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Comment by wasd | Hacker News Reader

You should consider an S Corp instead of an LLC. In California, you have to pay an $800 franchise fee every year. It's significantly cheaper for an S Corp and any revenue can be passed to your personal income tax.

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> You should consider an S Corp instead of an LLC. In California, you have to pay an $800 franchise fee every year. It's significantly cheaper for an S Corp and any revenue can be passed to your personal income tax.

A California S Corp pays a 1.5% franchise tax on income with an $800 minimum. There is no income level at which the S Corp franchise tax is less than the combination of the LLC tax of $800 + the income-dependent LLC fee.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/california-state-busi...

That was really helpful. Thanks for sharing. I rescind my previous comment.

Typically, S-Corp status has more to do with how you're taxed than your entity type. Technically you can be either an LLC or a corporation and still be taxed as an S-Corp, if you meet certain requirements (only one class of stock, no more than 100 shareholders, etc.)

I didn't know this, thanks.

This is very weird that LLC is so expensive in Cali, the land of statups. In good ole Indiana, it is ~$93 to form an LLC and much less to maintain it. Illinois was not that much more.

Looking at Illinois requirements now it's MUCH higher than that. Based on what I have open in another tab, it's a minimum of $500 to file, and annual fees of $250; both of those are for filing on paper, electronically it's $600/300.

There's also a requirement to register with the state if you're an LLC incorporated in another state and will be doing business in Illinois. $500 filing fee and you have to have a registered agent within the state. The relevant law is http://law.onecle.com/illinois/805ilcs180/45-5.html, but it's not entirely clear to me what "transacting business" really means. The seemingly obvious meaning would imply that every little LLC selling anything would be required to spend $500 once plus annual fees to a registered agent before selling to anyone in Illinois.

A lot of startups incorporate in Delaware instead of California.

If you live in Cali, doesn't that mean you also need to incorp in cali as a foreign entity? I don't think its either home state OR Delaware.. its home stand AND Delaware. And then yes, you get some Delaware legal things on your side, but you are paying more.

If you (as a corporation/LLC) do business in a state but are incorporated elsewhere, you generally need to register as a foreign corporation in the state you are doing business in. This often involves franchise fees similar to opening a corporation/LLC in the state. But you only, strictly speaking, incorporate in one place (unless you want a subsidiary incorporated elsewhere for some reason.)

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