Nevada Registered Agent
Are Nevada and Delaware really the best states to incorporate?
Is it still the best option (and most cost effective) to incorporate in Nevada and get a registered agent when you want your main (and only) office in California?
Don’t you still have to register as a foreign company and pay all these California fees and taxes, thereby erasing all the money you save on taxes?
All the real benefits for Delaware/Nevada incorporations are realized only for larger corporations with a fairly large stockholder class (i.e. many more stockholders than officers or directors). If you plan on your corporation growing to a good size, then consider DE (Nevada basically copies DE laws, but lacks the Court of Chancery and the long line of court decisions that make predicting DE law much easier for you and your corporate lawyer). It is a common misconception that corporations incorporate in DE for tax reasons; that just isn’t true (at least, it is a very small sliver of why corporations incorporate here). Two huge reasons are the Delaware corporate code’s flexibility and the Court of Chancery’s expertise.
However, a decision this big should only be made after consulting a lawyer with a strong background in business organizations and formations. Far too many people think that incorporating is the best way to start their business (often it isn’t), and that they will get some benefit from incorporating in a certain state (for most small corporations and in most situations, the state of incorporation has almost no effect).