Pricing: $297 + Delaware state fee, one-time

Pricing methodology audit

The $297 is built from itemized cost components, not marked up over recurring fees. Per our internal audit:

• Registered agent passthrough (Year 1): ~$99
• Filing labor for Certificate of Formation: ~$40
• EIN application labor (Form SS-4 prep and fax follow-up): ~$30
• Operating Agreement template: ~$15
• Bank application labor (4-5 applications): ~$50
• WhatsApp support and onboarding (estimated $50/customer over Year 1)
• Margin: the remainder

The state fee ($110) is separate and paid through to Delaware, not absorbed in margin. We make the breakdown transparent because most competitors' recurring "compliance" fees are markup, not service cost.

Year 2 onwards

• $300: Delaware annual franchise tax (paid by you directly to Delaware, due June 1).
• ~$99: Registered agent renewal with Delewarellc (or $50/year with Harvard Business Services if you switch).
• $200-$500: CPA fee for Form 5472 + pro forma Form 1120 (paid to your CPA, not Delewarellc).
• $0: No Delewarellc subscription. No auto-renewal beyond registered agent.

What is not included

• Form 5472 filing (handled by a CPA; we provide the awareness brief and reminder).
• Foreign qualification in other states (e.g., California, New York) if you need it.
• Trademark filings.
• Legal advice (we are not a law firm; consult a Delaware corporate lawyer).
• Tax advice (we are not a CPA firm; consult a qualified tax professional).

What you actually pay

Year 1: $407 total paid to Delewarellc ($297 + $110 state fee passthrough). Plus $200-$500 to your CPA when Year 1 Form 5472 comes due. Year 2 onwards: $300 franchise tax (to Delaware) + $99 registered agent renewal + $200-$500 CPA = approximately $600-$900 per year ongoing.

Why is the price a flat $297 instead of a tiered menu?

A flat fee exists because the work to form a Delaware LLC for a non-resident founder does not change from one customer to the next. The Certificate of Formation is the same one-page filing whether you run a software studio or an e-commerce store. The EIN application on Form SS-4 follows the same path for every applicant without a US Social Security Number. The Operating Agreement template, the bank application packet, and the Form 5472 awareness brief are produced from the same process each time. When the underlying labor is constant, charging a constant price is the honest reflection of that reality. Tiered menus tend to gate the same baseline work behind "starter," "pro," and "premium" labels, where the higher tiers add reminders or PDFs that cost almost nothing to produce.

A single price also removes a decision that founders abroad are not equipped to make on day one. If you have never formed a US company, you cannot reasonably judge whether you need the $99 tier or the $349 tier, because you do not yet know which line items matter. By folding formation, the EIN application, Year 1 registered agent service, the Operating Agreement template, and bank applications into one number, the choice becomes simple. You are buying a working Delaware LLC with the documents a bank will ask for, not assembling a cart of upsells. The $110 Delaware state fee sits outside the $297 and is paid through to the state, so you can always see which dollars are service and which dollars are government cost.

What does the $110 Delaware state fee actually pay for?

The $110 is the statutory fee Delaware charges to file a Certificate of Formation for a limited liability company. It is collected by the Delaware Division of Corporations, not by Delewarellc, and it is the same $110 regardless of who submits the paperwork on your behalf. When you see this fee listed separately from the $297, that separation is deliberate. It lets you confirm that the state cost is being passed through at face value rather than marked up. If a provider quotes you a single bundled number with no breakdown, you cannot tell whether they are charging the real $110 or padding it. The line-item approach keeps the government portion verifiable against Delaware's own published schedule.

It helps to keep the $110 formation fee distinct from the recurring costs of owning a Delaware LLC. The formation fee is paid once, at the moment the company is created. After that, the recurring obligation to the state is the $300 annual franchise tax, which is a flat amount for every Delaware LLC and is due each June 1. Delaware LLCs do not file an annual report, which is a meaningful difference from many other states that pair a franchise tax with a separate yearly report. So the $110 you pay at the start and the $300 you pay each year afterward are two different things. Understanding that split early prevents the common surprise of founders who assume the formation fee renews. It does not.

How does $297 compare to other formation services for non-residents?

Most formation services aimed at international founders cluster their headline price somewhere in the low hundreds of dollars, then attach the state fee and a set of recurring charges on top. The headline number is rarely the number you pay. The honest comparison is the total first-year outlay plus the predictable second-year cost, because that is what determines the true price of owning the company. A $0 or $49 "free formation" offer that bundles a $200 per year registered agent and a mandatory annual compliance subscription can easily cost more over two years than a flat $297 with a modest renewal. The headline is a marketing surface, and the recurring fees are where the real money sits.

When you compare options, line them up on the same axes rather than on headline price alone:

• First-year total: formation labor + state fee + Year 1 registered agent + EIN handling.
• Second-year total: registered agent renewal + any mandatory subscription.
• Whether the EIN is included or sold as an add-on (the EIN itself is free from the IRS).
• Whether bank application support is included or left entirely to you.
• Whether there is an auto-renewing charge beyond the registered agent.

Delewarellc answers those questions with $297 plus the $110 state fee for Year 1, no mandatory subscription, the EIN application included, and bank applications included. The point is not that a flat fee is always cheaper in every scenario. The point is that you can verify the total cost before you commit, instead of discovering recurring charges after the company already exists.

Is the EIN really included, and why does that matter?

The EIN application is included in the $297, and the distinction worth understanding is that the EIN itself is free. The IRS does not charge anything to issue an Employer Identification Number. You apply on Form SS-4, and the IRS assigns the number at no cost. What Delewarellccharges for is the labor of preparing and submitting that application correctly for a founder who has no US Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, because the online IRS portal is not available to applicants in that situation. The work is in completing Form SS-4 accurately, submitting it through the channel the IRS accepts for foreign applicants, and following up until the number is issued. That process commonly takes around 8 to 10 business days.

This matters for two reasons. First, some services advertise a low formation price and then sell the EIN as a separate add-on for an extra fee, which inflates the real cost of getting an operational company. Because the EIN is genuinely free at the IRS, an add-on charge is pure labor markup, and you should know that when you compare quotes. Second, the EIN is not optional if you intend to open a US business bank account. Banks like Mercury, Wise, Relay, Lili, and Payoneer ask for the EIN as part of their onboarding. A formation that stops at the Certificate of Formation and leaves you to chase the EIN on your own is an incomplete formation. Including the EIN application in the flat price is what makes the company usable rather than just registered.

Does forming a Delaware LLC trigger a BOI report fee or penalty?

This question deserves a direct and current answer because the rules changed. Under the FinCEN Interim Final Rule issued on March 26, 2025, entities formed in the United States, including a Delaware LLC, and their beneficial owners are exempt from Beneficial Ownership Information reporting. Only entities formed under the law of a foreign country and then registered to do business in a US state are treated as reporting companies under the revised rule. FinCEN has stated it will not enforce BOI penalties against domestic companies. So a standard Delaware LLC formed by a non-resident founder does not file a BOI report, and there is no BOI filing fee or daily penalty baked into the cost of forming the company. Any pricing page that lists a mandatory BOI filing charge, a "file within 90 days" deadline, or a per-day penalty for a domestic LLC is describing the old framework, not the rule in force in 2026.

The practical takeaway for budgeting is that you should not set aside money for a BOI filing service when you form a Delaware LLC. The cost components that are real are the $297 service fee, the $110 Delaware state filing fee, the $300 annual franchise tax from the second year, the registered agent renewal, and your CPA's fee for the federal forms a foreign-owned single-member LLC must file. BOI is not on that list for a domestic entity. If your situation later involves an entity organized under foreign law that registers to do business in a US state, the reporting-company analysis is different, and that is a conversation for a qualified advisor. For the ordinary case this page addresses, a Delaware LLC owned by a person abroad, the BOI obligation does not apply and should not appear as a line item.

What ongoing costs should you budget for after Year 1?

The honest way to think about the price of a Delaware LLC is across two years, because the recurring obligations only become visible in Year 2. The largest predictable cost is the Delaware annual franchise tax, a flat $300 due each June 1. It is the same $300 for a dormant LLC and for an active one, because Delaware does not scale the LLC franchise tax to revenue. You pay it directly to Delaware. The second recurring cost is the registered agent renewal, which is roughly $99 per year with Delewarellc, and a Delaware LLC is required to maintain a registered agent with a physical Delaware address at all times. If you ever let the registered agent lapse, the state can move the entity toward losing its good standing, so this is not a cost to skip.

The third recurring cost is your accountant. A foreign-owned single-member Delaware LLC is generally treated as a disregarded entity that must file Form 5472 together with a pro forma Form 1120 to report transactions with its foreign owner. This is a federal filing obligation, and the penalty for failing to file Form 5472 is $25,000, which is why founders use a CPA rather than guessing. A reasonable budget for that filing is around $200 to $500 per year depending on the complexity of your transactions, paid to your CPA and not toDelewarellc. Putting it together, a typical ongoing year looks like $300 franchise tax plus about $99 registered agent plus $200 to $500 for the CPA, which lands in the rough range of $600 to $900 per year. None of that is a Delewarellc subscription, because there is no subscription beyond the registered agent.

Are there hidden fees or auto-renewals you should watch for?

The structure of the $297 price is designed so the answer is no hidden fees from Delewarellc. The only thing that renews is the registered agent service, because Delaware law requires a registered agent for as long as the LLC exists. There is no separate compliance subscription, no "premium" tier that quietly bills you each year, and no charge that activates after a trial. Year 1 is $297 plus the $110 state fee. Year 2 and beyond carry the registered agent renewal of roughly $99, and the state and CPA costs that you pay to Delaware and your accountant rather than to Delewarellc. Knowing exactly which party receives each dollar is what lets you confirm there is nothing extra hiding in the bundle.

The fees that do exist are external and predictable, not hidden, and they are worth listing so you can plan:

• $300 Delaware franchise tax each year, paid to the state by June 1.
• Roughly $99 registered agent renewal each year (or about $50 with Harvard Business Services if you switch).
• $200 to $500 CPA fee for Form 5472 and the pro forma Form 1120.
• $50 if you ever request a Delaware Certificate of Good Standing.
• $200 if you ever close the company with a Certificate of Cancellation.

Every one of those is a known amount you can look up, and none of them is a surprise charge from Delewarellc. Transparency here is not a courtesy. It is the whole reason the price is itemized.

Can you get a refund, and what happens if formation cannot proceed?

Refund expectations should be grounded in how the money flows. Part of what you pay is the $110 Delaware state fee, and once a Certificate of Formation is filed with the Division of Corporations, that government fee has been spent and is not recoverable from the state. The same is true of labor that has already been performed, such as preparing and submitting your filing or your EIN application. So the realistic frame is that the closer a formation is to completion, the more of the cost has already been consumed by actual work and actual government fees. Before any filing is submitted, there is more room to stop the process, because the state fee has not yet been paid out and the labor has not yet been spent on an irreversible step. This is why the timing of a request matters more than the headline policy.

It is also worth separating the things that can stop a formation from the things that cannot. A Delaware LLC name can be rejected if it conflicts with an existing entity, which is resolved by choosing a different name rather than by abandoning the formation. An EIN application for a foreign founder can take time, around 8 to 10 business days, but slowness is not the same as failure. The cases where formation genuinely cannot proceed are narrow, and they usually relate to a founder being unable to provide the basic identity information any filing requires. If you are weighing the purchase, the practical advice is to confirm your intended company name and your owner details before you start, so the process moves straight through and the question of a refund never has to arise.

Why does a one-time price beat a subscription over five years?

Subscriptions feel small in the first month and large in the fifth year, and a five-year view is the honest horizon for a company you plan to keep. Picture two paths. In the first, you pay a flat $297 to Delewarellc once, plus the $110 Delaware state fee at formation, and after that the only renewing line you owe Delewarellc is the registered agent at roughly $99 a year. In the second, a service advertises a low or free formation but binds you to a recurring compliance plan that bills every year for as long as the company exists. The plan rarely shrinks. It often grows at renewal. Across five years the recurring plan can quietly outpace the one-time fee several times over, and the gap widens the longer you hold the entity.

The structural reason is that formation is a one-time event and a subscription is a standing claim on your future cash. Your Delaware LLC is created once, and the Certificate of Formation does not need to be refiled. Charging you year after year for that single act is the mechanism a subscription uses. A one-time price aligns the charge with the work: you pay for the formation when the formation happens, and your only standing obligations afterward go to the parties who actually require them, which are Delaware for the $300 franchise tax, the registered agent for the address Delaware law mandates, and your CPA for the federal filings a foreign-owned LLC must make. Nothing in that list is a Delewarellc membership, because there is no membership.

How do payment timing and currency affect what a founder abroad pays?

Founders outside the United States often ask how to pay and when, and the practical answer shapes the real cost more than most pricing pages admit. The $297 service fee and the $110 Delaware state fee are due at formation, which means they land together at the start rather than spread across the year. If you are converting from another currency, your bank or card network may add a foreign-exchange spread on top of the listed dollar amounts, so the figure that leaves your account can be a little higher than the sticker. That is a function of your payment rail, not a Delewarellc charge, and it applies to every dollar-priced service you buy from abroad.

A few habits keep the conversion cost low and the timing clean:

• Use a card or account that quotes a transparent exchange rate rather than a hidden markup.
• Budget the Year 1 outlay as a single event, $297 plus $110, not as a monthly drip.
• Mark June 1 in the calendar for the $300 franchise tax so the second-year cost is never a surprise.
• Keep a small buffer for your CPA's Form 5472 fee, which arrives once your first filing year closes.

The point of grouping the dollar costs this way is that a founder in another country can plan around two clear moments: the formation payment at the start and the franchise tax each June 1. Everything else is a known annual figure rather than a recurring charge that fluctuates with a subscription tier.

What is the real cost of keeping a dormant Delaware LLC alive?

A surprising number of founders form a company and then pause the project, so the cost of holding an idle Delaware LLC is worth stating plainly. Delaware does not waive its obligations because a company has no revenue. The $300 annual franchise tax is a flat amount that applies whether the LLC trades actively or sits dormant, because Delaware does not scale the LLC franchise tax to income. The registered agent requirement also does not pause, since Delaware law requires a registered agent with a physical Delaware address for as long as the entity exists, which is roughly $99 a year with Delewarellc. So even a company doing nothing carries a predictable yearly floor of the franchise tax plus the registered agent.

The federal side does not switch off either. A foreign-owned single-member LLC is generally a disregarded entity that must file Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 to report transactions with its foreign owner, and the failure-to-file penalty for Form 5472 is $25,000, so the filing is not something a dormant owner can safely skip. If the company genuinely had no reportable transactions in a year, that is a question for your CPA rather than an automatic exemption you should assume. When a founder decides an idle entity is no longer worth the annual floor, the clean exit is a Certificate of Cancellation, which carries a $200 Delaware fee. Weighing that one-time $200 against years of franchise tax and registered agent renewals is the honest way to decide whether to keep a dormant LLC alive or close it.

How should you read a competitor's quote so the total is comparable?

Comparing formation quotes fairly is harder than it looks, because the number a provider leads with is rarely the number you end up paying. The discipline that protects you is to translate every quote into the same two figures: a true first-year total and a true recurring annual total. The first-year total should include the service fee, the $110 Delaware state fee, the first year of registered agent service, and the handling of the EIN application. The recurring total should include the registered agent renewal and any mandatory subscription the provider attaches. Once both quotes are expressed in those terms, a headline that says "free formation" stops being persuasive, because the recurring line is where the money actually lives.

When you read a competing offer, watch for the specific places costs hide:

• An EIN sold as a paid add-on, even though the IRS issues the EIN itself for free on Form SS-4.
• A registered agent that is free for Year 1 and then renews at a much higher figure than the $50 to $99 range.
• A "compliance" or "worry-free" plan that auto-renews and is hard to cancel.
• A bundled state fee with no breakdown, so you cannot confirm the real $110 is being passed through.
• A BOI filing charge for a domestic LLC, which the FinCEN Interim Final Rule of March 26, 2025 made unnecessary for US-formed entities.

Run any quote through that checklist and the comparison becomes apples to apples. Delewarellc states its first-year total as $297 plus $110 with the EIN application and bank applications included, and its recurring line as the registered agent renewal alone, so each figure is something you can verify before you commit.

What documents and value do you receive for the $297?

It helps to see the flat fee as a set of concrete deliverables rather than an abstract service, because what you actually receive is what makes the company usable. The $297 produces a filed Delaware Certificate of Formation, the EIN application prepared on Form SS-4 and followed through to issuance, an Operating Agreement template, a packet of applications submitted to four or five banks, and a Form 5472 awareness brief so you understand the federal filing that will come due. Year 1 registered agent service is part of the same fee, which satisfies Delaware's requirement that the LLC maintain a registered agent with a physical Delaware address from the moment it is formed. Each item maps to a real step a non-resident founder would otherwise have to navigate alone.

The reason these deliverables belong together is that a company is only operational when all of them exist. A Certificate of Formation without an EIN cannot open a US bank account, since banks such as Mercury, Wise, Relay, Lili, and Payoneer ask for the EIN during onboarding. An EIN without an Operating Agreement leaves a gap that some banks and partners want filled. A formation with no bank applications leaves the founder at the start line of the very task that motivated forming a US company in the first place. Bundling these into one price means the deliverable is a working business, not a registration certificate that still needs four more purchases to become useful. That is the value the flat $297 is meant to capture.

Does the price change if your business is more complex?

A reasonable worry is that a flat fee must hide a catch for anything beyond a simple case, so it is fair to ask where complexity actually enters. The formation work itself does not get harder with the nature of your business. Filing a Delaware Certificate of Formation for a consulting practice is the same filing as for a software product or an e-commerce store, and the EIN application on Form SS-4 follows the same path for any founder without a US Social Security Number. Because the underlying steps do not change, the $297 does not change. What can change is the work that sits outside formation, and that work is handled by parties other than Delewarellc, which is why it is listed as a separate budget item rather than a variable formation price.

The places where complexity genuinely raises cost are predictable and external to the flat fee:

• A higher volume of transactions with your foreign owner can raise your CPA's Form 5472 fee within the $200 to $500 range.
• Doing business physically in another state may require foreign qualification there, which carries that state's own filing fees.
• Adding members changes the entity from a disregarded single-member LLC to a partnership for federal tax purposes, which shifts the filing your CPA prepares.
• A trademark, if you want one, is a separate filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office and is not part of formation.

None of those items quietly inflates the $297. The Delaware franchise tax stays a flat $300 regardless of how complex your operations become, because Delaware does not scale the LLC franchise tax to revenue or activity. The flat formation fee holds because formation is the same act every time, and the genuinely variable costs are paid to the CPA, another state, or the trademark office, where you can see them as distinct decisions rather than hidden formation markup.