I've paid a lot of legal fees as well and they always had sales tax on them.
HN seems to be a bit myopic in this sense, that if something hasn't happened to an individual therefore it doesn't happen.
But not everybody here looks at the data through the lens of a VC and that is what we're discussing here.
In this thread VCs are equated with a cartel, the truth is they're all continuously in competition with each other rather than colluding with respect to making terms sheets that are worse for the companies they invest in.
Terms sheets are negotiable on a per-case basis, if you can get better terms with a different VC then you should go for it, there is nothing that is 'always done this way' and any unspecified cost can be made into a certainty by either putting a cap on it or negotiating a lower investment with the other party accepting the fees to be paid to be directed to them if that gives you more peace of mind.
While sales tax is usually a state issue and our disconnect may be the result of working in different states (I am in NY), you can see from the American Bar website that it's clear that sales tax is not usually levied on lawyer fees: http://www.americanbar.org/advocacy/governmental_legislative...
That link shows the American Bar saying 'Don't start charging sales tax on legal fees' which implies that they don't currently charge them.
"Currently, only three states have a tax on legal services – Hawaii, New Mexico and South Dakota"
So where do you work?
I think the myopia here is you assuming that VCs don't normally pay legal fees because it's a sales tax problem and they don't want to waste money.
HN seems to be a bit myopic in this sense, that if something hasn't happened to an individual therefore it doesn't happen.
But not everybody here looks at the data through the lens of a VC and that is what we're discussing here.
In this thread VCs are equated with a cartel, the truth is they're all continuously in competition with each other rather than colluding with respect to making terms sheets that are worse for the companies they invest in.
Terms sheets are negotiable on a per-case basis, if you can get better terms with a different VC then you should go for it, there is nothing that is 'always done this way' and any unspecified cost can be made into a certainty by either putting a cap on it or negotiating a lower investment with the other party accepting the fees to be paid to be directed to them if that gives you more peace of mind.