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Why Kickstarter Became a Public Benefit Corporation (Video)
Meet Kickstarter co-founder and CEO Yancey Strickler. Timothy Lord asked Yancey about Kickstarter's recent move to become a Public Benefit Corporation, which is, according to Wikipedia, "a specific type of corporation that allows for public benefit to be a charter purpose in addition to the traditional corporate goal of maximizing profit for shareholders."
This corporate restructuring has no tax advantages, and creates a slight increase in paperwork, Yancey says. So why did they do it? Please view the video (or read the transcript, which has more info than the video) to find out.
This corporate restructuring has no tax advantages, and creates a slight increase in paperwork, Yancey says. So why did they do it? Please view the video (or read the transcript, which has more info than the video) to find out.
They talk about choosing this corporate structure (in part) to prevent themselves from exploiting tax loopholes, yet they incorporated in Delaware (rather than the state their main office is actually in -- New York, apparently), which could be construed as exploiting loopholes (at least regulatory, if not directly tax-related) in and of itself. What gives?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Good people go to bed earlier..
But . . . alone?
so what you are saying is there is now an opening in the market?
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
What are you on about, SJW?
My guess is that it's an effort to avoid the looming backlash as Congress (who barely even perceives the internet yet) starts to get waves of angry mail from constituents complaining that they've "lost our life savings on this Kick-Starter-thing and now they claim they're not responsible"....
I KNOW they're basically just an aggregator.
I KNOW "caveat emptor" and agree with it.
But when congress starts to see that $millions$ have vanished chasing projects* they're going to start looking for someone to hang, and since KS doesn't have the lobbying weight of Wall Street, they're going to look like an awfully-choice "example" that Congress can use to prove they're "doing something".
2016 is an election year, as you may remember.
Personally, I believe their next big move would be to ensure that members of Goldman-Sachs are sitting on their board. That seems to do wonders to ensure that they avoid government culpability or scrutiny...
*that probably should have never been born in the first place.
-Styopa
A company that maximizes profits in a free market is much better for society than one operating at a loss. A profitable company is meeting societies needs in a cost efficient way. A company operating at a loss is wasting resources.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
Weren't those people you accuse found innocent?
Becoming a public-benefit corporation is the first step towards becoming a non-profit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation. A private-benefit corporation cannot be tax-exempt.
Of course, this means much more than Kickstarter merely avoiding taxes. It also means it cannot compete with for-profit companies; any profits unrelated to its public-benefit purpose are taxed at a higher rate than for-profit corporations. This also means that it cannot endorse any candidate for election to public office and severely limits its ability to lobby government officials and agencies.
Why is a public benefit corporation not the default, with added paperwork and taxes for private-benefit corporations?
That way a company can actually "do the right thing", even if it may not directly benefit the shareholders.
No.
What happens if they don't fulfill this new mission? Where's the legal accountability? Or is this just a fancy version of a mission statement?
A cat can't teach a dog to bark.
Paying taxes is nice, friendly and civilised behaviour. But all is not good, and I would argue that in some countries it is a moral obligation to avoid taxes.
The numbers and reliability of the sources can be argued of course:
The general US war machine has killed 20-30 million foreigners since WWII. Let's use 25E6 lives. Averaging around 350E3 lives per year.
http://www.sott.net/article/273517-Study-US-regime-has-killed-20-30-million-people-since-World-War-Two
The US military spending is around 18% of federal budget, or 615E9 USD
http://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go
Over time projection indicates that each foreign life costs around 1.7E6 USD
So, for every 9.5M USD you pay in federal tax you, in effect, fund the killing of one foreign national.
Hence, I think it's morally right to go for some serious tax evasion when it comes to paying US federal taxes...
Do you dispute that shills exist? That corporations and governments are actively paying people to pollute public forums? If I find out that a poster is a shill, does it not somewhat become a helpful, healthy goal to inform others?
I get what you're saying about wanting to cease the logical fallacies. But the evidence (government manuals, testimonials) that people are being paid to divert discussion exists. So, what do you think should be done about it?
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
Cleveland Rocks!
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
cleveland, like all of ohio is flat and dull, eception for occasionally the aptly named 'flats'.
Never been to Cincinnati I guess..
Start vetting your projects better. I've funded four projects, only one of which saw the light of day. And that one was almost as bad as the Kreyos I funded at Indiegogo. Quite frankly, I'm done with crowdfunding until IGG and KS start vetting instead of letting any scammer with a post box drop and a slick video to start a campaign.