

The Tax Me More State - Potential new CA tax laws - fragmede
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303362404575580253578522766.html

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MarinaMartin
At what point will CA's abysmal tax environment stop Silicon Valley from being
a sought-after destination for entrepreneurs and talented employees?
Reinforcing the idea that CA is a great place to start a business while
they're sucking businesses dry is like buying the school bully lavish gifts
every time he sticks your head in a toilet.

If you opened the same company in Seattle instead of SF, you'd get to keep
around 9% more of your income. That was enough margin for me to leave CA for
WA five years ago. (Though the recall election didn't help my feelings toward
the place.)

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hga
California has one overwhelming advantage that will keep it competitive until
and unless it makes it impossible for a company to begin or profit: non-
competes are unenforceable.

Also nice, but much newer, is a law that makes what you do with your own time,
resources _and ideas_ your own.

So to reify this, if I can't open "the same company in Seattle" simply because
I'm shackled by a ludicrous non-complete them I'm damn well going to open it
somewhere in California or give up altogether (well, I suppose moving out of
the country might be an option).

And this goes for subsequent startups; this is a critical part the SF/SV
ecosystem.

Question: does your startup's employee contracts include non-competes?

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MarinaMartin
IANAL, but based on many conversations on the topic and a few close friends'
personal legal experiences, WA generally doesn't uphold non-competes unless
they're very specific (in geographic area and in time).

If someone is encumbered a geographical non-compete and they're _leaving_
another state where they signed a non-compete, I'm willing to bet that the
court battle will actually be in the original state, so CA law wouldn't apply.
But again, IANAL.

I'm anti-non-competes unless a truly specific case warrants it (for
commissioned sales teams, for example... I think it's reasonable that your new
salesperson can't come in, print off your leads and go off on his own the next
day).

