Why does Oklahoma not try to duplicate the same business structure and laws of Delaware for incorporation here? Why not try to attract those big companies by changing our laws and how we deal with the business side?

BTW: this is just a question up for discussion.

Delaware doesn't rake in all that much dough from all those corporations: it's not mandatory to have much of a presence there, so long as you maintain a Registered Agent to represent you in Dover, and the fees are not all that high.

It certainly wouldn't hurt to streamline the process of incorporation in Oklahoma, but there's probably not much to be gained by trying to be Delaware West.

Windowphobe sums it up well. I'll add it probably helps the local economy by keeping a lot of lawyers employed, and franchise taxes supply about 20% of the state revenue in DE, but then again we are talking about a state with 900K people (in comparison there are 1.3 million in OK and Tulsa Counties).

DE has very relaxed banking regulations, including loose credit card usury laws. That may have mattered a long time ago. I know SD and NV have adopted similar laws, but, aside from luring a few credit card billing centers to Sioux Falls I would hardly call those places robust centers of finance. Wilmington is a big banking center, but nowadays that probably has more to do with being a 2.5 hour train ride to NYC than anything else.

One thing that would be hard to replicate is the extensive amount of court history with business cases, even if they are not thrilled with the precedents uncertainty can be even worse.

A company has to register in every state they do business in. If you do business in Oklahoma and you register in Deleware, you still have to register in Oklahoma.

okay, lets take up a second stance on the subject. What current Oklahoma laws do we have that may need to be changed to attract business. My thought process is that obviously, the people in a company who are choosing a place to open new business or move a current business, will look at several factors in determining a decision and location.

Eliminate state income tax and simplify the corporate taxes by eliminating the 1000's of deductions and credits. Do a simple - how much did you earn - pay X%.

We have more than one stop? I've set up a lot of corporations in my day. I mean if you count getting an EIN as a "stop," you can do that in 2 minutes. Filing your certificate is no big deal though and it's done easily through the mail or by walking into the Secretary of State's office.