 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)
Compare LLC Costs: South Carolina vs Delaware
South Carolina
Delaware
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
South Carolina charges $110 to form an LLC, while Delaware charges $110. The upfront filing fees are identical. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Delaware but operate in South Carolina, you must also register as a foreign LLC in South Carolina (a $110 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 $370, versus $110 for simply forming in South Carolina. Speed isn't a basis for choosing between them: neither South Carolina nor Delaware publishes a standard processing time, so any figure comparing the two is guesswork.
Taxes: South Carolina vs Delaware
Both South Carolina 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 South Carolina-based owner pays. 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. South Carolina doesn't offer that same privacy. South Carolina requires managers to be listed on the Articles of Organization when the LLC is manager-managed, a public record. 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 South Carolina, that South Carolina registration is itself a public record, which can undercut much of the privacy benefit for a business that operates in South Carolina.
Annual Maintenance Costs
South Carolina LLCs file no annual report at all, and Delaware LLCs file no annual report at all. If you form in Delaware while operating in South Carolina, you maintain filings in both states, though neither state asks for a recurring report, 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 $550 a year, versus about $0 to keep a domestic South Carolina LLC in good standing. The tax inside those totals: 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. South Carolina puts owner or manager information on public filings and Delaware doesn't (usually via a holding company, since operating in South Carolina 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 South Carolina, none of these usually apply. Registering a Delaware LLC to do business back home means $110 in South Carolina foreign-registration fees, on top of Delaware's $110 formation fee, while South Carolina itself never asks for an annual report at all. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.
Frequently Asked Questions
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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.
- sos.sc.gov/online-filings/business-entitiesSouth Carolina Secretary of State: business entity filings
- scstatehouse.gov/code/t33c044.phpSouth Carolina 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.