Wyoming vs Delaware vs New Mexico: picking a state for your LLC

By Mariam Raouf. Published 2026-08-19. 7 min read.

Delaware quietly raised its annual LLC tax to $400 this year, and most guides ranking states for your LLC still say $300. Wrong by a third, in the state those guides recommend first.

So before you weigh Wyoming vs Delaware vs New Mexico for your LLC, here is what ten states actually charge as of September 2026, checked against each state's own fee schedule rather than against other blog posts. Then the three in the title, and then the part nobody says out loud, which is that for a normal operating business the state you form in is usually not the decision you think it is.

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. It is the arithmetic, plus where the arithmetic stops being the point.

What every state actually charges

Two numbers matter: what it costs to file, and what it costs to keep alive each year. The second one compounds.

Sources: Delaware fee schedule, Wyoming business fees, Nevada NRS 86.263, Texas Form 205 instructions, Florida Sunbiz LLC fees, California fee schedule, New York Department of State, Colorado business fees, Ohio Revised Code 111.16. Checked September 2026.

Three rows are worth stopping on, the ones published guides most often get wrong.

The Delaware $400 problem

Delaware's annual LLC tax is now $400, up from $300, following legislation introduced in April 2026. It is due June 1 every year, and it is flat rather than calculated on income, so a dormant Delaware LLC with no revenue owes the same $400 as a busy one.

If you are comparing states on a page written before this year, the Delaware column is understated by $100 a year, forever.

Delaware is still Delaware. Its Division of Corporations reports more than 2.28 million registered entities, 334,461 new entities formed in 2025, over two thirds of the Fortune 500, and nearly 70% of US based IPOs in 2025. A real ecosystem with real case law behind it. It is just not the cheap option, and for a two person consultancy it never was.

The California first year that is not free

Plenty of articles still tell you California waives the $800 franchise tax in your first year. That waiver applied only to tax years beginning 1 January 2021 through 31 December 2023, and it has expired. The Franchise Tax Board is the authority, and the current position is that the $800 annual minimum applies.

There is also an additional LLC fee once California source income crosses certain thresholds: $900 at $250,000, $2,500 at $500,000, $6,000 at $1,000,000, and $11,790 at $5,000,000 and above. Those sit on top of the $800.

That is why California has the most expensive recurring cost in the table despite one of the cheaper filing fees, and why so many people try to form somewhere else. Which brings us to the trap.

The New York cost nobody quotes

New York requires you, within 120 days of formation, to publish notice of your LLC in two newspapers designated by the county clerk, for six consecutive weeks, then file a Certificate of Publication for $50. Miss it and the LLC's authority to do business is suspended.

Here is the honest part. I cannot tell you what that costs, and neither can anyone else. The newspapers set the price, it varies enormously by county, and no official figure exists. Any article quoting a firm number for New York publication invented it or copied someone who did. Ask your county clerk which papers are designated, then get quotes from those papers.

Wyoming vs Delaware vs New Mexico LLC costs, side by side

The three in the title, on the numbers alone.

Sources as above. Registered agent fees are separate everywhere and not included.

New Mexico wins on paper, and it is also the one I would treat most carefully. The claim that it has no LLC annual report is repeated everywhere and I could not confirm it from a New Mexico state source. Ohio's equivalent claim is much better supported. Verify it with the Secretary of State before it becomes the reason you chose a state.

Wyoming is the sensible middle. A hundred dollars to file, sixty a year to maintain, or $0.0002 of your Wyoming located assets if that comes out higher, which for most remote businesses it will not.

Delaware costs five times what Wyoming costs each year. You pay that for a body of corporate law that investors and their lawyers already understand.

Wyoming vs Delaware vs New Mexico: when Delaware is worth it

If you are raising venture capital, you will almost certainly be told to be a Delaware C Corp, not an LLC in any state.

Worth being precise about why, because the way this gets repeated online is wrong. There is no rule requiring it. It is market practice, nothing more. The model financing documents the industry uses assume Delaware, the lawyers on both sides have done it a thousand times, and deviating means paying someone to think. That is a real cost and it is why the convention holds. But it is convention, not regulation, and if nobody is investing in you it does not apply.

The thing most of these comparisons leave out

Forming in Wyoming does not move your business to Wyoming.

If you live in California and run your business from California, forming an LLC in Wyoming generally means you are a Wyoming LLC doing business in California, which generally means registering in California as a foreign LLC as well. Two registered agents, two sets of filings, and California's $800 still lands. You have added cost and complexity, not removed it.

This is the most common expensive mistake in this topic. The state you actually operate in has its own view about businesses operating there, and that view usually wins.

So the practical rule for a normal small business, a shop, an agency, a contractor, a consultancy with local clients, is to form in the state you are in. Simpler, cheaper once you count both sides, and what your accountant would tell you.

These comparisons get interesting when you are a non US founder with no physical US presence, or an online business with no meaningful nexus anywhere. Then no home state is pulling you and picking on cost is reasonable. Our guide to setting up a US LLC as a foreign founder covers that.

What to do next

Work out where you actually do business first. Not where you would like to be taxed, where you have people, premises, inventory or regular clients.

If that is one state, form there and stop reading comparison articles. If it is genuinely nowhere, compare on the recurring column rather than the filing fee, because the filing fee happens once and the recurring cost happens forever.

Then budget for a registered agent, because one is mandatory everywhere.

If any of this touches multi state operations, employees in more than one place, or a serious tax question, ask a lawyer or a CPA licensed in that state. A hundred dollars of advice now is cheaper than unwinding a structure later.

The short version

If you run a business in a state, form it in that state. Everything else here is a distraction dressed up as optimisation, and the people selling you a Wyoming LLC rarely mention the second registration you will need at home.

If you genuinely have no home state, the numbers are in the table and current as of September

1. Wyoming at $60 a year is the safe default. New Mexico is probably cheaper and I would

confirm it first. Delaware is worth $400 a year only when someone is putting money in and their lawyers expect it.

At Calpir we build the systems that come after the paperwork, so the company you just formed actually does something. The free assessment is a decent start and our services page lays out the rest. When the answer is "talk to an accountant first", I will say that too.

Frequently asked questions

Is Wyoming or Delaware better for an LLC?

For cost, Wyoming, and it is not close: $60 a year against Delaware's $400. For raising institutional investment, Delaware, though at that point you are usually forming a C Corp. If nobody is buying equity, the Delaware premium buys infrastructure you will never use.

Does New Mexico really have no annual report for LLCs?

That is the widely repeated claim and it may be correct, but I could not verify it from a New Mexico state source, so I will not assert it as fact. Treat it as probable rather than confirmed, and check with the Secretary of State first.

Can I form in Wyoming if I live in California?

You can form the entity there, but if you operate from California you will generally also need to register in California as a foreign LLC and pay the $800 annual franchise tax. You end up with two states instead of one. Ask a California CPA before doing it deliberately.

How much does the New York publication requirement cost?

Nobody can tell you, honestly. Newspapers set their own rates and the designated papers vary by county, so no official figure exists. Ask your county clerk which papers are designated, then get quotes from those papers before you form.

Sources

• Delaware Division of Corporations fee schedule
• Delaware alternative entity tax instructions
• Delaware legislation modernising the corporate fee structure, April 2026
• Delaware Division of Corporations statistics
• Wyoming Secretary of State business fees
• Wyoming annual report
• Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 86
• Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 76
• Texas Secretary of State Form 205 instructions
• Texas Comptroller franchise tax
• Florida Sunbiz LLC fees
• California Secretary of State fee schedule
• California Franchise Tax Board, LLC
• New York Department of State, forming an LLC
• New York Certificate of Publication
• New York biennial statements
• Colorado Secretary of State business fees
• Ohio Revised Code 111.16
• Delaware Division of Corporations FAQs