The Fine Print

Things corporations can do in North Carolina that you can't. None of them are made up. All of them are sourced. Some of them are genuinely hard to believe but here we are.

25 items across 4 categories · Updated April 2026
Click a section to expand

Financial Benefits

7 items
Your Tax Rate Drops to Zero by 2030
2025: 2.25%. 2026: 2%. 2028: 1%. 2030: 0%. Your rate is going down too, just... not to zero. Weird how that works.
NC Session Law 2021-180; NCDOR
All of This for Just $200 a Year
NC franchise tax minimum. Perpetual existence, liability protection, and a tax rate heading to zero. You pay more than that for car insurance.
N.C.G.S. §105-114
Tax-Free Electricity (If You're a Data Center)
Invest $75M in NC and your data center pays no sales tax on electricity or equipment. Ever. The exemption never expires. Existing data centers are skipping $45 to $57 million a year in taxes, and they don't even have to report how much. Some contractually require local governments to keep their usage secret. You pay sales tax on your power tools from Lowe's.
N.C.G.S. §105-164.13(55) and (55a); NC Commerce via WFAE (April 2026); The Assembly NC (April 2026)
$11 Billion in Profit. $0 in Federal Tax.
Amazon, 2017 and 2018. Depreciation, stock comp deductions, and tax credits zeroed out $11 billion in profit. This was legal. That's the part that gets people.
ITEP
Send Your Profits Overseas. Legally.
The "Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich" sounds made up but it routed profits through Ireland, the Netherlands, and Bermuda. You pay taxes on every dollar. They paid accountants to make sure they didn't have to.
ProPublica
Keep $10 Million in Capital Gains. Tax-Free.
IRS §1202. Build a company, sell it, keep $10M in gains tax-free. Sell your house above $500K profit? That's taxed. Different rules for different structures.
IRS §1202
Get Paid to Invest in Someone Else's Neighborhood
Opportunity Zone tax breaks for investing in designated communities. The people already living there don't get the tax break... they just get the rent increase.
IRS §1400Z

Zero Consequences

6 items
Liability Protection That Works Even When You Don't
As a person, a lawsuit can take your house, car, savings. As a corporation, your personal stuff is off limits. Same state. Same lawsuit. Different rules for paper vs. people.
NC Chapter 57D; corporate veil case law
Promise Jobs. Keep the Money Anyway.
NC gives corporations cash grants for promising to create jobs. Almost half of JDIG projects failed to hit their targets through FY 2025. Clawback provisions exist on paper. Enforcement is a different conversation.
Carolina Journal / John Locke Foundation (Feb 2026); NC Commerce / JDIG
No Jail. No Matter What.
BP killed 11 workers and fouled the Gulf. Settlement, no prison time, still operating. The worst case for a corporation is a fine. For a big enough company, that's just a cost of doing business.
DOJ Deepwater Horizon settlement
Write a Check and Get Back to Business
Boeing 737 MAX. 346 dead. $2.5B fine, no executives charged, still getting government contracts. The system worked as designed, which is kind of the problem.
DOJ, 2021
Never See the Inside of a Courtroom
Mandatory arbitration clauses force disputes out of court, waive jury trials, and ban class actions. It's in the terms of service you already clicked "agree" on. Nobody reads them. That's the point.
AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, 563 U.S. 333 (2011)
Your Office Is Off-Limits Without a Warrant
Warrantless searches of commercial premises are unconstitutional. Meanwhile, civil asset forfeiture lets the government take your stuff without convicting you. Good for... well, not you.
Marshall v. Barlow's, 436 U.S. 307 (1978)

Political Power

3 items
The Donation Ban That Isn't
NC technically bans direct corporate contributions to state candidates. Corporate money still reaches campaigns through 527s and super PACs with the kind of ease that makes you wonder what "ban" means.
N.C.G.S. §163-278.19
Spend What You Want on Elections
Your donations: capped at $6,800, fully disclosed. Corporate spending through outside groups: no cap, often no disclosure. Same democracy though.
Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310 (2010); NC SBE
Religious Beliefs. Legally Recognized.
Hobby Lobby, a craft supply chain, has legally recognized religious beliefs. Whether a corporation can experience doubt or existential dread remains untested.
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, 573 U.S. 682 (2014)

The Fun Stuff

9 items
Never Die
NC corporations exist until someone files paperwork to stop them. You get maybe 80 years and a lot of those aren't great.
N.C.G.S. §55-3-02
Already Dead? Come Back.
Dissolved NC corporations can be reinstated by paying a fee. Resurrection is not available for people regardless of what you're willing to pay.
NC Secretary of State; N.C.G.S. §55-14-22
New Name by Monday
Facebook became Meta overnight. Your name change requires a court order, filing fee, background check, and a waiting period. Corporations file a form.
NC Secretary of State
Born in a Day. Online. $125.
Legal corporate entity in NC, from your couch, in hours. US citizenship takes years, multiple applications, interviews, and a test. Just for some perspective.
NC Secretary of State; USCIS
Your Own Special Court
NC has a dedicated Business Court with specialized judges just for corporate disputes. You wait in line at the regular courthouse. Pretty nice honestly.
N.C.G.S. §7A-45.4
Split Yourself in Two
Tax-free spin-off under IRS §355. One entity becomes two. No human equivalent no matter how much coffee you drink.
IRS §355
Merge with Another Entity
Two corporations can legally combine into one. Marriage is a contract. A merger is something else entirely... and the tax treatment is better.
State merger statutes
Buy and Own Other Entities
One corporation owns another owns another. Normal corporate stuff. The 13th Amendment limits this for people, which we generally consider a good thing.
13th Amendment; standard corporate law
Federal ID. Instantly.
A Social Security Number for corporations. Available immediately online from the IRS. If you weren't born here, the timeline for yours is... different.
IRS EIN application
File Your Incorporation
30 seconds. No email. Just the certificate.

Obviously you can't actually become a corporation. That's the whole point. A Delaware LLC has more legal protection, a lower tax burden, and more political power than a human being in North Carolina... and nobody really talks about that because it sounds like it can't possibly be true. It is though. All of it. I'm Andy Bowline, running for NC Senate District 31. If you think this is as backwards as I do, let's talk.

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