Form a Delaware LLC from Czech Republic: Complete 2026 Guide

What makes Delaware worth a look for someone in Czech Republic: the state fee is $110 on paper ($110 online), and after that the state-level upkeep is $400 flat annual franchise tax (raised from $300 under Delaware House Bill 400, signed May 21 2026, effective retroactively for the 2026 tax year; first billed with payments due June 1, 2027), no separate annual report required. The state levies no tax on LLC income earned outside the state, though the flat annual tax applies regardless of activity. Delaware does not require member names on the public formation certificate. None of this changes your Czech Republic tax position, which sits on top of the US picture, but it does mean Delaware itself adds little friction. Among the five states we cover, Delaware is the state most recognised by US investors and lawyers.

Czech freelancers, developers, consultants and online sellers form US LLCs to invoice international clients in dollars, hold a US business bank account and present a domestic US vendor to American customers. The Czech Republic is an EU member but uses the koruna, so a Czech owner funds the LLC from koruna converted to dollars. Czech founders can also use a Czech company, so the question is what a US LLC adds.

Checklist once the EIN letter arrives: (1) Operating Agreement signed and stored; (2) bank account application submitted; (3) Stripe and/or PayPal applications, subject to their own review; (4) your Delaware annual obligation ($400 flat annual franchise tax (House Bill 400, raised from $300), first billed with payments due June 1, 2027) in your calendar; (5) Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120 on the federal calendar. Federal Beneficial Ownership Information reporting is not something you need to do: FinCEN's rule in force since August 14, 2026 permanently exempts all US-formed LLCs.

Choose Delaware when you're planning to raise US venture capital or want the state most investors and legal counsel are already familiar with, and you're comfortable with the flat $400 annual tax (raised from $300 by 2026's House Bill 400) regardless of your LLC's size. If your priorities lean another way, compare the other four states first, because moving a Delaware LLC to another state later means dissolving it and forming a new one.

A Czech founder planning to raise US capital or sell to a US acquirer may choose Delaware despite the $400 annual tax, because investors know the law. The $400 is a fixed amount for a Czech budget.

Forming from Czech Republic is a five-step job. One: choose and check the name. Two: appoint a registered agent with a physical Delaware address. Three: file the Delaware formation documents. Four: obtain the EIN, entering "Foreign" or "N/A" where Form SS-4 asks for an SSN or ITIN; by phone on 267-941-1099 it takes about 45-60 minutes, by fax or mail 4-6 weeks. Five: open the business bank account online. No US trip is needed at any point.

As a Czech owner, your recurring dates look like this. State: Delaware's $400 annual tax is first billed with payments due June 1, 2027, and there is no separate annual report. Federal: Form 5472 with the pro forma Form 1120 is due on the return due date, April 15 for a calendar-year LLC, extendable with Form 7004. For the one-off EIN call, the IRS line (6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern) is open noon to 5 a.m. Czech time for most of the year (the gap shrinks to five hours for a few weeks when US and European clock changes fall on different dates). Put the state date and the federal date in your calendar when the EIN arrives, because a missed Form 5472 carries a $25,000 minimum penalty.

Over five years, the state-level cost of a Delaware LLC is a $110 filing fee plus $400 a year for five years, so $2,110 in total, before the registered agent. That makes Delaware the most expensive of the five states on this measure. The same arithmetic across the five states runs from $50 to $2,110. For a Czech owner, the controlled-foreign-company rules are written for companies, so the useful budget item is an adviser's confirmation of how your LLC's profit is taxed when you take it out.

A Czech founder can invoice through a Czech company or as a sole trader as well as through a US LLC. The LLC's case is strongest when your customers and payment processors are American and you want a US bank account and a US vendor identity. Compare the whole path from business profit to personal income for each structure with a Czech accountant before choosing.

Here is the first-year budget for a Delaware LLC owned from Czech Republic. State filing: $110 ($110 online). Registered agent: typically $100-150 a year, or included in EasyBrise Global Launch at $295 for year one ($149 a year after that). EIN: free if you apply to the IRS yourself. Bank account: usually free at Mercury or Relay. Recurring state requirement: $400 flat annual franchise tax (raised from $300 under Delaware House Bill 400, signed May 21 2026, effective retroactively for the 2026 tax year; first billed with payments due June 1, 2027), no separate annual report required. Most founders land well under $500 all-in for year one.

The Czech Republic appears among the partners with a US income tax treaty. It covers dividends, interest, royalties and tie-breaker rules for residency, and you can confirm the details in the IRS treaty tables. For a typical founder whose LLC earns only non-US-source income, the treaty changes little in practice because there is usually no US federal income tax for it to reduce.

Grant Thornton Czech Republic explains that the Czech rules on controlled foreign companies, in Section 38fa of the Income Tax Act and in force since 1 April 2019, define the controlling person as a Czech tax-resident corporate income taxpayer, so a foreign company owned solely by a Czech individual falls outside them. A corporate taxpayer is controlling where it holds more than 50 percent of the capital, voting rights or profit rights, alone or with associated enterprises. An individual can still matter as an associated enterprise when a corporate taxpayer's holding is tested. That is a reading of the corporate rules and not a clearance of your whole position, so ask a Czech accountant how your LLC's profit is taxed to you.

If a Czech corporate taxpayer were the controlling company, the included income is listed exhaustively in the Income Tax Act and is passive in nature: interest, royalties, profit distributions, gains on disposing of shares, income from property assigned with a right to later acquire it, insurance, banking and other financial activity, and sales of goods or services bought from and resold to associated entities with little or no added value. Revenue from your own services would be a different question.