Delaware LLC annual tax 2026: $400, not $300, due by 1 June

House Bill 400 raised the yearly tax on limited liability companies and partnerships from $300 to $400 from 1 January 2026. The tax is paid each 1 June for the year before, so the 1 June 2026 payment was still $300 and the first $400 payment is due on 1 June 2027. Plenty of guides online still say $300, which is wrong for any company formed today. The bill didn't change the franchise tax rates for corporations.

The tax covers a calendar year, and you pay it by 1 June of the year after. So an LLC formed in 2026 pays its first $400 by 1 June 2027, and then every June after that. Delaware doesn't prorate it. Its instructions say an LLC owes the tax for any year it's on the state's records, even for a day, so a company formed on 20 December owes the same amount for that year as one formed in January.

You pay online, on the Division of Corporations' tax page, with the company's file number, which Delaware gave it when it was formed. Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover all work, and so does a bank debit (ACH), which Delaware requires for payments over $5,000. Click the card payment once, since a second click can charge you twice. There's no form and nothing to report, so keep the confirmation as your proof of payment. Every plan puts the date on your calendar. With annual state compliance, at $149 a year, we pay it for you and pass the $400 on at cost.

Be wary of letters or emails that look official and ask you to pay through someone else. Delaware tells companies to treat anything that doesn't come from the state or their own registered agent with suspicion.

Delaware adds a $200 penalty and charges interest of 1.5% a month on the tax and the penalty. The company also stops being in good standing, so Delaware won't issue a certificate of good standing until everything is paid, and a bank or investor that asks for one will find out. If an LLC goes three years without paying, Delaware cancels its certificate of formation, and bringing it back means paying everything owed plus a $220 revival filing.

For an LLC, yes. Delaware's own page calls it the LLC franchise tax and most people call it the annual tax, but it's the same flat $400. A Delaware corporation pays something different. It files a $50 annual report and pays a franchise tax worked out from its shares or its assets, starting at $175, both by 1 March. The C-Corporation tax guide covers that one.

For a company that will raise from US investors, usually yes: Delaware is what their paperwork assumes, and the yearly tax costs less than converting later. For a company that won't, no. A Wyoming LLC is the same company for $60 a year. Wyoming or Delaware has the full comparison.