[arin-ppml] Of interest?

[Owen DeLong]

> On May 15, 2019, at 21:30 , Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg at tristatelogic.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> In message <CAP-guGU5rAHGiR=TWRsHnvhGBdbDjWaHD3yhvDeeuC5mMazj0A at mail.gmail.com>
> William Herrin <bill at herrin.us>wrote:
> 
>> On Wed, May 15, 2019 at 1:18 PM Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg at tristatelogic.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Funny thing... not a single one of them seems to actually be registered with
>>> any of the relevant state authorities to do business in their alleged home
>>> states.
>>> 
>>> So, is it just me, or is this not a red flag to anybody else?
>> 
>> 
>> It's just you. It's pretty routine to incorporate in a different state than
>> where you get your mail and operate in a still different set of states
>> under a business name different enough to defy easy electronic matching.
> 
> No no no.  This is just 100% bovine excrement.  That is *not* common, except
> among tax cheats.
> 
> You're supposesd to formally register to do business in each and every
> state where you have a physical nexus, even if it is only a rented mailbox.

It’s pretty common these days to not have a physical nexus in lots of states
where you still conduct business.

You may not know this, but there’s this thing called the internet that lets people
do business in lots of places without having any physical presence or corporate
registration there. Turns out, in most cases it’s perfectly legal and not a tax cheat.

> Those are the rules.  And they aren't, like, ambiguous or anything.  If you
> think otherwise, then please cite chapter and verse of *any* state law
> that says, in effect "It's OK.  We're happy to allow you to do business
> with... and to possibly defraud... the people of this state, all while
> pretending to be located here, even without registering your business here.”

Pretending to be located there is a different issue, but it’s not unusual for a
corporation to be chartered in a state where it is not headquartered. Certainly
they should register as a foreign corporation wherever they do place their
HQ, but there are varying levels of diligence that are common for that.
Lots of small businesses get away with that routinely.

> There are exactly -zero- such states that allow these kinds of shenannigans.
> 
>> Have fun finding the state registration for AS11875.
> 
> That's different.  That ASN is registered to a "natural person"... *not*
> an incorporated legal (non-person) entity.
> 
> Both you and the Supreme Court may have some trouble with this, conceptually,
> but there actually *are* still one hell of a lot of differences... both
> physical and legal... between natural persons and incorporated legal entities.
> 
> As a natural person, you and your ASN have a right to move about, as you
> wish, from state to state within these United States.  An incorporated
> business also has the right to move about from state to state, but every
> time it elects to plop it's ass down, rent an office, or even a mailbox,
> in any particular state it needs to register with that state in order to
> do so... *if* it wishes to conduct *any* business from that location.
> 
> If you don't believe me, ask Amazon.  Every state where they have a 
> physical footprint is one where they are already legally incorporated.
> 
> State officials are, in general, fairly persnickety about enforcing this
> simple rule because, you know, taxes.  They want their cut.

It’s not at all uncommon as a result of this for a company to do very little
business at it’s “HQ” location and to avoid having physical nexus in any
of the states where it does significant business.

Owen