Delaware's franchise tax minimum is a floor, not a guarantee

The workload

A solo founder who incorporates in Delaware, including through a service like Stripe Atlas, takes on a filing task every year regardless of whether the company has any revenue. Verified: Delaware's own Division of Corporations payment page, retrieved 16 September 2026, states that all active Domestic Corporation annual reports and franchise taxes for the prior year are due "annually on or before March 1st" and must be filed online. The task is calculating which of two methods produces the lower tax, since Delaware's own calculation page instructs filers to "use the method that results in the lesser tax."

What the documents show

Verified: the calculation page states the Authorized Shares Method charges "5,000 shares or less" a flat $175, "5,001 – 10,000 shares" a flat $250, and "each additional 10,000 shares or portion thereof" an added $85, with a worked example on the page: "a corporation with 10,005 shares authorized pays $335.00 ($250.00 plus $85.00)." The same page states the Assumed Par Value Capital Method is calculated differently, using assumed par value against authorized shares and total gross assets, with an alternative minimum of $400. Verified: Delaware's franchise tax methods page states the maximum annual tax is $200,000 for a standard filer, or $250,000 for a company meeting the state's own "Large Corporate Filer" definition. A founder's actual bill depends on how many shares the company authorized at formation, not on revenue, since a founder who authorized a large share count expecting future dilution can owe well above the $175 minimum with no revenue at all.

The operating cost

Verified: the minimum annual franchise tax is $175 under the Authorized Shares Method or $400 under the Assumed Par Value Capital Method, whichever the filer's actual share structure produces as the lower figure, due each March 1 covering the prior year. Verified: missing the deadline adds, per the payment page, "a penalty of $200.00 plus 1.5% interest per month on tax and penalty," a recurring monthly cost on top of the base tax that keeps compounding until paid.

The stop condition

The obligation does not stop on its own; it recurs every year a Delaware corporation stays active, regardless of revenue, and stops only when the entity is formally dissolved, a process these pages do not document. Editorial: a founder should treat the $175 minimum as a floor, not an assumption, and check the share count against the state's worked formula before budgeting the year's fee.

• How many shares does this corporation currently have authorized, and which of the two methods does that produce as the lower tax?
• Is the March 1 filing on this year's calendar, and is a penalty clock already running from a prior missed deadline?
• Does the company's structure meet Delaware's own definition of a "Large Corporate Filer," raising the ceiling to $250,000?

Delaware's own fee schedule is public and formulaic, not a matter of typical cost. A founder who authorized shares without checking this schedule first may already owe more than the commonly quoted $175 minimum, and the state's own calculation page is where that gets settled, not a founder-services vendor's marketing copy.