How to incorporate in Illinois
If you are thinking about incorporating in Illinois one way to go about doing it is to hire a corporate law firm. A corporate law firm will complete everything for you, including an operating agreement if one is needed. The one thing that you need to think about when using a corporate law firm to form your corporation is that they are going to charge you by the hour, which can get rather expensive.
Another option that you have is to hire a business that specializes in forming corporations. These businesses often charge you a flat fee to prepare the required paperwork. The flat fee is usually much less than what you would have to pay with a corporate law firm. If you do not want to pay any extra fees, you can form the corporation yourself. If that is the case, he only fees that you would need to pay are the filing fees that are required by the state of Illinois.
The first thing that you will need to do to incorporate your business in Illinois yourself is to go to the Illinois Department of State website, which is http://business.illinois.gov/default.cfm. Here you will want to download the forms that you need for a corporation, non-profit corporations require different forms so be sure you get the right ones. You can also call the Secretary of State’s office at (217) 782-6961 to have the forms mailed to you.
The second thing you will need to do is to choose a name for your corporation. Once you have decided on a name you will want to use the “Electronic Corporate name Database” link on the state’s website to search for the current corporations in Illinois. Your corporation cannot have the same name or a similar name as any other corporation that is already in business in the state. Once you have done this you will need to reserve your corporation’s name, which is going to require a small fee. Reserving your business name is not required, but is a good idea to ensure that nobody else can use that name either.
The third thing that you will have to do is fill out the articles of incorporation and file them with the Secretary of State’s office. The articles of incorporation will contain the basic information that you need to start your business, such as the name of your corporation, the names of the directors, how much stock you plan on issuing, if you will be issuing a registered stock certificate or if you will issue a bearer stock certificate, among many other things. The articles of incorporation will also contain your corporation’s bylaws, which are what will govern your corporation, so it is important that you fill them out completely.
Once you are done filling out the articles of incorporation you will need to file them with Secretary of State’s office and pay the required filing fee. Once you have paid the filing fee, it can take up to six weeks for your business to become incorporated. Once the process has been completed and your business has been incorporated, you will receive a copy of your corporation’s article of incorporation in the mail. You will also receive a confirmation of your corporation’s registration and an employer identification number. If you plan to sell alcohol or firearms, you will need to obtain additional licenses to do business.
How to incorporate in Virginia
When forming a corporation in Virginia you have three choices. You can hire a lawyer to form your corporation, you can hire online corporation services, or you can do it yourself. What you want to keep in mind is that if you hire a law firm to form your corporation you can end up paying quite a bit of money because of filing fees and then the hourly fees that the law firm charges you to form the corporation. With online corporation services, you will spend less money than with a lawyer’s office, but it will still cost more than doing it yourself. How much you will pay for online corporation services will depend on what they charge, you will have to pay their fee plus any filing fees that are associated with forming a corporation. If you form the corporation yourself, all you will have to pay is the filing fees that go along with forming a corporation.
If you decide to form the corporation yourself the first thing that you will have to do is decide on a name for your corporation. When choosing your corporation’s name you will want to make sure that, it is not the same as or similar to any other registered business in Virginia, but you also have to make sure that it is different from any business names on the reserved list. When naming your corporation you have to avoid using language that implies your corporation is organized for a different purpose than what you are doing business for.
Corporations in Virginia do not need to file an operating agreement, but it is a good idea to have one on hand so you and your business partners agree on how the business should be run. In order to incorporate your business in Virginia you will need to file your articles of incorporation with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. Before you file your articles of incorporation you will want to make sure that your articles of incorporation contain the required information, if any of the information is missing your corporation will not be formed.
The first thing you need to include in your articles of incorporation is the incorporators, including how many there are. The incorporators will also have to sign and file the articles of incorporation with the Corporation Commission. You do not have to include the corporation’s purpose because any corporation can form in Virginia as long as it is for lawful business activity. You do not have to include the directors in the articles of incorporation, but you are still required to have them. You will need to include the number of shares that you corporation is going to be issuing; you will need to include the number of authorized shares for each class of stock.
You will also need to choose a registered agent for your corporation. In the articles of incorporation, you will need to include the name and address, plus the county of the registered office, and you will need to include the name and signature of the registered agent at that office. When choosing your registered agent for your corporation make sure you follow the requirements of the State of Virginia.
Once you have filed your articles of incorporation you will need to have an annual shareholder’s meeting to adopt the bylaws for the corporation. At the shareholder meeting you should also decide on purchasing a corporate seal. While corporate seals are not required by law anymore, they are still good to have on hand for opening bank accounts and issuing stock certificates.
A great thing about choosing to incorporate in Georgia is that the state recognizes both C corps and S corps. The other great thing about forming a corporation in Georgia is that the process is relatively simple, which means you, can easily do it yourself. Incorporating a C corp on your own will help you save money because you will only have to pay the filing fees that are associated with incorporating in Georgia, rather than lawyer fees or incorporation service fees.
The first thing that you will need to do to begin the incorporation process in Georgia is to choose a corporation name. Like other states, the name of the corporation cannot be the same as or similar to any other registered businesses in the state of Georgia. To ensure that the name you have chosen has not already been taking you will want to perform a name search. Once you have decided upon a corporation name you can reserve that name by paying a $25 reservation fee and making the request on the Corporations Division website http://www.georgiacorporations.org.
The next step for incorporating your business in Georgia is to prepare your articles of incorporation. To prepare the articles of incorporation you will want to include specific information, which will vary depending on if your corporation is for profit or is a nonprofit. The information that needs to be included can be found in O.C.G.A. 14-2-202 or 14-3-202. When preparing your articles of incorporation keep in mind that when you submit them they must be on 8 ½ x 11 inch paper and an incorporator who is named in the articles of incorporation must sign them, and indicate in what capacity they are signing in.
Once you have prepared your articles of incorporation you will need to file the original and one copy. You will also need to file a completed Transmittal Form 227 with the article of incorporation. To file these papers you will need to mail in the papers and a check for the $100.00 filing fee to the Corporations Division at 312 West Tower, #2 martin Luther King, Jr. Drive; Atlanta, Georgia 30334. Your articles of incorporation will be effective on the day that they are received by the Corporations Division and a certificate of incorporation will be mailed to you within five to seven business days.
Georgia corporations must also file an initial annual registration form within 90 days of incorporation. This registration form is going to list the three principal officers and has a $30 filing fee attached to it. To file this form you will need to visit the Corporations Division website because the form must be filed online.
The next thing that you will need to do is publish a notice of intent to incorporate in the newspaper of the county that your corporation is located. You can find a list of legal organs at http://sos.georgia.gov/corporations/legal_organs.pdf or you can call the Clerk of Superior Court to find out who the legal organ in your county is. Your corporation will need to pay a $40.00 publication fee. The intent to incorporate and publishing fee can be sent to the newspaper before you file your articles of incorporation, but it cannot be sent any later than the next business day, after filing your articles of incorporation.
By law, you do not need to have an operating agreement or a corporate seal for your corporation, but both are something that you should consider having on hand. The operating agreement is going to serve the same purpose as the bylaws, but is still nice to have on hand. The corporate seal can be used to issue stock certificates and open bank accounts.
How to Incorporate in Texas
Incorporating a company in Texas is almost as popular as incorporating a business in Delaware because of the great business environment that Texas offers. As more and more people are finding out about the great business environment that Texas offers more new businesses are being to incorporate in Texas.
The first thing that you will need to do to incorporate a company in Texas is to obtain a Form 201 for a domestic corporation or a Form 301 for a foreign corporation. You can obtain a copy of this form by visiting the Secretary of State’s website at http://www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/. You will have to download and print out the form to fill it out if you visit the website. Alternatively, you can call the Secretary of State’s office to receive a copy of the form n the mail. The number to call for the form is (512) 463-5555; you can also find the number on the website.
The next thing you need to do is ensure that the name that you have chosen for your corporation is available. To ensure that the name is available you will need to perform a business name search in the business database, which can be found on the State of Texas website or you can find various databases online to search through. If you use the database on the state’s website it is free to use, most other websites also provide the search for free.
Once you have completed the search and found out that the business name is something that you can use you will want to reserve the business name. Reserving the business name ensures that other businesses cannot take the business name or something similar. In Texas, this is required because you cannot complete the next step unless you have a name Reservation form on file. You will have to pay a small fee to reserve your business name.
After you have reserved your business name, you will need to complete the Application for Registration. This application is going to include information that would be included in an operating agreement for an LLC or the articles of incorporation for a corporation. You will want to include all of the information that is requested, including information on stocks. After you have filled, everything out you will want to submit the application to the Sate and pay the filing fee. You will need to wait six to eight weeks for the Application for Registration to be processed. Once it has been processed, you will receive a certified copy of your Articles of Incorporation and your Employer Identification Number.
Once you have gotten your certified copy of your Articles of Incorporation you can order your custom corporate seals. The custom corporate seal is going to need to include the name of your corporation, your Employer Identification number, the businesses address, and the date of incorporation. The corporate seal is going to be needed if you plan to issue stock. The corporate seal is used to stamp your stock certificates. Some investors prefer to have the stock certificate stamped, while others do not care. The reason that they prefer to have the stock certificate stamped with the corporate seal is it makes the stock certificate authentic. Having the corporate seal on the stock certificate shows everybody that the stock was issued by your company and nobody else.
How to incorporate in Wyoming
Incorporating your business is one way that you can protect your personal assets. If your business is incorporated in Wyoming your personal assets will be protected in the event of a lawsuit, whether it is from creditors or customers.
The first thing that you will need to do to incorporate in Wyoming is to determine who is going to incorporate your business. When it comes to incorporating your business, you have three choices. The first choice that you have is hiring a lawyer to do everything for you. Hiring a lawyer to incorporate your business has its advantages because they know everything that needs to be done. They already know how to fill out the articles of incorporation, but they also know what requirements will have to be meet each year to keep your incorporated status safe. The second choice that you have is using a professional incorporation company, like a lawyer, they will do everything for you, but their costs will be a lot lower than a lawyer will. If you don’t want to pay somebody to incorporate your business in Wyoming then your third choice is going to the State Department and doing it by yourself.
If you choose to do it on your own, the first thing that you want to do is decide on your corporate name. When naming your corporation you need to keep in mind that you cannot use any words that imply a different purpose for your business than the purpose that is included in the articles of incorporation. The name also cannot be similar to any other business names, trademarks trade name, or any other business entity, no matter if they are foreign or domestic.
Once you have created your corporations name you will need to create your operating agreement, which is formally called your articles of incorporation. The articles of incorporation need to contain the director information, including how many directors and their ages. There are no residence restrictions for directors, but they do have to be listed in the articles of incorporation. Most articles of incorporation require officers’ information, but Wyoming does not require officers’ information to be included. Stock information does have to be included in the articles of incorporation, but in Wyoming, there is no extra filing fees based on the number of shares your corporation issues or the amount of par value.
The next thing you have to do is pay your annual filing fee to form the corporation, while you are filing your articles of incorporation. Once you have done this you will need to keep up with the yearly requirements for Wyoming. Each year you will need to file an annual statement with the State Department. The fee of the annual statement that you will owe each year is based on the assets in Wyoming that your business has, so if most of your assets are in another sate they will not be included in determining the fee that year. Even though Wyoming does not have an income tax, you will still have to pay a tax based on the portion of your corporation’s capital, property, and assets that are located and being used in the state of Wyoming.
Once you have filed your articles of incorporation, you can create your corporate seal. While the corporate seal s not required for corporations in the United States, it is still nice to have a corporate seal stamp on hand for business purposes. The corporate seal stamp can be used to open a banking account in your businesses name, but it can also be used to issue stock.
The Advantages of an S Corporation
One of the main reasons that people choose to form a corporation versus any other type of business structure is because the corporations provide the business with tax savings. Despite the double taxation that you hear about with corporations you can still benefit from tax savings, but how much you benefit is going to depend on whether you form a c corporation or an s corporation. The S corporation advantages far outweigh the c corporation advantages when it comes to taxation.
One advantage that S corporations have over c corporations is that they avoid the double taxation. The double taxation only affects c corporations because they are taxed at both the corporate and individual level. With c corporations the profits of the corporation are taxed and the shareholders are taxed on any money that they withdraw from the corporation, including salaries, bonuses, and dividends. The S Corporation is taxed more like a general partnership because the S corporation allows pass through taxation. With this kind of taxation the S corporation, it does not pay any income tax, only the shareholders pay income taxes on their share of the profits.
The S Corporation advantages are not strictly tax advantages. With an S corporation, you also get the advantages of having limited liability. Within a partnership, both you and your partner are jointly responsible for any business debts and liabilities that are incurred for the partnership. When forming an S corporation you are under a corporate veil, which means that your [personal assets are protected, you cannot be personally sued for any business debts and liabilities, unless a personal guarantee was signed.
General partnerships require you to have a partnership agreement and limited liability companies are required to have an operating agreement, but with the S corporation, either of them is required. With an S corporation, you will need to have your articles of incorporation or the certificate of incorporation on file. The certificate of incorporation is what dictates the rules that your corporation is going to follow; it also lists the board of directors, the number of shareholders, whether or not you will issue stock, and anything else that has to do with the running of your corporation.
Getting to issue stock is another advantage that an S Corporation has over partnerships, sole proprietorships, and limited liability companies. By being able to issue stock your business will be able to attract outside investors, which can increase your corporation’s working capital. Other forms of business cannot issue stock so they have a harder time attracting investors. The only disadvantage to the S corporation when it comes to issuing stock is that an S corporation can only have a maximum of 75 shareholders, so the amount of stock that can be issued is limited.
When comparing an S Corporation to other types of businesses something else that you will notice is that an S Corporation has the advantage of always being in existence. With partnerships and limited liability companies if own of the members decides to retire or dies the business no longer exists. With a corporation no matter what happens to the shareholders, even if they sell their shares of stock, the corporation will continue to do business. A corporation can only stop doing business by being formally dissolved through the courts.
The Benefits of Forming an LLC
The LLC form of business is one of the safest forms of business because it combines the advantages of both the partnership and corporation form of business. One thing that you need to be aware of with the LLC form of business is that the LLC forms are not available in all fifty states, so you want to check your state laws before you make any final decisions.
To begin the actual LLC forming you will need to have an Articles of Organization and an Operating Agreement. The Articles of Organization needs to be filled out and filed with your specific state. When filing the Articles of Organization you will need to pay a fee, which will vary from $100 to $1,000 depending on the state that you live in. The other document that you will need to have is the LLC Operations Agreement form, which is required to open an LLC but does not have to be filed with your Articles of Organization; you will need to keep it with your business records. You can find these free LLC forms at your Secretary of State’s Office of Corporations or you can find them on the internet.
The LLC forming is a simple process, which is one of the benefits of forming an LLC. There are many other benefits that you will see by choosing to form an LLC over other types of businesses. One of the biggest benefits to forming an LLC is that the members, who are considered the owners of the business, are protected to a certain degree from the debts that the business incurs. Most of the time the members of the LLC are not personally responsible for any of the debts or liabilities that the LLC incurs, so creditors cannot go after the members personal assets to cover the business debts.
Another benefit of the LLC form of business is the taxation of the business. With an LLC, the business is entitled to what is called pass-through taxation. This type of taxation means that the LLC does not have to pay taxes on a business level, any profit or loss is passed-through to the owners. The owners of the business must claim the profit or loss from the LLC on their personal income tax returns, just as they would if they had a sole proprietorship.
Establishing an LLC can also help your business establish it’s creditability with the people that you do business with, including potential customers and vendors. The reason for this is that with an LLC your business appears to be more of a business than a hobby, so your vendors and potential customers are going to take you a little bit more seriously.
Another added benefit of forming an LLC is that your business will be facing less state-imposed annual requirements than corporations do. Unlike corporations with the LLC form, you do not
