In a recent survey of the laws, practices and size of inflows in 60 jurisdictions, Delaware was found to be the "most secretive financial destination". Coming after Delaware were: Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom. These findings may strike some as odd due to the well known reputation of the other front runners but upon closer look, what better secret destination could there be than a state few people bother to notice?
In 2007 the U.S., led by Delaware, received $2.6 trillion in deposits from non-resident individuals and corporations. Delaware draws such attention due to its investor friendly laws which give businesses opportunities they cannot find elsewhere. For instance, Delaware does not tax profits realized outside the state or require that companies be physically present. Furthermore, there is no state sales tax or corporate tax, one person may be the only stock holder and hold all executive offices of the corporation and officer names do not need to be listed on the articles on incorporation. Delaware also boasts a uniquely specialized corporate court system known as the Delaware Court of Chancery which uses judges who have expertise in corporate law instead of juries. All told, there are about 700,000 entities active and registered in Delaware, among which nearly half are publicly traded. UBS and Credit Suisse alone have about 200 entities in the state.
Besides 1st year law students, many LLC's or small businesses don't concern themselves with have their "corporate veils" pierced. However, much of Delaware's traffic is driven by their respect for the LLC entity as an independent driving force from the people behind the company. When analyzing potential liability, business owners are always looking to mitigate risk.
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