Start a company today, and if you're lucky, you'll sell it no sooner than 5 years. In that case, you'll most likely qualify for QSBS, which means you'll pay an effective rate of 0%. Only available for C-Corps. You're welcome.
To expand on this as it's an important point and QSBS is the reason why VCs love C Corps... the deduction is the a HUGE benefit but also thanks to our tax system the deduction % is not static...
The % deduction you can take is entirely dependent on the year and sometimes month of when your stock is issued. For example we had C Corp stock issued in February 2010 so our FEDERAL deduction was 75% NOT 100% which it would have been if it was issued in November of the same year (Blah), also California no longer has the QSBS deduction so you still pay the 8%+ here.
The % deduction you can take is entirely dependent on the year and sometimes month of when your stock is issued. For example we had C Corp stock issued in February 2010 so our FEDERAL deduction was 75% NOT 100% which it would have been if it was issued in November of the same year (Blah), also California no longer has the QSBS deduction so you still pay the 8%+ here.