7 ms·
Start-up NY
- antonius 13y agoPay no taxes for 10 years as a start-up in NY? Sign me up.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- king_magic 13y agoAs a Syracuse, NY native and a current resident of NYC, I hereby welcome a flood of new business to the state. Come one, come all. Just pay no attention to the fact that you're taxed to oblivion in every other possible way - state income tax, sales tax, property taxes, NYC residential tax - I think we've even got taxes for your taxes somewhere in the back - hopefully by the time you finish your 10th year as a successful, profitable, un-taxed business, you'll be making so much gosh darn money that you won't even notice your business finally being taxed into oblivion too. Dreams really do come true.
- circa 13y agoHaha. You got that right. I'm sure the taxes are somehow deferred in the fine print after the 10 years too.
- damon_c 13y agoI recently heard that The Beatles paid a 95% income tax. That seems pretty crazy to us today, but maybe back then they would wonder how we could have the < 40% taxes we have now and properly maintain the roads and bridges and various societal institutions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxman
- ruggeri 13y ago"One for you nineteen for me"
- joelrunyon 13y agoI've been seeing ads for this on tv here in southern California. Seems really intriguing. I'm curious if there are any long-term commitments? Can you redomicile 9 1/2 years in, etc?
- thekevan 13y agoRead the fine print. Not only are there the below requirements but there is also debate on whether or not the agency running the program has the ability (due to poorly worded rules) to kick a business out of it for no reason at all. A Start up... Start ups must locate on college campuses. (Renting unused office space or vacant land.) MUST BE NEW to New York State, recently graduated from a state-recognized incubator, be returning to the state, or be an existing business that's starting a new operation. ORGANIZED as a corporation, partnership, limited liability company or sole proprietorship. IN COMPLIANCE with worker protection and environmental regulations ALIGNED with the interests of the hosting university. BE ABLE to create jobs in the first year. BE A STARTUP business or in biotechnology, information technology, remanufacturing, advanced materials, processing, engineering, electronic technology products or other high-tech industries. CANNOT BE AN accountant, business services company, law firm, medical office, hotel, financial services firm, personal care business, Realtor, restaurant, retailer, utility or wholesaler.
- carlosdp 13y agoYea the college campus/alignment requirement is tough, but the "be able to create jobs in the first year" excludes many tech startups. Many won't need a non-founder employee for several years.
- _delirium 13y agoI read this as targeted as university spinoffs, in which case it would align better. If you're at the stage where you don't yet need a non-founder employee, you just... don't spin off yet. You can stay in academia, staffed by academic staff, and it's not an issue. But when you reach the stage where you want to grow outside academia, then you spin off a company, and hire non-academic staff, presumably through this structure.
- jeffmould 13y agoAgree. It sounds wonderful on the outside, but once you start reading all the details it gets a little hairy. For example, they do not define what exactly a "business services company" is and is not. Using a broad definition, that could eliminate some tech startups right out the gate. Another example of the broad definition is "financial services firm". Does that immediately eliminate BitCoin or payment processing startups? The list goes on. I like the idea and more states/cities should follow the lead, but in order to be effective the people implementing these programs need to be clear on what is and is not an acceptable business. The other part of the NY program I was hesitant about was that you are committed to partnering with a university. Doesn't leave room if your business plan pivots and falls out of line with the "interests of the hosting university".
- akbar501 13y agoTax free zones have proven to be highly effective. In Dubai there were a number of tax free zones started 13+ years ago just before their economic boom. India's rise to dominance in several service sectors was accompanied by a number of tax incentives. I'd bet money that this attracts new business to New York especially since New York has people talent in place. Also, if you're competing against a NY firm, they'll have an advantage in their ability to accumulate earnings at a faster rate than an equivalent firm that's burdened with more taxes. Too bad NY can't wave Federal taxes...that would be nice.
- sleepyhead 13y agoDubai has tax-free zones but also put a bunch of money into certain industries. Also given the way you talk about taxes it doesn't seem you understand what taxes pay for. Like the roads that startups need to drive on.
- hueving 13y ago>Also given the way you talk about taxes it doesn't seem you understand what taxes pay for. I would say the same to you. Roads are usually paid for by vehicle registration fees, gas taxes, etc. Pick a better example.
- paddy_m 13y agoGas Taxes are increasingly having trouble paying for roads. I think roads are normally paid for by property taxes.
- sleepyhead 13y agoThere isn't a direct relationship between a specific tax and where the tax is spent.
- dkd903 13y agoDoes this mean, the employees working at these startups pay no taxes too?
- drawkbox 13y agoEvery city should do this now, tax free for years (at least 3 but 10 is awesome). No other requirements because there are many other ways to generate revenue from young companies and you want them to succeed, i.e. Free-to-Play business model somewhat.
- thrush 13y agoNY has recently taken up arms to make itself a more attractive destination for businesses and entrepreneurs. One of the largest strides that has been made aligns with this link, and is a marketing strategy that makes NY seem more startup friendly. It's unclear whether it's being targeted towards tech/software, which recently has become synonymous with the word "startup", or how much substance there is behind the cloak of marketing. An interesting and relevant read is Paul Graham's essay on recreating Silicon Valley: http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html
- donbronson 13y agoSeems like a great way to widen the size of the city. Startups in the Bronx!
- epc 13y agoNew York State. Not New York City. The program is designed almost entirely to exclude New York City.
- sudonim 13y agoOk, so you want to take advantage of this in NYC? http://startup.ny.gov/properties/new-york-city-properties/ http://startup.ny.gov/properties/new-york-city-properties/ There are a 3 results, all biotech / science in nature. Click on one of em: THIS PROPERTY HAS NOT YET BEEN DESIGNATED AS A TAX-FREE NY AREA That's probably a deal-killer for startups wanting to move to manhattan and be tax free for 10 years.
- bsifyskr 13y agoBecause the program is designed for upstate NY, whose economy consists of Rust Belt remnants, college towns, and Greek yogurt.
- joelgrus 13y ago"Eligible businesses must not locate in an area in which they would compete with existing local businesses."
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- sheetjs 13y agoPrevious discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6930718 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6930718 Previous submissions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6923744 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6923744 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6595355 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6595355 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5915189 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5915189
- gaadd33 13y agoI had filled out their form and asked to be contacted about 6 months ago and haven't heard anything back. Talking to some accelerator people, it seems to be pretty common. Even using their network the accelerator was unable to get useful information about how to use this program. I think while it makes great headlines it might be 3-4 years till they figure out the policies and requirements around this.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mathattack 13y agoIf it takes 3-4 years, I don't see it happening at all. It requires a mayor to make it a priority.
- judk 13y agoIt is a state program.
- superduper33 13y agoTo those who warn of the fine print -- what did you expect? Even with those conditions, this looks pretty damn advantageous. Go NY. -SF Startup Scene Employee
- vinceguidry 13y agoJust looking at the language of the website, I can see who this initiative is catering to: Large organizations looking to cash in on startup cachet and gain a significant competitive advantage over real startups. Because it looks like those are the only ones that can fulfill the requirements. Crossing NYC off of my list of places to move to when I'm ready to start a company.
- epc 13y agoNote that this program, by design, almost completely excludes New York City (all five boroughs) and much of Long Island. It's geared primarily to upstate.
- pacifi30 13y agoWell fine print aside sure they have lot of hidden clauses but it's a good start I would say. Nice to have Washington State also adopt something like this since now Seattle has a growing Startup community
- judk 13y agoWA waives income tax for startups!
- troymc 13y agoThere are no taxes for businesses that start up on the moon, so why don't more businesses start up on the moon?
- shakeel_mohamed 13y agoI got really excited for a moment, then I read the fine print. But, I think is generally a step in the right direction. How terrible would it be to collect no taxes from startups for the first year, nationally?
- srlake 13y agoMost startups aren't paying significant taxes in the first year, anyways, since there will be no profits.
- shakeel_mohamed 13y agoCorrect, and a startup with low profits might benefit in tax exemption early on for long-term success (and potentially avoiding fundraising early on).
- brianbreslin 13y agoAre there any other states doing this? Or municipalities? In Panama (the country), they do something like this in an area on the former US military base called "Ciudad del Saber" (City of knowledge)[1], whereby the companies based their get 0 taxation on imports/exports, salaries, and some other stuff. Could this be accomplished by designating areas free trade zones? Here in Miami there are a few free trade zones, but I'm not super clear on their function (mostly see cargo coming in and out of there). [1]http://ciudaddelsaber.org/en http://ciudaddelsaber.org/en
- circa 13y agoThey show commercials for this all the time all over NY state. Its incredibly misleading. I looked into it the first time I saw it. Like most things it is indeed to good to be true.
- appreneur 13y agoI am international..especially from india,can I open my startup in ny?, Cant seem to find that for international business owners want to start in newyork. I am an appreneur, we develop mobile apps,would love to open startup in newyork tax free zone. Can I get process for non-us citizen to open startup in new york.
- pak 13y agoI found it funny that their current ad, "Don't Back Down", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuXBcbYvKU8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuXBcbYvKU8 uses an animation at 0:08 clearly from the STAR experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory http://www.bnl.gov/rhic/star.asp http://www.bnl.gov/rhic/star.asp which is run by Department of Energy (federal) funding and has nothing at all to do with startup technology, or New York taxes for that matter. The facility does happen to be located on Long Island. A high-energy nuclear physics experiment focused around a mile-wide particle accelerator is so opposite to what startups aim to accomplish (minimum viable products, small teams, bootstrapping, becoming profitable fast) that the reference is nothing but humorous to me. Perhaps the implication is that there are very smart scientists in the NY area that one can poach off to work at startups as federal funding for high energy physics research declines. :-(