A Delaware Certificate of Good Standing costs $50 for the short form or $175 for the long form, paid to the Delaware Division of Corporations.1Delaware Division of Corporations. Accessing Corporate Information That is the sticker price. What you actually pay depends on two things: whether you need the certificate fast, and whether your entity is current on its Delaware franchise taxes. Rush processing adds $100 to $1,000. A delinquent entity has to clear every dollar of back taxes, penalties, and interest before the state will issue anything.
Short Form or Long Form
Most businesses only need the $50 short form. It lists the entity’s name and confirms it is currently in good standing, which is enough for bank account applications, loan approvals, and foreign qualification filings in other states.1Delaware Division of Corporations. Accessing Corporate Information
The $175 long form includes the entity’s complete filing history with the Division: every amendment, name change, and the date and time each document was filed.1Delaware Division of Corporations. Accessing Corporate Information Lawyers and due diligence teams sometimes ask for it during acquisitions or large funding rounds. Unless someone has specifically requested the long form, the short form will do.
One timing detail matters for the price you pay. The certificate is a snapshot of your status on the day it is issued, and banks or state filing offices typically want one dated within the last 60 to 90 days. If your request sits too long between order and use, you may end up paying for a second certificate.
What Rush Processing Adds
Standard requests are processed in the order received and can take several weeks depending on the Division’s workload. Delaware offers four tiers of expedited service, each charged on top of the base certificate fee.2Delaware Division of Corporations. Expedited Services
- Next-day service: $100 added. Request must be received by 7:00 p.m. EST.
- Same-day service: $200 added. Request must be received by 2:00 p.m. EST.
- Two-hour service: $500 added. Request must be received by 7:00 p.m. EST.
- One-hour service: $1,000 added. Request must be received by 9:00 p.m. EST.
A short form with same-day processing runs $250. A short form within the hour runs $1,050. A long form with one-hour service reaches $1,175.3Delaware Department of State Division of Corporations. Delaware Division of Corporations Fee Schedule Expedited fees apply per file number, so a batch of certificates for multiple entities is billed separately for each one.
Why Your Bill May Be Much Higher Than $50
The Division will not issue a Certificate of Good Standing unless the entity is fully compliant with its Delaware annual requirements. If you are behind, the back amounts have to be paid first, and they can dwarf the certificate fee itself.
What Corporations Owe Each Year
Every domestic corporation must file an Annual Report and pay franchise tax by March 1.4Delaware Division of Corporations. Annual Report and Tax Instructions The minimum franchise tax is $175 under the Authorized Shares method or $400 under the Assumed Par Value Capital method, with a maximum of $200,000 ($250,000 for Large Corporate Filers).5Delaware Division of Corporations. How to Calculate Franchise Taxes The Annual Report carries a separate $50 filing fee, so the minimum a corporation pays each year is $225.6State of Delaware Division of Revenue. Franchise Taxes
What LLCs and Partnerships Owe
LLCs, limited partnerships, and general partnerships do not file an Annual Report but owe a flat $300 annual tax due by June 1. The tax applies if the entity was active in the Division’s records at any point during the tax year, whether or not it generated revenue.7Delaware Division of Corporations. LLC/LP/GP Franchise Tax Instructions
Late Fees and Interest
Missing a filing deadline triggers a $200 penalty plus 1.5% monthly interest on the unpaid tax and penalty balance.4Delaware Division of Corporations. Annual Report and Tax Instructions That interest compounds. A business that is current pays $50 and walks away. A business that has been delinquent for three years may owe multiple years of unpaid tax, a $200 penalty for each missed deadline, and compounding interest on all of it. A $50 certificate request can turn into a bill of several thousand dollars.
Before paying for the certificate, check the entity’s status for free through the Division’s online entity search. If it shows anything other than “Good Standing,” fix the underlying issue first; ordering while out of compliance just results in a rejected request.
If the Entity Has Already Been Voided or Canceled
A corporation that misses a full year of franchise tax or Annual Report filings has its charter declared void. An LLC that fails to pay its annual tax can have its certificate of formation canceled. Revival is available, but it adds its own filing fee on top of every unpaid amount.
The Certificate of Revival filing fees are:3Delaware Department of State Division of Corporations. Delaware Division of Corporations Fee Schedule
- Domestic corporation: $189, plus all unpaid franchise taxes, penalties, and interest
- Domestic LLC: $220, plus all unpaid annual taxes ($300 per year), penalties, and interest
- Domestic limited partnership: $200, plus all unpaid taxes, penalties, and interest
Corporations have one useful cost cap. If the charter has been void for more than five years, the corporation pays three times the annual franchise tax that would be due for the year of revival, rather than the full accumulated tax and penalty total for every missed year.8Delaware General Corporation Law. Delaware Code Title 8 Chapter 1 Subchapter 12 For a long-dormant corporation, that provision alone can be the difference between a manageable revival and an unaffordable one. Once the Certificate of Revival is filed and all amounts are paid, you can then order the Certificate of Good Standing at the standard $50 or $175 fee.
How to Pay and Order
The fastest route is the Division of Corporations’ online Document Filing and Certificate Request Service, which accepts credit cards and ACH payments.9Delaware Division of Corporations. Check Entity Status Mail requests go to the Division of Corporations, 401 Federal Street, Suite 4, Dover, DE 19901, with a check payable to the “Delaware Secretary of State.” Either way, include the entity’s exact legal name, its Delaware file number, whether you want the short or long form, and the expedited service level if you need one, so the Division can calculate the correct total.