How much does it cost to start an LLC in Delaware?

The Certificate of Formation costs $110, which the Division of Corporations describes as the filing fee plus a municipality fee. Optional expedited service runs from $50 for next-day up to $1,000 for one-hour Priority 1 service, and a certified copy is $50. Registering an out-of-state LLC in Delaware instead costs $200.

Does a Delaware LLC have to file an annual report?

No. The Division of Corporations is explicit: "LLCs, LPs, and GPs are not required to file Annual Franchise Tax reports with the Division of Corporations, they must pay the $400 yearly tax on or before June 1st." There is no report, no information filing and no report fee, only the annual tax payment set by Delaware's LLC statute.

How much is the Delaware LLC annual tax?

$400 a year for every domestic and foreign Delaware LLC. A 2026 Delaware law raised the annual tax from $300 to $400 effective January 1, 2026. Each year's tax is due on or before June 1 of the following year, so tax year 2026 is the first charged at $400, payable by June 1, 2027 (the June 1, 2026 payment, for tax year 2025, was $300). Registered series went from $75 to $100 each. There is no proration and the tax does not scale with revenue.

What is the penalty for paying the Delaware LLC tax late?

"Failure to pay the required annual taxes will result in a penalty of $200.00 plus 1.5% interest per month on tax and penalty," so a $400 tax paid late becomes at least $600 with monthly interest running on the combined amount. The LLC also ceases to be in good standing, and if the tax goes unpaid for three years the certificate of formation is cancelled under Delaware law.

Delaware LLC Cost (2026)

By Edmond Hui · Fees verified July 29, 2026 against the Delaware Division of Corporations fee schedule

In Delaware, the first-year state cost of an LLC is $510, before any registered-agent service. Forming an LLC in Delaware costs $110 to file the Certificate of Formation with the state, Delaware requires no annual report, and the Annual LLC Tax (alternative entity tax) adds $400 a year.

Bar chart of LLC costs in Delaware: $510 in unavoidable state charges in the first year and $400 a year after that. Delaware requires no annual report. — Delaware files no annual report, so the recurring figure is driven entirely by state taxes and fees. Source: Delaware's published filing fee schedule, verified July 2026.

Certificate of Formation$110

Annual reportNone

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

First-year state cost$510

Five-year state cost$2,110

How much does it cost to form an LLC in Delaware?

Delaware's $110 Certificate of Formation is the whole up-front state cost, and the fee schedule explains that $110 "equals filing fee plus municipality fee." Delaware LLCs file no annual report; instead they owe a flat annual LLC tax on or before June 1 for the prior calendar year, with no proration. That tax is $400 a year, plus $100 per registered series, under Delaware's LLC statute, as amended with effect from January 1, 2026. Because each year's tax is payable the following June 1, 2026 is the first tax year charged at $400, payable by June 1, 2027, and the June 1, 2026 payment for tax year 2025 was $300. Late payment costs "a penalty of $200.00 plus 1.5% interest per month on tax and penalty," and three years of non-payment cancels the certificate of formation outright under Delaware law.

Which fees does a Delaware LLC pay, and how often?

Cost	Amount	How often	Charged by
Certificate of Formation	$110	One time	Delaware Division of Corporations
Annual LLC Tax (alternative entity tax)	$400	Every year	Delaware Division of Corporations, Department of State
Required state cost, first year	$510	N/A	N/A
Registered agent service (optional)	$50 to $300	Every year	Commercial provider
Expedite and special handling fees in our record: 1-hour (Priority 1) ($1,000), 2-hour (Priority 2) ($500), Same Day ($100), 24-hour / Next Day ($50)	$50 to $1,000, by option	One time	Delaware Division of Corporations
Name reservation (optional)	$75	One time	Delaware Division of Corporations
Certificate of good standing (optional)	$50	Per copy	Delaware Division of Corporations

The Division of Corporations fee schedule (revised August 1, 2024) lists "Formation, domestic" for a Limited Liability Company at $110.00 and notes "the fee in column one for domestic LLC's equals filing fee plus municipality fee." The same amount applies however the document is submitted. A 2026 Delaware law did not change the $70 statutory certificate-of-formation fee.

Annual LLC Tax (alternative entity tax): Flat annual tax on every domestic and foreign LLC regardless of income, assets or activity. Delaware's LLC statute now reads "an annual tax, for the use of the State of Delaware, in the amount of $400," plus "$100 per registered series", raised from $300 and $75 by an amendment, a change that "take[s] effect January 1, 2026" per that law's effective-date provision. That provision is a bare effective-date clause: it fixes when the amended text becomes law, not which payment carries it. A separate part of the statute supplies that, making the tax "due and payable on the first day of June following the close of the calendar year." The 2026 tax year is therefore the first charged at $400, payable on or before June 1, 2027, and the payment due June 1, 2026 was $300, for tax year 2025.

Delaware's LLC statute sets out how an LLC is formed and what the certificate of formation must contain, and imposes no newspaper publication step. No publication or newspaper-notice fee appears on the Division of Corporations fee schedule or in the relevant subchapter of Delaware's LLC statute either, but the fee schedule evidences the absence of a FEE, not the absence of a duty.

Registered agent is listed separately because it is a commercial service, not a state charge. Commercial registered-agent services, not a state charge. Range and $125 midpoint match the assumption used by /tools/llc-true-cost. Most states let you serve as your own registered agent at no cost if you have a physical in-state address. Run your own numbers in the true-cost calculator. For what formation services charge on top of these state fees, see the best LLC services in Delaware.

Next steps for an LLC in Delaware

What does a Delaware LLC cost over five years?

State charges only in the first column; the second adds a registered-agent service at the $125/yr market midpoint.

Period	State cost only	With registered agent
Year 1 (formation + first filing)	$510	$635
Each year after	$400/yr	$525/yr
Five-year total	$2,110	$2,735

Is Delaware expensive compared with other states?

Delaware ranks 46th cheapest of 50 states on first-year cost , $277.84 above the $232.16 national average. On ongoing annual cost it ranks 46th.

Cheaper state	First-year cost	You would save
Montana	$35	$475
Arizona	$50	$460
Missouri	$50	$460

A cheaper filing fee elsewhere rarely saves money if you live and operate in Delaware. Doing business here with an out-of-state LLC generally means registering it as a foreign LLC in Delaware anyway. Paying both states. See foreign qualification in Delaware before forming elsewhere to save on fees.

What cost traps are specific to Delaware?

Annual tax rose from $300 to $400 effective January 1, 2026

A 2026 Delaware law, approved May 21, 2026, raised the LLC annual tax to $400 and the registered-series tax to $100, effective January 1, 2026. Because the statute makes each year's tax payable the following June 1, tax year 2026 is the first charged at $400, with its payment due on or before June 1, 2027, and the June 1, 2026 payment covered tax year 2025 at $300. The Division of Corporations' LLC/LP/GP tax instructions page read $300 in every archived copy through July 14, 2026 and $400 by August 11, 2026, and its Annual Report and Tax Information page (corp.delaware.gov/frtax/) now reads $400 too, but its tax FAQ (corp.delaware.gov/taxfaq/) still displayed $300.00 on 2026-10-05 and is out of date.

No proration: form in December, owe a full year's tax

The Division states "there is no proration on alternative entity taxes" and the tax is assessed if the entity is active "anytime during January 1st through December 31st," so an LLC formed on December 28 owes the full $400 tax for that year, due on or before the following June 1.

Late tax penalty is $200 plus 1.5% per month, and 3 years kills the LLC

Missing June 1 turns a $400 bill into $600 immediately, with 1.5% monthly interest running on the combined amount, and Delaware law cancels the certificate of formation on the third anniversary of the missed due date.

Frequently Asked Questions

: The Certificate of Formation costs $110, which the Division of Corporations describes as the filing fee plus a municipality fee. Optional expedited service runs from $50 for next-day up to $1,000 for one-hour Priority 1 service, and a certified copy is $50. Registering an out-of-state LLC in Delaware instead costs $200.
: No. The Division of Corporations is explicit: "LLCs, LPs, and GPs are not required to file Annual Franchise Tax reports with the Division of Corporations, they must pay the $400 yearly tax on or before June 1st." There is no report, no information filing and no report fee, only the annual tax payment set by Delaware's LLC statute.
: $400 a year for every domestic and foreign Delaware LLC. A 2026 Delaware law raised the annual tax from $300 to $400 effective January 1, 2026. Each year's tax is due on or before June 1 of the following year, so tax year 2026 is the first charged at $400, payable by June 1, 2027 (the June 1, 2026 payment, for tax year 2025, was $300). Registered series went from $75 to $100 each. There is no proration and the tax does not scale with revenue.
: "Failure to pay the required annual taxes will result in a penalty of $200.00 plus 1.5% interest per month on tax and penalty," so a $400 tax paid late becomes at least $600 with monthly interest running on the combined amount. The LLC also ceases to be in good standing, and if the tax goes unpaid for three years the certificate of formation is cancelled under Delaware law.

Where do these numbers come from?

Every fee above was checked against Delaware's own published sources on July 29, 2026 , the Delaware Division of Corporations fee schedule, the governing statute, and where a state-level tax applies, the state tax authority. Commercial formation-service pages were not used.

The first-year total is the Certificate of Formation fee plus the first year of any recurring state charge. Where a state's first report is not due until the following year, that is noted above. The five-year total is the filing fee plus five years of recurring charges, which avoids the timing question entirely. Registered-agent service is excluded from all state figures.

Sources

25 documents

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Delaware 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.

corp.delaware.gov/alt-entitytaxinstructions/
corp.delaware.gov/expserv/
corp.delaware.gov/fee/
corp.delaware.gov/frtax/
corp.delaware.gov/taxfaq/
corpfiles.delaware.gov/AugustFee2024.pdf
delcode.delaware.gov/title6/c018/sc11/index.html
legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail/143069
legis.delaware.gov/SessionLaws/Chapter/GetPdfDocument?fileAttachmentId=655304
legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GetPdfDocument?fileAttachmentId=653909
Delaware statute: 6 Del. C. § 18-1107(b) (annual LLC tax amount)
Delaware bill: HB 400 (85 Del. Laws c. 273, § 23) (raised the annual LLC tax)
Delaware statute: 6 Del. C. § 18-1108(a) (cancellation for non-payment)
Delaware bill: HB 400 (2026) (annual LLC tax increase)
Delaware statute: 6 Del. C. § 18-1105(a)(3) (certificate of formation fee)
Delaware statute: 6 Del. C. § 18-1108(a) (cancellation after 3 years of non-payment)
Delaware statute: 6 Del. C. § 18-1107 (annual LLC tax)
Delaware statute: 6 Del. C. § 18-1107(h) (loss of good standing)
Delaware statute: 6 Del. C. § 18-1107(k) (no filings or good standing certificate until paid)
Delaware bill: HB 400 (85 Del. Laws, c. 273, § 23) (raised the annual LLC tax)
Delaware bill: HB 400, § 45 (effective date)
Delaware statute: 6 Del. C. § 18-1107(c) (due date of the annual tax)
Delaware statute: 6 Del. C. 18-201 (certificate of formation)
Delaware statute: 6 Del. C. ch. 18, subch. XI (LLC fees)
Delaware law: 6 Del. C. § 18-1107(b) on delcode.delaware.gov (data confidence)

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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.

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