>> Minimum tax is the amount you must pay the first quarter of each accounting period whether the corporation is active, operates at a loss or does not do business. The current minimum tax is $800.
There's no number on the amount of money you have to earn to be a business. Corporate structures can be useful even if they don't directly earn money.
Either way, yes it's just a cost of doing business in California, and so profits need to be greater than the cost for the business to be sustainable. Perhaps it's not a great description to say "taxed into bankruptcy" but it's no different than "did not meet costs and ended in bankruptcy", with the costs specifically being taxes.
Sure, there is no minimum (tho it could be argued that $800 is the minimum tbh) but even if you only charge minumum wage ($11) that’s less than two weeks work.
More likely the hourly equivalent will be a lot higher. A dog walker would make that in 4 days at worst. A week or two if they are casual ones.
So to not make that it’s not the taxes that are killing your business.
https://www.ftb.ca.gov/businesses/faq/712.shtml
>> Minimum tax is the amount you must pay the first quarter of each accounting period whether the corporation is active, operates at a loss or does not do business. The current minimum tax is $800.