Register a company in California

Because the question is backwards: you don't choose California, your business does - the moment your team, your investors or roughly $700k of your sales live there. At that point the real question is which structure pays least while complying fully, and that one we answer daily.

California's cover charge: every LLC and corporation registered or doing business there owes $800 a year to the Franchise Tax Board regardless of profit, from the first year in most cases under current rules. It is not avoidable by cleverness, only by not doing business in California - which for many is not on the menu.

On top of the $800, LLCs pay a fee on gross receipts - not profit: $900 from $250k, climbing to $11,790 past $5 million. High-revenue thin-margin LLCs feel it hardest, which is why we often route scale businesses into corporations instead. Arithmetic first, always.

Sales into the state past an indexed threshold around $700k, any California employee, property or warehouse, or simply managing the company from a California desk. The FTB reads payment-processor and payroll data and writes letters years later, penalties included. If the trigger is close, we file first - it is cheaper than the argument.

If you are raising venture capital and operating in California - almost certainly: Delaware charter for the investors, California qualification for the reality. If you operate only in California with no fundraising plans, a straight California entity saves the double fees. The stack is a tool, not a badge.

No - and this is the most expensive myth in US formation. If the work happens in California, California taxes it and demands registration, whatever the charter says. Out-of-state paper adds cost on top of the California bill instead of replacing it. We build the structure around where you actually work.

Specialist-sport dangerous: the ABC contractor test reclassifies freelancers, meal-and-rest violations accrue per employee per day, and PAGA lets one worker sue on behalf of all. None of it is unmanageable - with proper payroll, classification and handbooks from day one. Improvisation is what costs six figures.

It applies to California residents and California-source income - the highest state rate in the country, with an extra payroll surcharge pushing wage income further. Founders who live elsewhere are not touched by it merely for owning a California entity; founders who move there should plan compensation with eyes open.

It taxes apportioned income - the share attributable to California by sales factors. A company selling globally with a California base pays on the California-apportioned slice, not everything. Apportionment planning is legitimate and expected; hiding the California slice is neither.

From $2,400 for the entity or qualification with agent, EIN and documents; from $4,400 with banking. Filing takes days; the EIN two to eight weeks without an SSN. Budget the state's $800 minimum from year one and renewal from $700 plus it. Expensive, knowable, and worth it when the market is yours.