business-registration, llc, incorporationI have an idea for a startup, but it is a long term project, at least 3 or 4 years in the future before I can possibly start selling anything. In the meantime I got a web site, and I was thinking of creating a company to save the name.
Since there won’t be any profit for many years, I am looking for the place where I can spend less, and where there won’t be any residence requirements. I don’t care about low profit taxes, since there won’t be profits, but where it won’t cost much to register or for basic recurrent fees.
It can be anywhere (as long as I don’t have to live there) in the US, or even elsewhere in Europe (it looks like the UK may have few requirements?), since I am dual US/EU.
1) Can anyone give me any suggestion?
2) Can I later move the company to a different state or country?
If your goal is to reserve the name of your company, then you are going about it the wrong way. Creating a company, on its own, won’t prevent other people from creating a company with the same name.
In the U.S., if you want to reserve the name, then you should file an “intent to use” trademark application. This allows you to reserve the name before you start using it. You can’t reserve it indefinitely this way, but you can keep this process going for about three years.
Note that trademarks are country specific so you should file the trademark in the country that is most important for your business.
Trademarks do cost money and you may want to hire a trademark attorney to help you. If that is out of your budget, just having the domain name is a big deterrent since other people are less likely to use the name if they can’t get the domain name.
Delaware.
http://grasshopper.com/blog/a-concise-guide-to-the-7-best-states-for-incorporating/
The numbers don’t lie:
The tiny State of Delaware is the legal home to more than 850,000 businesses, 50% of all publicly-traded companies in the U.S., and 63% of all Fortune 500 companies.
Delaware is the 2nd smallest state, but somehow has such a huge disproportionate number of publically traded companies in it, it’s not a coincidence - - It’s because all of those companies are CHOOSING to be in Delaware (because for all of them, it’s the best decision)
I’d say a better question is: Why WOULDN’T you choose Delaware if everyone else is? Why not start with Delaware as your default choice, and try to find someplace that would be even more favorable for your specific case.
For my LLC, my lawyer was considering using Delaware, but we chose my home state because my business was going to stay small and local, and I wanted to use tax professionals with local experience.
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