Form a Delaware LLC from Georgia: Complete 2026 Guide

Start with the numbers. A Delaware LLC costs $110 to file (or $110 online), and the recurring state cost 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. State tax treatment: no tax on LLC income earned outside the state, though the flat annual tax applies regardless of activity. Privacy treatment: Delaware does not require member names on the public formation certificate. For a founder in Georgia the practical reading is that Delaware is the state most recognised by US investors and lawyers, so the question to ask is whether that trait matches how you plan to run the business.

Delaware state fees are $110 to file ($110 online where available). The other line items are the same wherever you form: a registered agent at roughly $100-150 a year, a free EIN straight from the IRS, and a free business bank account at Mercury or Relay. What differs by state is the recurring cost, and for Delaware that 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. With EasyBrise Global Launch ($295 in year one, registered agent included; $149 a year to renew) the typical first year stays well under $500.

Founders in the country of Georgia, including many freelancers, developers and online sellers who live or relocate there, form US LLCs to invoice international clients in dollars, hold a US business bank account and present a domestic US vendor to American customers. Georgia taxes residents on a territorial basis, so the question for an owner is where the income is generated, together with the American filings. This guide concerns the country, not the US state of the same name.

A Georgia-based founder should lean toward Delaware if 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. Weigh it against the other four states on cost, privacy and reporting now, since a later switch is a dissolve-and-reform exercise, not an amendment.

Housekeeping for a new Delaware LLC owned from Georgia. 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. What you do need: an Operating Agreement, a business bank account, payment-processor accounts if you will take cards, and two recurring dates, your Delaware annual obligation ($400 flat annual franchise tax (House Bill 400, raised from $300), first billed with payments due June 1, 2027) and the annual federal Form 5472 and pro forma 1120.

Nothing about Delaware formation requires you to be in the US. Your registered agent supplies the Delaware address and receives official mail, the Articles of Organization go to the Delaware Secretary of State, and the EIN comes from the IRS afterwards. Since a Georgia resident has no SSN, Form SS-4 gets "Foreign" or "N/A" in the SSN line. The international phone line (267-941-1099) takes roughly 45-60 minutes and is the quickest route; fax and mail take 4-6 weeks.

A Georgian 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 Georgian budget.

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 Georgian owner, the question is whether the LLC's income counts as Georgian-source, so plan for a written view from a Georgian accountant before you form.

As a Georgian 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 3 p.m. to 8 a.m. Georgian time in US standard time (2 p.m. to 7 a.m. in US daylight time). 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.

Georgia appears on lists of US income tax treaty partners, and the Georgian summary says Georgia has more than 55 tax treaties. The summary does not say whether a US treaty is in force, and the US arrangement has been understood to rest on an older convention, so confirm the current position in the IRS treaty tables before relying on any treaty benefit. For a typical founder whose LLC earns only non-US-source income, a treaty changes little because there is usually no US federal income tax to reduce.

As described in a Georgian tax summary, a Georgian resident's foreign income is generally not taxed and tax falls only on Georgian-source income under articles 79 and 82 of the Tax Code. The same summary stresses that source depends on where the income is actually generated, so a service physically performed from Georgia can be recharacterised as Georgian-source. It describes a flat 20 percent rate on Georgian-source income. That makes the place where you do the work the central fact: ask a Georgian accountant for a written view, and keep contracts and records showing where services are performed and for whom.

The summary describes a flat 20 percent rate on Georgian-source income of individuals, and a small business status for sole proprietors with a 1 percent rate on turnover up to 500,000 lari a year and 3 percent on turnover above that from the month the cap is passed. It also says the 1 percent regime excludes many activities, including consultancy, legal, audit, medical, architectural and financial intermediation, while IT development, design, digital marketing and production qualify. Whether any of this applies to an LLC owner depends on the facts.

The Georgian tax summary we reviewed does not describe a Georgian controlled-foreign-company regime, and it points readers to check the rules of their former country of residence. If you moved to Georgia recently, that former country may still tax you on the LLC, so take advice there as well as in Georgia. Do not treat the absence of a rule in one summary as a clearance.