Clerky franchise tax nightmare
I have to start by saying, Iâm not a CPA or a Lawyer, just a startup CEO that freaked out for a couple hours. To be fair, this nightmare is not Clerky specific. No matter how you incorporate, whether its Clerky or someone else, for the first time tax payer the Delaware franchise tax Amount Due is a nightmare!
So, you read everything there is to know about starting a startup. You used Clerky.com and setup a Delaware C Corp, finished the post incorporation step, and applied for your EIN (Employer Identification NumberâŠnot needed to complete taxes but you can get it immediately here).
Now you are ready to pay your taxes and if you did incorporate through Clerky.com, and your company physical does not reside in the state of Delaware, they would have set you up with a registered agent with a Delaware address. They gave NotiphiMe The Company Corporation, which is good about sending you reminders that your taxes are due March 1st.
You then went to the Delaware Corporations Information System (DCIS) web site to pay your franchise tax, figured out what your Business Entity File Number was by searching for your company by name, and finally got to the page with what you owe in taxes, and WHAT THE #@$%!!!!
Ok, you know this canât be right but youâre FREAKING OUT anyway. Then you google around like crazy trying find an explanation and maybe you stumble on these two great sites, startuplawyer.com and capgenius.com and learned about the two different ways to calculate your Delaware franchise tax you get some relief. But your franchise tax bill still says some crazy high amount in the amount due field.
Hereâs how to fix it:
1. Enter the amount of shares youâve issued. If you left everything standard in the Clerky.com forms and followed prevailing startup advice, you may have put aside 20% of your shares for various things and split 80% with cofounders, which in NotiphiMeâs case, leads to 8 million shares issued.
2. Fill in the Gross Assets field. Somewhere, hopefully in a folder youâve entitled âMinute Bookâ youâve been keeping track of what everyone has been spending. Add up all your assets and type the number here.
3. In the Asset Date field, again, if you did not stray from the Clerky.com defaults this field should be the same as End Date of Fiscal Year (#4 in the screenshot below). Convention would have that as the last day of your companyâs first tax year.
5. Push the Recalculate Tax button and wait as your Franchise Tax and Total Due Amount fields magically recalculate to the number you were looking for!
Freak out over, go have a beer.
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