Delaware - Incorporation Advantages

Advantages of a Delaware Corporation or LLC

States such as Delaware or Nevada require less information about the founders of a Corporation than other States and the added privacy may be important to you.

Delaware has low incorporation fees, low annual franchise taxes, and no state corporate income tax for businesses that operate outside of the State.

Delaware has an extremely well established body of law; does not seek to tax income earned in other jurisdictions; has an excellent, informed business court in its Court of Chancery and is very pro-business. This Court is known for its well established record of decisions and speed at which it handles disputes. For all these reasons Delaware corporations are a known commodity in business circles, especially in the banking sector.

Over 50% of all companies on the NY Stock Exchange are Delaware corporations.

Delaware's Corporate Advantage

• Delaware courts have a reputation of reaching reasonable and fair conclusions when construing the corporation laws.
• Only one incorporator is required. A corporation may be the incorporator.
• There is no minimum capital requirement.
• The franchise tax compares favourably with that of other states.
• For companies doing business outside of Delaware there is no corporation income tax.
• Delaware has no sales tax, personal property tax, or intangible property tax on corporations.
• No taxation upon shares of stock held by non-residents and no inheritance tax upon non-resident holders.
• A corporation may keep all of its books and records outside of Delaware.
• You may have a principal place of business/address outside of the State of Delaware as well.

Delaware has a reputation as a corporate haven and has aggressively protected its stature as the incorporating capital of the United States. As a result, many of the Fortune 500 companies in the United States are incorporated in Delaware. They went to Delaware to protect the interests of their stockholders, directors, officers, and the corporation itself.  More than 250,000 companies are incorporated in Delaware, which leads the nation as a major corporate domicile for American and international corporations.

Delaware's corporation law is written to protect the rights of shareholders of the public corporations that are the standard bearers in the Delaware corporation system. The emphasis is placed on shareholder protections to attract the large public companies that trade shares in the various exchanges across the country. Its laws regarding corporate takeovers are the most sophisticated in the entire world. There is established a legal precedent for any conceivable corporate situation. It is a stable legal environment for many public companies to use as their base.