Liability is part of any business. Even if you are operating a business with your own resources and cash, there are many potential liabilities that may arise at any point of time. If your personal assets are not adequately protected, you stand to lose all your hard earned money due to a minor error or omission. State statutes have business structures that enable you to adequately protect your personal property but still provide you with enough flexibility to manage your business.

Corporations and Limited Liability Companies are two options for limiting your personal liability and protecting your personal assets. Limited liability partnerships are also a business structure that can limit personal liability of business owners but is restricted to specific businesses or professions in many states. The owners of these business structures have limited personal liability in business obligations. Limited Liability Companies are often incorrectly termed limited liability corporations or LLC Corp. LLC is an unincorporated entity but shares the limited liability characteristic with a corporation. LLC has the flexibility of operations as that of a partnership or sole proprietorship without the burden of unlimited personal liability of these business forms.

LLC’s are easy to form and convenient to operate. LLC business can start with filing an Articles of Organization with the state agency that deals with business registrations and paying the filing fees. It is prudent to have an LLC operating agreement in place. The llc operating agreement will portray individual existence and provide visibility to the limited liability status of the company. The owners of the LLC (called members) have the flexibility of partners of a general partnership in the management of the business while their personal liability is limited as that of share holders in a corporation. The members of the LLC can elect to be taxed as any other business entity like a partnership or corporation according to their convenience.

In LLC vs. corporation, the standard C corporations are subject corporate income tax and when the profits are distributed to the shareholders, they in turn have to report the income in their personal tax returns and pay tax if applicable. In LLC vs S Corporation, both have pass through taxation similar to that of a partnership and the members report the income in personal tax returns. This can avoid the double taxation involved in a C corporation. However, in all business entities, employment taxes or license fees are payable, if any are applicable to them.

The limited liability company formation does not allow you to form a LLC corp. The reason for this is that an LLC is a separate business structure. The LLC is a hybrid of a partnership and a corporation. When you are forming a LLC, you are choosing the LLC business structure because it provides you with the taxation benefits of a partnership, but provides you with the protection of a corporation.

The closet that you can come to forming LLC corporations is choosing to have your LLC taxed like a corporation. By choosing to have your LLC taxed like a corporation, you will be receiving the protection that is available to corporations and receiving the same tax benefits that corporations receive, but your business will be an LLC instead of a corporation.

One of the benefits of forming your LLC this way is that it saves you time on paperwork, but it can also save you money. Forming a corporation is more expensive than forming an LLC because of the filing fees and the amount of paperwork that has to be filed. With an LLC, the only paperwork that you have to file is your articles of organization, which usually costs around $100 to file. With a corporation, you will need to file articles of incorporation, bylaws, and numerous other forms. You can use sample articles of incorporation to help prepare your articles of organization so your LLC is similar to a corporation instead of a partnership.

When forming LLC corporations you will need to decide if you want to run your LLC as a C corporation or an S corporation. The structure for both is quite similar, but there are some differences that you will need to keep in mind. Choosing the S corporation for tax purposes allows you to benefit from pass through taxation, where as a C Corporation suffers from double taxation. The double taxation is why some people prefer to form an LLC, they can choose to have their LLC taxed like a corporation, but still benefit from the protection that are provided to corporations.

LLC businesses are protected in a way that is similar to the corporate veil. This means that the LLC member’s personal assets are protected, just like shareholder’s assets are protected in corporations. Protecting the personal assets of members offers the members protection from any business debts and liabilities that are incurred by the business. If the personal asset protection wasn’t available then creditors could come after the members’ house or car to help settle any business debts or liabilities. The one thing that you need to remember is that a personal protection that is offered to LLCs and corporations is not iron clad. The protection is considered null and void if any personal guarantee is signed on behalf of the business.

When it comes to forming LLC corporations, one choice you have to make is where you will be forming your corporation. While most people will choose forming LLC corporations in the state that they live in, others choose NJ incorporation because of the benefits it provides. Incorporating in a state like NJ offers you the chance to incorporate your business in a business friendly state. For example, NJ does not have the extra annual tax that other states charge when forming an LLC.