Most founders enter due diligence confident their structure is clean. Their accountant filed the returns. The cap table is in order. Delaware entity, check. What they haven't mapped.The buyer's advisors will find all of it.
Most founders don’t fear the fine. They fear the letter they don’t understand. The real tax on global founders isn’t financial: it’s psychological. It’s the Anxiety Tax: the cost of not knowing if you’re compliant, safe, or already exposed.
Leaving your country should feel like a clean break. For global founders, it rarely is. You build a company, move abroad, start fresh. Then one day, a letter arrives: “You owe tax on unrealized gains from assets you never sold.” That’s the Global Exit Trap—the fiscal price of mobility. You don’t pay for leaving. You pay for succeeding before you left.