We recently did a beta launch of Incorporations.IO which is an international incorporation comparison matrix. The tool aims to objectively answer this question: "What is the best country to incorporate a company" based on user input and criteria that is customizable.
The reason this question is (almost) impossible to answer is that for each individual situation, the best place to incorporate may change, and is highly subjective.
If you want to raise money in Silicon valley, then a Delaware C-corp is the preferred entity of choice. But not every business has this as a goal. For instance, what if you are a digital nomad that wants to legally minimize taxes on profits - or you want as little paper work as possible (using our tool, you can see how long it is estimated to complete filings on a yearly basis). What if you are starting a bitcoin company, what is the most favorable environment for that?
Another aspect of incorporation that is important is tax treaties. If you are trading internationally, oftentimes this is a very important consideration to benefit from certain exemptions, or avoid other headaches, such as with-holding tax, for starters. We have an entire aspect of the application making it transparent and easy to see if the country you select has a tax treaty (either DTC or TIEA).
Try out our tool - it's free to try (you don't even need to put in your email) and we'd love to hear your feedback. i@incorporations.io
Simple Answer - Stay Legit. Incorporate in the US. When you start looking for money, investors are looking for Red Flags. Incorporating in some remote corner of the world screams.."Scam."
Best of Luck,
Mike
I may assist you as my time permits. Right now I am doing something that I haven't done for many years. I am actively soliciting new select clients due to selling one of my businesses and freeing myself up a little. But as you might expect, I am still very busy. That is how I like it.
TheLittleGuysWayToRiches.com
Silicon Valley is more about physical proximity than just incorporation. There are three reasons for this:
1. Access to capital - no where on the planet even comes close for tech start ups
2. Access to middle management - as you scale you need to be able to grow very very fast, which has a lot of challenges that most people in most parts of the world don't know how to deal with but in Silicon Valley you can walk across the street to Facebook and hire someone who helped them do it
3. Mindset - the deals are simply bigger and the mindset is bigger there
All of this being said an "internet company" doesn't necessarily imply raising money or being what some might call a traditional "start-up". In this case the US is about the worst place in the world to be because the taxes are the highest and it's the most litigious country on the planet.
However, the misnomer is that you can reduce taxes based on where you incorporate...you often can't if the substance doesn't match the form so you need to consider carefully the facts of the company and then build a corporate structure to match in order to get the optimal structure.
Feel free to contact me if you've got any questions.
