A startup with an office in New York City carries one of the densest local tax stacks in the country. On top of the federal and Delaware obligations every venture-backed C-corp has, you owe a New York State franchise tax return, a separate New York City corporate return, a state MTA surcharge, potentially a regional payroll tax, sales tax on most software, and, if you rent a large enough Manhattan office, a tax on the rent itself.
None of these is expensive for an early startup; a pre-revenue company in Brooklyn may owe less than $100 in combined state and city corporate tax. The cost is the number of filings, spread across agencies that each run their own calendar.
This guide lays out every New York State and New York City deadline for 2027 on one page, then explains who each obligation actually applies to. For the federal and Delaware dates in more depth, see our complete 2027 startup tax calendar. Figures below come from tax.ny.gov, nyc.gov/finance, dos.ny.gov, and the New York Department of Financial Services as published in late 2026. Rules change, so confirm on the official pages before you file.
The Consolidated 2027 Calendar
Dates assume a calendar year Delaware C-corp with an office or employees in New York City. Weekend shifts are applied: January 31, March 20, June 20, July 31, and October 31 all land on weekends in 2027.
| Date | Layer | What is due |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 15 (Fri) | Federal + NY | Q4 2026 personal estimated taxes for founders (federal 1040-ES and New York IT-2105) |
| Feb 1 (Mon) | Federal | W-2s to employees; 1099-NEC to contractors and the IRS (January 31 is a Sunday) |
| Feb 1 (Mon) | New York | Form NY-45 for Q4 2026 withholding, with annual reconciliation; Form MTA-305 for Q4 2026 if you are subject to the MCTMT |
| Mar 1 (Mon) | Delaware | Delaware franchise tax and annual report |
| Mar 15 (Mon) | NYS + NYC | Mandatory first installment of estimated tax (Form CT-300 and Form NYC-300), only if your prior year tax exceeded the threshold |
| Mar 22 (Mon) | New York | Quarterly sales tax return for December 2026 to February 2027 (March 20 is a Saturday) |
| Apr 15 (Thu) | Federal | Form 1120 or Form 7004 extension; Q1 federal corporate estimate |
| Apr 15 (Thu) | New York State | Form CT-3 and Form CT-3-M (MTA surcharge), or Form CT-5 for a six month extension |
| Apr 15 (Thu) | New York City | Form NYC-2, NYC-2A, or NYC-2S, or Form NYC-EXT for a six month extension |
| Apr 30 (Fri) | New York | NY-45 and MTA-305 for Q1 2027 |
| Jun 15 (Tue) | Federal + NYS + NYC | Q2 federal estimate; state and city estimated tax installments if required |
| Jun 21 (Mon) | New York | Quarterly sales tax return for March to May; NYC Commercial Rent Tax annual return (June 20 is a Sunday) |
| Aug 2 (Mon) | New York | NY-45 and MTA-305 for Q2 2027 (July 31 is a Saturday) |
| Sep 15 (Wed) | Federal + NYS + NYC | Q3 estimates |
| Sep 20 (Mon) | New York | Quarterly sales tax return for June to August; Commercial Rent Tax quarterly return, if you file quarterly |
| Oct 15 (Fri) | Federal + NYS + NYC | Extended Form 1120, CT-3, and NYC-2 |
| Nov 1 (Mon) | New York | NY-45 and MTA-305 for Q3 2027 (October 31 is a Sunday) |
| Dec 15 (Wed) | Federal + NYS + NYC | Q4 estimates |
| Dec 20 (Mon) | New York | Quarterly sales tax return for September to November; Commercial Rent Tax quarterly return, if applicable |
| Anniversary month, every 2 years | New York DOS | Biennial Statement for your Delaware corporation's New York authority ($9) |
Now each obligation, with who it actually applies to.
Getting Authorized: Registering a Delaware Corp in New York
A Delaware corporation that does business in New York must apply for authority with the New York Department of State by filing an Application for Authority under Section 1304 of the Business Corporation Law. The filing fee is $225. Signing a lease, hiring employees who work from New York, or running operations from the state generally crosses the line.
After that, the Department of State requires a Biennial Statement every two years, for a $9 fee, in the calendar month of your original filing. It is the cheapest filing on this list and one of the most often forgotten.
New York State Franchise Tax: Form CT-3
Every C-corp doing business, employing capital, owning or leasing property, or maintaining an office in New York, or deriving receipts above the economic nexus threshold, files Form CT-3 under Article 9-A. The tax is the largest of three computations:
- Business income base. 6.5 percent for most general business taxpayers, 7.25 percent for those with a business income base above $5 million, and a reduced 4.875 percent rate for qualified emerging technology companies.
- Capital base. 0.1875 percent of business capital for most taxpayers, but 0 percent for small business taxpayers. You qualify as a small business taxpayer if your entire net income is $390,000 or less, total capital contributions are $1 million or less, you average 100 or fewer full time New York employees, and you are not part of a larger affiliated group. Note that a startup that has raised more than $1 million of equity fails the capital contribution test, so most venture-backed companies do not qualify.
- Fixed dollar minimum. Based on New York receipts.
For a loss-making startup, the fixed dollar minimum is the number that matters:
| New York receipts | Fixed dollar minimum |
|---|---|
| $100,000 or less | $25 |
| Over $100,000 to $250,000 | $75 |
| Over $250,000 to $500,000 | $175 |
| Over $500,000 to $1 million | $500 |
| Over $1 million to $5 million | $1,500 |
| Over $5 million to $25 million | $3,500 |
| Over $25 million to $50 million | $5,000 |
The schedule continues up to $200,000 for receipts over $1 billion. Qualified emerging technology companies use a lower schedule, starting at $19. The return is due April 15 for calendar year filers, and a six month extension is available on Form CT-5 if you pay the estimated tax by the original due date.
Because the capital base can exceed the fixed dollar minimum, a startup holding a large cash balance from a recent round should check the capital computation rather than assume it owes $25.
The MTA surcharge. If you do business in the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District, which covers the five boroughs plus Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester counties, you also file Form CT-3-M and pay the MTA surcharge, calculated as a percentage of the franchise tax apportioned to the district (30 percent in recent years; confirm the current rate in the CT-3-M instructions).
Estimated tax. If your prior years' tax was large enough, New York requires a mandatory first installment on March 15 and declarations on June 15, September 15, and December 15. A startup paying only the fixed dollar minimum is below the threshold. Budget legislation in 2025 changed the Article 9-A estimated tax threshold for tax years beginning in 2026, so have your preparer confirm the figure before you skip a payment.
NYC Business Corporation Tax: Form NYC-2
New York City runs its own corporate tax, administered by the NYC Department of Finance, and it is entirely separate from the state return. Corporations that do business, employ capital, own or lease property, or maintain an office in the city are subject to it. The city also applies an economic nexus test: for 2024 and later, $1,128,000 of NYC receipts makes a corporation taxable even without a physical presence.
The structure mirrors the state:
- Business income base. 8.85 percent for most taxpayers, with a reduced rate schedule for small businesses that starts at 6.5 percent.
- Business capital base. 0.15 percent, with a $10,000 reduction applied to the capital tax.
- Fixed dollar minimum. The same receipts table as the state, but measured on NYC receipts: $25 at $100,000 or less, $75 up to $250,000, $175 up to $500,000, $500 up to $1 million, $1,500 up to $5 million, and up to $200,000 at the top.
Forms: NYC-2 for single corporations, NYC-2A for combined groups (with NYC-2A/BC detail reports for each member), and the short form NYC-2S for those who qualify. The return is due April 15 for calendar year filers. Form NYC-EXT gives an automatic six month extension, but only if you estimate and pay the tax by the original due date.
If the second preceding year's city tax exceeded $1,000, a mandatory first installment of 25 percent is due March 15 on Form NYC-300, with declarations of estimated tax due June 15, September 15, and December 15.
A 2025 wrinkle to know about. The Department of Finance has published relief for 2025 underpayments caused by the city's decoupling from parts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: taxpayers can request abatement of interest and penalties by entering a special condition code on the return. The broader lesson: New York does not automatically follow federal changes, so a deduction on Form 1120 may need to be added back on CT-3 or NYC-2.
MCTMT: The Payroll Tax That Arrives at Series A
The Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility Tax is an employer payroll tax that funds the MTA. You are subject to it if you must withhold New York income tax and your payroll expense for covered employees in the district exceeds $312,500 in a calendar quarter.
That threshold is roughly 10 employees at a $125,000 average salary, which is why the MCTMT tends to appear right after a Series A hiring push. For quarters beginning on or after July 1, 2025, the rates for Zone 1, which is all five boroughs, are:
| Quarterly payroll in Zone 1 | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to $375,000 | 0.055% |
| Over $375,000 to $437,500 | 0.115% |
| Over $437,500 to $2.5 million | 0.60% |
| Over $2.5 million | 0.895% |
Returns are filed quarterly on Form MTA-305, due April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31, shifted to the next business day when they land on a weekend. No extensions are allowed. Confirm your payroll provider has it enabled once you cross the threshold.
New York Payroll: Withholding, PFL, and Disability
Hiring your first New York employee triggers several state programs at once:
- Income tax withholding. You withhold New York State tax, plus New York City tax for employees who live in the city, and file Form NY-45 quarterly, due the last day of the month after each quarter. The Q4 return carries the annual reconciliation.
- Paid Family Leave. Fully employee funded through payroll deductions. For 2027 the Department of Financial Services set the contribution at 0.452 percent of gross wages, up from 0.432 percent in 2026, with an annual maximum of $451.81 per employee.
- Disability benefits (SDI). Employers must carry statutory disability insurance. You may collect an employee contribution of 0.5 percent of wages, capped at 60 cents per week, and the employer covers the rest of the premium.
- Unemployment insurance and workers' compensation. Both are required from the first employee.
PFL and disability are usually bought as one policy, which must be in place before your first New York payroll.
New York Sales Tax on SaaS
This is where New York differs most from California. New York treats prewritten software as taxable tangible personal property regardless of delivery method, and the tax department states that selling a New York purchaser a license to remotely access software is subject to state and local sales tax. In practice that means most B2B SaaS sold to New York customers is taxable. Custom software is generally exempt, and tax is sourced to where users are located.
Key mechanics:
- Registration. You must register for a Certificate of Authority before you begin making taxable sales. A company with a New York office has physical nexus from day one. Remote sellers are presumed to be vendors once they exceed $500,000 of receipts and more than 100 sales into New York over the preceding four sales tax quarters.
- Rate. The combined rate in New York City is 8.875 percent: the 4 percent state rate, the 4.5 percent city rate, and the 0.375 percent MCTD rate.
- Filing. Quarterly sales tax quarters run March to May, June to August, September to November, and December to February, with returns due 20 days after each quarter ends. Vendors with $300,000 or more of taxable sales in a quarter move to monthly filing.
If you sell usage-based or hybrid plans, sourcing and invoice design get more complicated. Our guide to sales tax for usage-based pricing covers how to structure that.
NYC Commercial Rent Tax: Mostly a Midtown and Downtown Issue
The Commercial Rent Tax applies only to commercial tenants in Manhattan south of the center line of 96th Street. Offices in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, and upper Manhattan are exempt.
Within the zone, the tax is 6 percent of base rent after a 35 percent rent reduction, an effective 3.9 percent. Tenants whose annualized base rent before that reduction is less than $250,000 are not subject to the tax, although an annual return is still required if annualized gross rent exceeds $200,000 or you receive more than $200,000 from subtenants. A small business credit fully offsets the tax for tenants with total income of $5 million or less and base rent under $500,000, phasing out between $500,000 and $550,000 of rent and between $5 million and $10 million of income.
The annual return covers June 1 to May 31 and is due June 20, which in 2027 shifts to Monday, June 21. Quarterly returns are due 20 days after the periods ending in August, November, and February. A seed team in coworking almost never owes it; a Series B company signing a full-floor Flatiron lease often does.
Federal and Delaware Dates in Brief
The federal and Delaware layers are the same wherever your office is:
- February 1, 2027: W-2s and 1099-NEC for 2026, moved from January 31. For payments made after December 31, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act raised the federal 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC reporting threshold from $600 to $2,000, indexed for inflation starting in 2027. State information return rules are separate, so do not assume every state adopted the new threshold.
- March 1, 2027: Delaware franchise tax and annual report. The minimum is $175 under the authorized shares method or $400 under the assumed par value capital method, plus the $50 annual report fee. Run both methods with our Delaware franchise tax calculator.
- April 15, 2027: Form 1120 or Form 7004, and the first federal estimated payment.
- October 15, 2027: Extended Form 1120.
The Classic New York Founder Mistakes
- Filing the state return and forgetting the city. CT-3 and NYC-2 go to separate agencies.
- Never qualifying in New York. An unauthorized foreign corporation can be barred from suing in New York courts, and it surfaces in diligence.
- Assuming SaaS is exempt. In New York it usually is taxable, and uncollected tax becomes your liability.
- Missing the MCTMT after a hiring wave. The $312,500 quarterly threshold arrives quietly.
- Forgetting the biennial statement. It costs $9, but an unfiled statement shows your corporation as past due on the Department of State's records, which lenders and acquirers notice.
The Bottom Line for Early Stage NYC Startups
For a pre-revenue Delaware C-corp with a small New York City team, the core 2027 obligations are: a CT-3 and CT-3-M showing a small fixed dollar minimum, an NYC-2 showing the city's fixed dollar minimum, quarterly NY-45 payroll filings, PFL and disability coverage, and sales tax registration as soon as you sell software to New York customers. The MCTMT and Commercial Rent Tax come later, as payroll and office size grow.
The dollar amounts are small; the risk is penalties compounding quietly until a diligence request surfaces them. Use our tax compliance checklist tool to see which of these apply to you. If you would rather have someone own the calendar, StartupCFO tracks deadlines across all 50 states on every plan, and our tax service prepares returns with CPA review (plans include a 50 percent discount on preparation of one federal and one state return; additional state or city returns and filing fees are add-ons).
This article is general information, not tax advice. Rates, thresholds, and deadlines change, and New York State and City agencies publish the controlling figures. Confirm your specific obligations with your CPA and the official pages at tax.ny.gov, nyc.gov/finance, and dos.ny.gov before filing.
