It's not fraud. The companies did nothing illegal. I'd argue they did nothing wrong, either. The real fault lies with the state governments competing for cor

It's not fraud. The companies did nothing illegal. I'd argue they did nothing wrong, either. The real fault lies with the state governments competing for corporate tax dollars. > By incorporating there, a company based in another state could save big on taxes and enjoy perks like unlimited market expansion. A flood of conglomerates took up this offer and New Jersey earned so much from taxes that it was able to pay off its entire state debt. Pressured to incentivize businesses to stay, other states offered their own lenient corporate tax policies. In this so-called “race to the bottom,” Delaware emerged victorious. The state that wins (Delaware) gets to collect a huge, recurring tax check from big businesses. But it costs the other states far more in exchange. It's a positive for the state, but a net negative for the nation as a whole. > For the state of Delaware, these small fees add up to as much as 41% of the state’s entire revenue. In 2019, they collectively amounted to $1.4B. For other states, the deal isn’t so sweet: It has been estimated that the Delaware loophole costs other states as much as $9.5B per year in collective lost tax revenue. Then there's something the article doesn't touch on: the other states still need revenue. The other states are incentivized to bleed their local businesses dry, which makes it difficult for them to compete with the businesses big enough to exploit the loophole. If you're a business who can exploit the loophole, you're just handicapping yourself by not doing so - no matter how altruistic your intentions. The takeaway here should not be "businesses are bad". The takeaway should be "our tax code sucks and we need to come together as a nation to fix it". Of course, even if we fix it in the US, we still have to worry about the same thing happening at a global scale...