After receiving a state income tax bill of nearly $40 for 2010, Smile Politely founder Seth Fein has decided to move the extremely lucrative online magazine’s headquarters to the Cayman Islands. “That $40 will be almost $50 in 2011 because of our state’s mismanagement,” Fein lamented. “Who knows, it could be as much as $75 in 2012. I could absorb this and adapt, but fuck that, it feels so much better to bitch and moan publicly.”
The site provides tens of dollars in economic impact to the community each year, according to half-assed estimates designed to engender public sympathy. “I was also going to hire a bunch more people and build a BioDome and get hundreds of people — basically, you and everyone you know — high and then laid, but there’s no fucking way that’s happening now,” Fein continued.
“I’m tired of all of the rules here, like, with taxes and unions and all that shit. I know a guy who went to spring break in the Caymans last year, and he says there are no rules there at all. I’m totally into that.”
When asked whether Illinois could do anything now to change his mind, he said “the state could say they made a mistake” and “apologize.”
Fein said building and operating a business like Smile Politely is “not comfortable, not easy, not nice.”
“We make money a dime at a time,” he said. “Yesterday, we made two dimes. It was awesome, until I had to give more than a penny of that back. That part blew, brah.”