How Much It Costs to Form & Run a US Company (All-In, Yearly)

A Wyoming LLC costs roughly $299-$399 a year all-in to run, while a Delaware C-Corp lands at ~$800-$1,500 a year once you add a registered agent and a CPA. The one-time setup is small — a Wyoming LLC filing fee is just $100-$110, and Delaware incorporation starts from $180 — so the real cost is the recurring upkeep, not the formation itself.

Most "cost to form a US company" guides stop at the filing fee and let you discover the rest after you've paid.

That's the wrong number to anchor on. Formation is a one-time charge of a few hundred dollars; the figure that actually hits your bank account every year is the upkeep — the state fee, the registered agent, the bookkeeping, and for foreign owners, a mandatory IRS filing. This guide breaks the real all-in numbers down, line by line, so there are no surprises in year two.

Below, every number is current as of June 2026 and tied to a primary source.

What does it cost to form a Wyoming LLC?

A Wyoming LLC costs $100-$110 to file once, then about $299-$399 per year to keep alive.

Wyoming is the default pick for solo founders and bootstrapped teams because the recurring cost is genuinely low and the state has no corporate or personal income tax. The state's annual report license tax is $60 minimum for any LLC holding $300,000 or less in Wyoming-based assets, which covers nearly every online or remote business. Add a registered agent (~$50-$200/yr) and basic bookkeeping, and you land inside that ~$299-$399 all-in band.

The single line most first-timers forget is the registered agent.

Every US entity must keep a registered agent with a physical address in its state of formation. It's not optional, and it renews annually. Budget it as a fixed cost, not a setup fee.

What does it cost to form and run a Delaware C-Corp?

A Delaware C-Corp starts from $180 to incorporate, then runs ~$800-$1,500 per year all-in.

Delaware costs more for a reason: it's the entity venture investors expect, with case law and a Chancery Court built around equity, board structures, and stock. If you're raising a priced round or issuing options, the premium buys you a structure investors already trust. If you're not, you're paying for machinery you won't use.

The recurring cost has three real layers.

First, the Delaware franchise tax, which starts around $400 using the assumed-par-value-capital method, plus a $50 annual report fee. Second, the same ~$50-$200/yr registered agent every entity needs. Third — and this is the layer that pushes the total toward $1,500 — a CPA, because a C-Corp files a real corporate return and pays 21% federal tax on profits, with a possible second layer of tax on dividends.

The C-Corp's $800-$1,500 range is driven by accounting, not state fees — the franchise tax is the small part.

Wyoming LLC vs Delaware C-Corp: the all-in cost table

Here's how the two stack up across every recurring line, not just the headline filing fee.

What hidden costs do foreign owners always miss?

If you own a US LLC from outside the US, your biggest annual cost isn't the state fee — it's a mandatory IRS filing that's easy to overlook.

A foreign-owned single-member LLC must file Form 5472 together with a pro forma Form 1120 every year — even with zero revenue and zero activity. There's no income tax on a disregarded LLC's pass-through, but the reporting is non-negotiable, and the penalty for missing Form 5472 is $25,000 per form. It's due April 15, can't be e-filed (fax or mail only), and gets a six-month extension via Form 7004.

That one form is why "a US LLC costs $60 a year" is a dangerous half-truth for non-residents.

A single missed 5472 can cost more than five years of running the entity. Most founders only learn this after the IRS notice arrives, which is why the filing belongs in your annual budget from year one — typically as a CPA line item, since the form has to travel with a pro forma 1120 and cannot be e-filed. Treat it as the true floor of the cost, alongside the state fee and the registered agent.

Two other line items catch first-time foreign founders. You need an EIN before any US bank will open an account — applications without one are simply rejected. And you can get that EIN with no SSN: the IRS Form SS-4 instructions say to enter "Foreign" (or "N/A") on line 7b, though in practice some filers leave it blank and the EIN still issues.

Plan for the EIN and the 5472 from day one — they're not optional add-ons, they're the price of running a compliant US entity as a non-resident.

Where does StableCorp fit — and what's the all-in cost with us?

StableCorp handles the whole chain as one flow: formation, EIN, US bank account, USD plus USDC/USDT payments, and ongoing compliance — so the line items above don't show up as separate surprises.

We form Wyoming LLCs and Delaware C-Corps (plus Indian LLP and Pvt Ltd, and we can onboard your existing entity). The same default applies: Wyoming LLC if you're solo or bootstrapped, Delaware C-Corp if you're on the VC track. The state fees above are pass-through government costs — nobody escapes those — but the EIN filing, the bank account, and the 5472 are exactly the work we take off your plate. See pricing for the formation and compliance bundle.

Here's the part the generic cost guides never mention: forming the company is step one of getting paid.

Once your US entity is live, moving money is its own recurring cost — and that's where the real markup hides. The market charges roughly a 2.9% headline fee plus around 2% in hidden FX, which works out to about 5% effective every time you move funds. For clients incorporated with StableCorp, the off-ramp is 0.5% and the on-ramp is 1.5%; a direct off-ramp to INR is 1%, and contractor payroll is 1% (sometimes volume-negotiated).

For Indian founders pulling USDC home, StableCorp runs that off-ramp on compliant rails — RBI purpose codes P0802, P1004, P1005, P1006, P1007, and P1009 — with a proper paper trail, not the grey-area direct-wallet route. If you're weighing the entity choice itself, read our Wyoming LLC vs Delaware C-Corp guide, and if you'll be off-ramping stablecoins, see how Indian founders get paid in USDC compliantly.

Net it out: the entity is cheap, the upkeep is predictable, and the money movement is where you either save or bleed.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. State fees, IRS rules, and bank-eligibility policies change — verify current guidance against the primary sources linked above before you file.

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