Form a Delaware LLC from Jordan: 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 Jordan 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.

A Jordan-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.

Jordanian 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 Jordanian dinar is pegged to the US dollar, so funding a dollar account involves little exchange-rate risk. The questions for a founder in Jordan are about how Jordan treats income that arises outside the country and about the American filings.

Housekeeping for a new Delaware LLC owned from Jordan. 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 Jordan 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 Jordanian 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 Jordanian 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 Jordanian owner, the state fee is small beside the question of how Jordan treats the LLC's income, so plan for a written view from a Jordanian accountant before you form.

Jordan's summary describes relief for foreign tax as a deduction, not a credit: foreign income tax paid on income from sources outside Jordan is deductible if the income was subject to tax in that country under Jordan's own law. A single-member LLC owned by a non-US resident and earning only non-US-source income usually owes no US federal income tax, so there may be little foreign tax to deduct. Ask your accountant how this interacts with your position.

PwC's Jordan summary describes the charge as falling on income incurred in or from Jordan, whatever the place of payment, and it does not say how income arising outside Jordan is treated. It also describes progressive personal income tax from 5 percent to 30 percent, plus a 1 percent national contribution tax on taxable income above 200,000 dinars. Jordan has no controlled-foreign-company rules that we could confirm for an individual who owns a foreign LLC, but absence of a rule we found is not a clearance. Ask a Jordanian accountant for a written view on how your LLC's profit is treated, and on whether income earned while you live in Jordan is Jordanian-source.

As a Jordanian 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 2 p.m. to 7 a.m. Jordanian time in US standard time (1 p.m. to 6 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.

PwC's summary says Jordan has entered into income tax treaties with more than 30 countries. Jordan does not appear on the lists of US income tax treaty partners we checked, so do not assume a treaty applies to your LLC. In practice the gap matters little for a typical founder whose LLC earns only non-US-source income, because there is usually no US federal income tax for a treaty to reduce.

Personal income tax in Jordan is progressive: 5 percent on the first 5,000 dinars of taxable income, then 10, 15 and 20 percent on the next three bands of 5,000, 25 percent up to 1,000,000 dinars and 30 percent on the balance. Taxable income above 200,000 dinars also carries a 1 percent national contribution. These rates matter only if your LLC's income reaches you as taxable Jordanian income, so model the real figures with an accountant rather than relying on a headline rate.