Legal

INCORPORATING

The major steps in making a business legal are:

1) Picking a corporate structure

The most important aspect of picking a structure is to have a separate legal and tax identity from yourself so that if the company is sued, the company's assets are taken instead of your personal assets. When picking a corporate structure, there are various forms of business structures to choose from. The difference between these structures is that each has different legal and tax consequences.

• Sole Proprietorship

One individual who owns & operates the company

• Partnership

Business owned & operated by two or more individuals

Each partner can act on behalf of the entire partnership

Written partnership agreement

• C Corporation

Independent legal entity separate from its owners

More regulations and tax requirements

• S Corporation

Available to companies with less than 75 shareholder

One level of federal tax

• Limited Liability Corporation (LLC)

No limitation of number of shareholders

Some states required the LLC dissolves after 30 to 40 years

Taxes vary by state

Attorney's are vital in running a business in order to fill out, comply with, and understand the different contracts, licenses, and permits.

A lawyer is important to a business because they can provide information in almost every area of your business. They can help with zoning compliance, copyright and trademark, and lawsuits and liability.

The different skill areas that your attorney should have include:

Contracts - Prepare the standard form contracts for customers, clients, ad suppliers as well as help you respond to contracts that others want you to sign.

Business Organizations - Help you decide the type of business structure as well as prepare the necessary paperwork in order to follow that path.

Real Estate - Help to add helpful benefits to you that can be added to the lease documents.

Taxes and License - Register your business for federal and state tax identification numbers and understand tax consequences of basic business transactions.

Intellectual Property - Register your products and services for federal trademark and copyright protection.

Choosing a Big firm or Small Firm

Although larger firms have greater overhead and therefore usually have a higher hourly rate, they have a number of advantages. First, you won't find all the previous skills in a single person and they will eventually have to refer you to a specialist and then you'll have more than 1 attorney. Advantages of larger firms are that they have all the legal skills at one place and they also have a lot of power in the local region and possibly the nation.