<story><title>We got our first Delaware tax bill: $74,018.74</title><text>We are Imaginary Number, a small educational games startup with 3 founders, zero employees, and a handful of paying customers. I finally opened the letter from CSC, the Delaware agent responsible for collecting taxes. Here&amp;#x27;s what they sent:&lt;p&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mathbreakers.com&amp;#x2F;static&amp;#x2F;img&amp;#x2F;csc_delaware_tax.jpg&lt;p&gt;After 10 minutes of mounting panic, I came across some information which relieved me. Apparently Delaware likes to use the maximum method for calculating taxes for startups, when we actually only owe a tiny fraction of the amount they claim we owe (and they offer a hefty interest of $525.56 on this supposed balance as well!)&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s the article, if you&amp;#x27;re a C-Corp in Delaware and at the seed stage, you&amp;#x27;ll need to see this.
http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;capgenius.com&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;de-franchise-tax&amp;#x2F;&lt;p&gt;Any other startups here gotten a nice &amp;quot;tax surprise&amp;quot;? Would love to hear about it!</text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>chao-</author><text>Quite the opposite. In Texas, until a certain point in revenue, they really don&amp;#x27;t want to waste any time and resources on you. They ask &amp;quot;Did you make at least $1,000,000 last year? No? Well, please move along peasant, we have &lt;i&gt;real businesses&lt;/i&gt; to deal with who might actually be worth auditing.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Makes sense, somewhat. Even in the case of minor fraud, they would likely spend more in manpower than they could possibly reclaim from such a low-earning outfit. You still have to file, of course, but it&amp;#x27;s properly simple if you didn&amp;#x27;t earn a significant amount.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;EDIT: corrected from $200,000 to one million.&lt;/i&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>We got our first Delaware tax bill: $74,018.74</title><text>We are Imaginary Number, a small educational games startup with 3 founders, zero employees, and a handful of paying customers. I finally opened the letter from CSC, the Delaware agent responsible for collecting taxes. Here&amp;#x27;s what they sent:&lt;p&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mathbreakers.com&amp;#x2F;static&amp;#x2F;img&amp;#x2F;csc_delaware_tax.jpg&lt;p&gt;After 10 minutes of mounting panic, I came across some information which relieved me. Apparently Delaware likes to use the maximum method for calculating taxes for startups, when we actually only owe a tiny fraction of the amount they claim we owe (and they offer a hefty interest of $525.56 on this supposed balance as well!)&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s the article, if you&amp;#x27;re a C-Corp in Delaware and at the seed stage, you&amp;#x27;ll need to see this.
http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;capgenius.com&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;de-franchise-tax&amp;#x2F;&lt;p&gt;Any other startups here gotten a nice &amp;quot;tax surprise&amp;quot;? Would love to hear about it!</text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>awad</author><text>At previous company incorporated in New York (oh, to be young and naive) with just 3 technical co-founders we were slapped with a ~30kish fine for not having worker&amp;#x27;s compensation. When trying to explain the situation to the state, that the only 3 employees were the owners who typed in front of a computer all day but were still interested in resolving the issue, we were no less threatened by the official on the other end that we had no leverage and they were going to go after our personal assets. Quite a terrifying time for a 21 year old to be honest.</text></comment>