Home / LLC & setup / Best state to form an LLC (2026)

Decision guide

Best state to form an LLC (2026): the honest math

The math everyone skips

Here’s the part every “form in Delaware!” listicle skips: an LLC does business where you do business. Form out of state and your home state still requires registering as a foreign LLC — a second filing fee, a second annual report, a second registered agent, plus the original state’s costs. For a normal operating business, the out-of-state LLC doesn’t avoid your home state; it adds a whole parallel state on top of it.

The famous three, priced

What experienced filers repeat

Note the $90 Delaware figure still circulating in old threads: it’s $110 now — one more reason this page carries check dates.

Non-residents: a different answer

With no home state in the picture, the math flips: Wyoming's $100 filing and $60 minimum annual make it the default for non-US founders, with Delaware worth its $110/$400 only when investors will demand it. The working stack is Wyoming LLC + EIN without an SSN + fintech banking — doola packages exactly that — plus a street address for banks and forms, which is where a virtual address slots in.

Three myths, retired

• “Delaware has no taxes.” Delaware has no sales tax and doesn’t tax out-of-state income — but your home state taxes you anyway, and Delaware’s $400 flat annual tax applies regardless of revenue. The Court of Chancery advantage is real, but it matters for venture-funded corporations, not a freelancer’s LLC.
• “Nevada hides owners.” Less true every year: the federal beneficial-ownership regime and Nevada’s own business-license requirements have narrowed the gap, while the $425 start and $350/yr keep the price premium. Wyoming delivers comparable privacy at a fraction of the carrying cost.
• “An LLC saves taxes by itself.” A default LLC is tax-transparent — you pay what you’d pay as a sole proprietor until an S-corp election makes sense, and that’s an accountant conversation, not a state-choice one.