I think this law is meant to prevent cases where some company hires sizable amounts of employees in California (25% of payroll as the blogpost states) and then shafts the state with some "loopholes". Think of a company with hundreds of employees in California, but which is technically a Delaware corporation.
I get that a state would want to prevent scenarios like that, and I think it's somewhat reasonable. I'd argue that a company with a sizable amount of employees in a state indeed can be said to have a business presence there. What's unreasonable is the lack of "minimums". California apparently tried to be reasonable by having the 25% rule, but failed miserably (maybe by design) by not considering very small companies, like the company from the article.
The franchise tax - in that amount and considering the lack of revenue - seems unreasonable too.
I don't know what paperwork is involved, but the 42 pages mentioned for a zero-revenue company with 1 employee sounds not just unreasonable but outright Kafkaesque.
A part of the blame goes to the author for not knowing the laws involved before hiring, but the major chunk of the blame, at least in my opinion, indeed goes to the state for creating absurd laws in the first place.
That's pretty accurate for most of what the California state government does. For example, crushing the young and disadvantaged between a lack of housing availability due to rent control and a lack of new housing construction due to restrictive regulations and zoning.
I get that a state would want to prevent scenarios like that, and I think it's somewhat reasonable. I'd argue that a company with a sizable amount of employees in a state indeed can be said to have a business presence there. What's unreasonable is the lack of "minimums". California apparently tried to be reasonable by having the 25% rule, but failed miserably (maybe by design) by not considering very small companies, like the company from the article.
The franchise tax - in that amount and considering the lack of revenue - seems unreasonable too.
I don't know what paperwork is involved, but the 42 pages mentioned for a zero-revenue company with 1 employee sounds not just unreasonable but outright Kafkaesque.
A part of the blame goes to the author for not knowing the laws involved before hiring, but the major chunk of the blame, at least in my opinion, indeed goes to the state for creating absurd laws in the first place.