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Call (866) 681-2140
Direct representation, not advice from the sidelines.
Delaware has a reputation as the place to form a company, and for one type of business that reputation is earned. If you expect to raise venture capital or take on sophisticated investors, they will likely expect Delaware. For most other businesses, the reasons people cite do not actually apply to a small LLC, and the extra cost is real.
We form Delaware LLCs for founders who need them and steer the rest somewhere cheaper.
The genuine draw is the Court of Chancery, a court that hears only business disputes and has decades of precedent behind it. Investors and their lawyers know that body of law, which is why funded startups standardize on Delaware. If raising institutional money is on your roadmap, forming in Delaware now saves a conversion later.
If you are a consultant, a small operating business, or a single-owner LLC with no investor plans, Delaware mostly adds steps. You still pay tax where you actually operate, you still register in your home state, and you carry Delaware's franchise tax on top. The privacy and business-friendly points people repeat rarely add anything a small LLC can actually use.
Delaware keeps the ongoing cost simple. The recurring costs are:
The $300 is predictable. The second-state registration is the cost people forget to count.
We ask what the entity is for, because Delaware is right for a fundraising path and wrong for a lot of small businesses, and we tell you which one you are.
We file the Certificate of Formation, set up the registered agent, and handle the operating agreement and EIN.
We set how the LLC is taxed and register it where you operate, so the formation matches how you actually run.
Our first year filing our business taxes and complying correctly with the IRS. Price was reasonable and fair.
Following the Delaware advice when it does not apply means paying the $300 a year, paying a Delaware registered agent, and still registering and paying in your home state. You end up maintaining two states for a business that operates in one, with nothing extra to show for it.
Your price tracks what you actually need. A bare Delaware filing sits at the low end. A full setup, with the home-state registration and the tax election layered in, sits higher. The biggest swing is whether outside money is coming, so we look at that before we quote.
Before you form in Delaware because everyone says to, it is worth checking whether your business is the kind Delaware actually serves. If it is, we set it up cleanly. If it is not, we will tell you the cheaper state that does the same job.
Each person that reaches out to us gets a custom quote and a custom proposal for their exact tax situation. So each person that approaches us has the opportunity to speak with an adviser to put together a custom plan.
Send us a quick picture of the business and where it is headed, including any plans to raise money. You will get a straight answer on whether Delaware earns its franchise tax for you, or the state that would serve you better. A CPA does the work start to finish, and it stays between us.
