What is a good cap rate?

It depends entirely on market and asset class, so there is no universal number. A cap rate is a price-to-income ratio, not a quality score: a low cap rate means you paid more per dollar of income, which is normal in low-risk, high-demand markets. Compare a property only against recent sales of similar assets in the same submarket.

Does the cap rate include my mortgage?

No. Cap rate is deliberately unlevered — it measures the property, not your financing. Debt service never belongs in NOI. That is what makes cap rates comparable between a cash buyer and a leveraged one.

What counts as an operating expense?

Property taxes, insurance, management, repairs and maintenance, utilities you pay, HOA or admin, and turnover costs. Excluded: mortgage principal and interest, capital improvements, depreciation, and income taxes. Putting any of those four in opex understates NOI and makes the cap rate look worse than it is.

Cap rate or cash-on-cash return — which should I use?

Both, for different questions. Cap rate compares properties to each other independent of how you pay for them. Cash-on-cash measures what your specific deal returns on the cash you actually put in, after debt service.

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Delaware Franchise Tax Calculator

Delaware bills you under the method that costs more. A startup with 10 million authorized shares gets an automatic notice for about $85,000 and usually owes $400. This runs both methods on your numbers and shows which one to file under. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

Delaware picks the expensive method by default. The notice mailed in January uses the Authorized Shares Method, because it is the only one the state can compute without your balance sheet. You are entitled to the lower of the two. Switching requires filing the annual report with your total gross assets and issued shares, which is why the recalculation has to wait for your books to close.

Authorized sharesFrom your certificate of incorporation, not your cap table. Most seed-stage startups authorize 10,000,000.

Issued sharesActually issued and outstanding, including treasury shares. Options and SAFEs are not issued shares.

Par value per shareAlso from the certificate of incorporation. $0.0001 is the usual figure for a Delaware startup.

Total gross assetsTotal assets from Form 1120, Schedule L, for the fiscal year ending in the report year. Not revenue, and not your valuation.

Authorized Shares Method

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What the state’s notice shows. Counts authorized shares only and ignores your balance sheet entirely.

Assumed Par Value Capital Method

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Uses gross assets and issued shares. Almost always the lower figure for an early-stage company.

How the assumed par value figure was reached

What this assumes. One class of stock at a single par value, which covers most venture-backed cap tables. If you have multiple classes at different par values, each class is tested against the assumed par separately and the results added, so treat this as an estimate. The figures are the Delaware Division of Corporations rates in effect for the 2026 report year. This calculates the tax only; the annual report filing fee is separate.

The rest of the Delaware bill

Annual report fee

$50

Charged on top of the tax for a non-exempt domestic corporation.

Due date

March 1

Both the report and the tax, for domestic corporations.

Late penalty

$200

Plus 1.5% interest per month on the tax and the penalty.

Ceiling

$200,000

Under either method. A Large Corporate Filer pays $250,000.

Owe $5,000 or more and Delaware moves you onto estimated payments: 40% by June 1, 20% by September 1, 20% by December 1, and the remainder by March 1.

Three places this goes wrong

Paying the notice as printedThe number on the January notice is not a bill for what you owe. It is what the Authorized Shares Method produces, because Delaware has no way to run the other method until you file your gross assets. Founders pay it every year.

Recalculating before the books are closedThe assumed par value method needs total gross assets from Form 1120, Schedule L. Guess that figure and you have filed an inaccurate report. Closing the year comes first; the recalculation is a ten-minute job after that.

Letting the entity go void insteadWalking away does not end it. The tax keeps accruing with a $200 penalty and 1.5% monthly interest, the entity goes void, and Delaware will not accept a Certificate of Dissolution until every year is paid current. A shutdown you postponed gets more expensive, not less.

That last one matters if you are closing the company. Delaware requires franchise tax current before it will accept the dissolution filing, so the recalculation is the first step of a wind-down and not an afterthought. Talk to us about a shutdown →

Disclosure

This calculator is provided for informational purposes only. Using it does not create a client relationship, and its output is not tax advice for your situation — it is a general model that cannot see your facts. Parikh Financial does provide tax services, under a written engagement, and nothing on this page is a substitute for that. We do not provide legal or investment advice, we are not a registered investment adviser, and we do not perform attest services. Use of this calculator is entirely at your own risk, and Parikh Financial assumes no liability for its use or for any reliance on its output. Parikh Financial does not guarantee the calculator’s accuracy or its applicability to your particular circumstances. It is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including without limitation any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, or non-infringement. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so these exclusions may not apply to you. Tax law changes frequently and any figures shown reflect published Delaware amounts as of the date of this page.

Delaware Franchise Tax Calculator

Authorized Shares Method

Assumed Par Value Capital Method

How the assumed par value figure was reached

The rest of the Delaware bill

Three places this goes wrong

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