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I think the whole industry around incorporation is a racket at this point. It's literally a database. It should not cost hundreds of dollars to put a record in
by ilaksh 4y ago
I think the whole industry around incorporation is a racket at this point. It's literally a database. It should not cost hundreds of dollars to put a record in a database, or keep it in there. Or thousands of dollars to tell you how to take it out.
I had stupidly incorporated something related to some fantasy idea I never ended up with the funds to pursue. A year later with zero actual activity, I am informed that I owe hundreds in taxes for it by the company that is in charge of the record or something. I tell them I need to dissolve it, they point me to their FAQ that says nothing useful. Or maybe it was selling me another dissolution service for hundreds of dollars. I don't remember. But it was actually two layers of companies, the retail and then the record keeping, then Delaware itself, all extracting hundreds in fees, for absolutely nothing to happen. I doubt anyone even searched for my business name in that time.
It's the type of thing that makes me want to root for the AIs to take over.
- MichaelZuo 4y ago> I think the whole industry around incorporation is a racket at this point. It's literally a database. It should not cost hundreds of dollars to put a record in a database, or keep it in there. Or thousands of dollars to tell you how to take it out. It costs them 0.01 dollars to put a record in a database, and $499.99 to assume legal liability over the record.
- piperswe 4y agoThere's also prior art for simplified corporation registration - the UK's Companies House very much acts as just "creating an entry in a database for a nominal fee," with incorporation on the website costing only 12GBP, and a dissolution ("strike this company off the database, please") happening entirely online and costing 8GBP (a "voluntary strike off") https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/companies-house-fees/companies-house-fees https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/companies-house-f...
- zugi 4y agoWhy start a corporation in the first place versus an LLC or even a sole proprietorship? The latter costs close to nothing to start, and it doesn't ever need to be dissolved - just stop filing Schedule C once you stop having income and expenses. If you choose the more complex route of a Delaware corporation, it's going to cost you more. OP would have at least made some money under an LLC or a sole proprietorship, but going the Delaware corporation route likely turned it into a net loss.