For someone who's starting up a brand new business, tax considerations aren't top-of-mind. Questions like what to make, for whom, how to price it, who to hire,

For someone who's starting up a brand new business, tax considerations aren't top-of-mind. Questions like what to make, for whom, how to price it, who to hire, and what technologies to use are much more important. Of course, the accountants will now scowl at me, because I've said something stupid (to their tax-obsessed minds), and of course I should be thinking about tax rates. Well, my response would be to look for some data. People don't move to the Bay Area to create a tech startup because costs are low. The Twitter example isn't very useful because Twitter was no longer a startup by the time the SF payroll tax exemption idea came up. (Wikipedia says Twitter has 450 employees and launched in 2006.)