

Ask HN: How much does it cost to incorporate? - micah63

What is the average cost of incorporating Federally (after all is said and done, lawyers, etc...)?
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rmah
First, there is no federal incorporation in the USA, incorporation is handled
at the state level.

Second, you can go to service providers such as legalzoom.com and incorporate
for as little as $100 to $300 (plus state filing fees). Lawyers will cost more
but should be under $1000.

State filling fees range from $50 to $400, with most in the $100 to $200
range. Here's a list: <http://www.incorporatefast.com/filingfee.asp>

All that said, IMO, the one-time cost of incorporating should not be a major
factor in which state you decide to incorporate in. Moreover, remember that
incorporating in another state does not mean anything wrt taxes or franchise
fees. And you may even have to pay a foreign corporation fee (foreign state,
not foreign country).

~~~
us
1\. Depends on what the OPs goals are. Most scalable startups register C corps
in Delaware. Of course if he's not planning to raise, scale a large size
startup, etc.. this may not apply.

2\. If the above is true, I would highly recommend against using services such
as LegalZoom. Nothing against them, but to get stocks issued, all the
paperwork done correctly, bylaws written, etc etc etc... Is not something I
would rely on LegalZoom to get done. You need a proper attorney for that.
Again, depends on what exactly he's trying to do.

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mindcrime
As far as I know, you don't incorporate federally, you incorporate at the
State level. Hence the terms you hear thrown around like "Delaware
Corporation," etc. You just need to incorporate in one state, but then some
(maybe all) other states just require you to file certain paperwork (and
possibly pay some fees) if you intend to do business in their state. If you're
doing a webapp though, I don't think anybody really tries to enforce making
you register in every state where somebody might try to use your app. But if
you're selling a product you might run into sales tax issues, see Amazon's
battles with North Carolina, Texas and some other states.

All of that said, the act of incorporating - in and of itself - isn't terribly
expensive. IF you pay a laywer to do it for you, I've heard prices thrown
around anywhere from $500.00 to $1000.00, but some lawyers who specialize in
working with startups might do it for equity or on a deferred basis. Ask
around.

If you do it yourself, it can be done for basically whatever the fee is to the
State. I organized as an LLC in North Carolina, did all the paperwork myself,
and it cost me like $200.00 or so. The downside to an LLC is that I'll have to
reincorporate later if I get outside funding, but I figure if I reach the
point where somebody wants to invest, then it'll be worth it to reincorporate
as a traditional C corporation then. YMMV.

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hajrice
Hi. It really depends, if you want to do it yourself it can be significantly
cheaper. I paid less than $100 for the incorporation of my company(c-corp).
I'm a solo founder, so I didn't have to deal with partnership agreements and
such.

As rmah said, there is no federal incorporation in the US, it's all done on a
state level. I'd suggest, if you're not going to take any investments to
register your company in the state you live(to avoid double taxation). Also,
if you're going to file for a corporation and still don't plan on raising
capital, make sure you file for election of a S-Corp after you've received
your certificate of incorporation - that'll also lower the taxes.

Hope the process goes well...I'll be sure to write up a detailed blog post for
ya on how I incorporated.

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rbyrne
Everyone's already said it, but between 100 and 200$ depending on what state
your from. You can just google something along the lines of "(your state) corp
filing form" and it should pop up, fill the forms out, and mail them in.

You most likely want to register as an "S-Corp" as opposed to a C-corp for tax
purposes.

If you live in NY, you probably don't want an LLC either due to the required
advertising in print publications. I'm not sure if other states have this, it
could be just NY. [http://www.yourincorporation.com/lawbrary/publication-
requir...](http://www.yourincorporation.com/lawbrary/publication-
requirements.php)

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micah63
Thanks everybody, these were all very helpful answers. I purposefully omitted
that I am from Canada (to get more answers), so it will be a little different,
but this really helps me to ball park it. Thanks again!!

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sagacity
Last that I knew, Delaware used to be the cheapest state to incorporate in.

