Caribbean places like British Virgin Islands and Nevis are so shockingly cheap and easy to set up a corporation, it's amazing. On a whim, I emailed TridentTrus

Caribbean places like British Virgin Islands and Nevis are so shockingly cheap and easy to set up a corporation, it's amazing. On a whim, I emailed TridentTrust in BVI with the name of a new company I'd like to incorporate. 2 hours later they emailed me back saying it was all done, the completed certificates and paperwork were FedEx'd to me, along with their annual ~$350 bill for resident agent services. Amazing. I brought my Certificate of Incorporation into my local Wells Fargo (where I already had an account), and 10 minutes later was out the door with a business checking account, checkbook in hand, and a Visa card on its way. I agree with AlexMuir's comment here, but there are situations where you don't care about that stuff. For example: I just needed a holding company for a new project with no physical office, no employees, and no investors. I'm not living in the US, and not sure which country I might end up living in. So a "tax-haven" corporation was a good choice. See a comparison of the different jurisdictions, here: http://www.tridenttrust.com/PDFs/Companies-IND.pdf http://www.tridenttrust.com/PDFs/Companies-IND.pdf