Delaware bills every corporation using the Authorized Shares Method by default. For a company with a few million authorized shares and modest assets, that bill routinely runs into tens of thousands of dollars — which is why so many founders open the envelope and assume it is a mistake. It usually is not a mistake, and there is a second method.
Delaware law lets a corporation compute the tax under either method and pay the lower amount. This calculator runs both on the same inputs and shows each result. Which method to use is your decision, not ours.
Delaware LLCs, LPs and GPs pay no franchise tax at all. They pay a flat annual tax with nothing to compute, on a different date.
Delaware LLC tax — the flat amount and the date →One class of stock. Corporations with several classes compute the Assumed Par Value Capital Method per class, which this calculator does not do. The $200,000 ceiling shown here is the general one; Large Corporate Filers have a higher cap and should check their status.