There is an option for enforcement you're not realizing here, called the Commodore Mathew Perry method, it goes like this. --Location: Tax Havens--

>Knock Knock Its the United States

With huge boats, with guns, gunboats.

>Open your banks' records, stop having them be closed

and theres not much they can do about.

So they sign a treaty making sure their banks' records are not closed.

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Inspired by this, both historically and in delivery https://youtu.be/Mh5LY4Mz15o?t=4m46s

Are you suggesting the USA does this to tax havens like Ireland, The Netherlands and The City of London?

Is it not a thing for startups to be based out of Delaware for a tax advantage? Would the ships even have to leave the harbor to do this?

There is basically no tax advantage for startups in being based in Delaware -- you end up registering as a "foreign corporation" and paying in-state taxes whenever you're actually located. Delaware is chosen because of the body of corporate law and efficient secretary of state.

Yep. 100%. ...and it does not apply only to startups but also to large corporations

There are multiple levels of tax avoidance / money hiding being discussed here. You are responding to someone talking about the worst level, which was documented in the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers. It involves rich individuals who hide money in banks in the Seychelles, Cayman Islands, etc.

Very different from tax avoidance schemes that companies use to pay lower taxes by incorporating in low tax jurisdictions or funneling the money through multiple countries.

I wasn't suggesting it as serious solution.

And I was under the impression that startups use Delaware because it has a boatload of case law that favors investors.

That's a good argument for the land value tax as primary revenue source.