

Ask HN: Legal Hacks. - hajrice

I recently found out that the best state for registering a C-Corp is Delaware.<p>Post your legal hacks here.
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mbrubeck
The Mozilla Corporation (which employs many developers and has revenue deals
with partners like Google) is a for-profit company, owned entirely by the non-
profit Mozilla Foundation.

This lets Mozilla have a taxable, revenue-generating entity that is not
subject to various restrictions on activity of non-profits. But because the
sole owner is a charitable non-profit, the corporation can act in altruistic
(i.e. non-profit-maximizing) ways without compromising its "shareholder"
interests.

I thought this was a neat legal hack because it uses existing legal structures
in an unusual way, and lets Mozilla use the best parts of the non-profit and
for-profit structures as needed.

~~~
morisy
I once worked for a for-profit student newspaper that had a non-profit
landlord, which existed almost solely to lease space at a discount to the for-
profit company and support that for-profit's "educational" mission. It saved
thousands annually on property tax, while leaving the for-profit paper
completely free to do whatever it wanted.

Editorial endorsements, for example, are a legally murky area for non-profits
(though the IRS traditionally lets newspapers slide) but completely fine for
for-profits.

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oomkiller
I think the IKEA "legal hack" can top just about anything out there. Check it
out: [http://www.economist.com/business-
finance/printerfriendly.cf...](http://www.economist.com/business-
finance/printerfriendly.cfm?story_id=6919139)

