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Former New York entrepreneur here. There's a simple solution to this: don't incorporate in New York. You can incorporate in any state you want simply by having someone to receive your mail there (known as a "registered agent").

The laws in New York are absurd. I incorporate in Florida now, and it costs $70 and takes filling out a 5 minute form.

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If you physically operate out of New York, that does still require paying NY State a $300/year "foreign corporation doing business in New York" fee, plus a one-time $225 filing fee: http://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/publications/corporation/pub24.pdf

("Foreign" in this usage means out-of-state, not necessarily international: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_corporation)

That's right, an LLC incorporated elsewhere that wants to qualify to do business in New York also has to publish notices: http://www.dos.ny.gov/corps/llcfaq.asp#pubreq

If you're a tech company, chances are you don't have a storefront, or even employees in an office, so you don't have a physical presence anywhere.

But there are costs for registered agents?

Not $2K.

If you have a friend living in another state, they can be your registered agent.

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