How to Incorporate in Colorado
Forming a corporation in Colorado can be done by hiring a corporate law firm or by filling out the paperwork and filing it yourself. You also have the option of hiring online incorporation services to complete the paperwork for you and file it with the Secretary of State for you. Hiring online incorporation services to incorporate your business is nice because it saves you the time and hassle of doing everything yourself, but is still cheaper than hiring a lawyer. Online incorporation services can also create your corporate seal as part of the incorporation process.
The first step to incorporating your business within the state of Colorado is to choose a corporate name. The name that you choose for your corporation must be distinguishable from any other business that is registered in the state of Colorado, this means it cannot be the same as or similar to any registered business or reserved name. Each corporation’s name must contain a term that allows it to be easily identifiable as a corporation.
Once you have chosen and reserved your corporation’s name you will need to fill out and file the articles of incorporation. When filling out the articles of incorporation you will need to include some specific information that is required by the state of Colorado. The first thing that you will need to include is the personal information of any of the incorporators of the corporation; this includes their name and address. The incorporators must also sing the articles of incorporation before they are filed. Articles of incorporation usually include the purpose of the corporation, but Colorado does not require you to include your corporation’s purpose. Most articles of incorporation include information on the directors of the corporation, but under Colorado formation requirements, you do not need to include this information.
Stock information must be included in the articles of incorporation. In the articles of incorporation, you must include the number of shares of stock that you will be issuing and the class of stock that you will be issuing. If your corporation plans to issue more than one class of stock, you will need to include the number of shares you wish to issue for each class of stock. Cumulative voting also needs to be addressed with the stock information. If your corporation does not want to use cumulative voting during the election of directors, that must be stated in the articles of incorporation under the stock information section.
Limited liability companies use an operating agreement to dictate the rules that will govern their business. A corporation does not have an operating agreement; instead, they have the articles of incorporation and the corporation’s bylaws. The articles of incorporation can include any regulations on the powers of the corporation, shareholders, or board of directors. The bylaws are adopted by the board of directors for the corporation to follow. In most cases, the bylaws are written so that the corporation’s business and affairs are handled in a specific manner. The one thing that you need to remember is that the bylaws cannot conflict with the corporation’s articles of incorporation.
The articles of incorporation must be filed with the Secretary of State to form the corporation, when filing the articles of incorporation a filing fee must be paid. The bylaws do not have to be filed with the state, but they do have to be kept on file at your corporation’s executive office.
