Startup Ltd.: Tax Planning and Initial Incorporation Location

Do startup firms consider taxes when they decide where to organize? This Article analyzes the incorporation decisions of relatively new, US-based private business enterprises with global ambitions. Such startup firms generally organize as US corporations. This Article theorizes this dominant structure and its exceptions, drawing from prior literature and illustrating with informal interview results.

It identifies explanatory factors including limited tax benefits of non-US incorporation, legal benefits of US incorporation, startups’ liquidity and other resource constraints, and investor preferences.