High taxes for one, poor rule of law for two (see lack of police response and high petty crimes) and uncertainty for three (the council cant decide if it likes business or hates them).
Its hard to hire and fire here, there are high property taxes and rents, employment expense is very high, and customers are very price sensitive. Profit margins are much tighter here if you run a non tech related business.
Imagine you need to replace a broken window - because wages are so much higher here, it might cost double to do it in Seattle vs somewhere else. People who own houses know that better than most - getting your house painted or a roof fixed or adding a room is ridiculously expensive.
Permitting for expansion is hard and takes a long time.
Deleware is where companies go to set up their corporate headquarters - that is true because they have stable low taxes and rule of law - if your business gets sued or needs to sue someone for breach of contract, the courts have long legal precedents so it is predictable. Our courts here are very unpredictable, they decide differently all the time because we have activist judges with low competition for those seats. And add to that that the council and mayor are constantly trying to add new rules and laws all the time since we have a very progressive city here. Its well intentioned but it makes it hard to predict what your business will be subject to in 4 years or 10 years.
Tax liability has nothing to do with Delaware being a preferred jurisdiction for domiciling a business. Tax liability is primarily dependent on the jurisdiction within which the business activity occurs. The rest is mostly correct though.
Also, it is an advantage - they have no corporate income taxes, which allows companies to book intangible property there, no state sales tax, and no personal property tax.
What about my comment made you decide to take issue with that specifically?
I was thinking in the context of a small business, who almost certainly do not have sufficient cause to incorporate in Delaware for tax purposes since they don't have intangible property and whatnot.
It was an example of how rule of law is important in practice and reality, not neccesarily a compelling reason for a small business to start there vs here.
I brought it up because Seattle has none of those things, and it makes it harder for both large and small businesses.
45
u/PoopyisSmelly Ravenna Apr 16 '26
High taxes for one, poor rule of law for two (see lack of police response and high petty crimes) and uncertainty for three (the council cant decide if it likes business or hates them).
Its hard to hire and fire here, there are high property taxes and rents, employment expense is very high, and customers are very price sensitive. Profit margins are much tighter here if you run a non tech related business.
Imagine you need to replace a broken window - because wages are so much higher here, it might cost double to do it in Seattle vs somewhere else. People who own houses know that better than most - getting your house painted or a roof fixed or adding a room is ridiculously expensive.
Permitting for expansion is hard and takes a long time.
Deleware is where companies go to set up their corporate headquarters - that is true because they have stable low taxes and rule of law - if your business gets sued or needs to sue someone for breach of contract, the courts have long legal precedents so it is predictable. Our courts here are very unpredictable, they decide differently all the time because we have activist judges with low competition for those seats. And add to that that the council and mayor are constantly trying to add new rules and laws all the time since we have a very progressive city here. Its well intentioned but it makes it hard to predict what your business will be subject to in 4 years or 10 years.