Online Incorporation MaxBlog

It’s not as intimidating as it may sound – when incorporating a small business online, the article of incorporation establishes the existence of your corporation in the particular state you are in and reveals identifying information and basic operating characteristics about your company.

Articles of Incorporation are typically filed with the Secretary of State’s office (or whichever agency handles business registration) in the particular state you are incorporating in.

It’s pretty easy to write one yourself, or a business attorney can easily prepare one for you…at a minimum, they must include:

• Name and address of corporation or primary location of business
• Corporate purpose (usually stated in broad language, like a mission statement)
• Name and address of Registered Agent
• Stock information – number, designation and value of any stock shares you are issuing or plan to        issue

Many states provide templates so incorporators can easily create their own articles – here’s an example of articles of incorporation courtesy of the Illinois Secretary of State – many other states have templates so simply refer to their Secretary of State’s website

Online incorporation service MaxFilings.com provides full services for incorporating a small business online – including the Articles of Incorporation. Form your incorporation in just a short time, or save your information and return later.

Last Friday, President Obama extolled that there are “glimmers of hope” in the U.S. economy for recovery, which has been experiencing the deepest recession in a generation.

Dennis Romero over at the Entrepreneur.com Daily Dose blog has a great summary of the president’s remarks at the White House.

Since March, the Small Business Administration’s popular small business loan program has expanded by 20% when the administration announced stronger loan guarantees for credit administered through the SBA.

The President commented to reporters at the White House, “We feel very good about the progress that we’re making in unlocking lending in some particular markets, for example the small business area.”

He went on to say regarding the 20% increase in small business lending, “And what that means is that small businesses are starting to get money that allows them to keep their doors open, make payroll, and that is going to contribute to our overall economic growth, as well as help make sure that people are able to keep their jobs.

Additionally, home refinancing has shown signs of improvement, which is helping stabilize the sector of the economy that’s at the heart of the recession.

In light of this, now may be the time to incorporate online – check out our post from last October detailing Reasons to Consider Starting a Small Business in a Recession.

If you’re incorporating a business online, you must decide which corporate structure works best for you company – both in terms of taxes and regulations.

Of course, deciding that requires the advice of an attorney who can review your business and see which one would work best. For a corporation, there are two types, a C corporation and a S corporation.

The main difference between the two is how they are taxed. A C corporation is the basic one, while a S corporation is simply a C corporation that has elected special tax provisions available to them under certain criteria.

C corporations and their shareholders have to contend with what’s known as “double-taxation”. The business files corporate income tax returns and pays income taxes. Shareholders do not report corporate income on their personal returns – but, they report and dividends or income they receive from the corporation, hence, double-taxation.

In a S corporation, if all shareholders agree to it, does not file income tax returns. Rather, income is “passed-through” to the shareholders and they claim a proportion of the corporation’s income relative to the proportion of ownership they have in the company. So for example, if an shareholder owns 20% of the company’s stock, they claim 20% of the income on their tax returns.

There are other minor differences between C and S corporations. For instance, a S corporation is limited to 100 shareholders and there are certain types of businesses they cannot engage in.

For a more detailed overview of the differences, visit “Differences Between C Corporations and S Corporations” in the online incorporation Knowledge Center at MaxFilings.com.

Easily form your corporation online in just minutes – or get started and return later to complete the process.

Every business owner chooses the business entity they operate under.

Most small businesses just start out, making sales, profits and etc. as a proprietorship. However, they can be held personally liable in these situations so simply selecting your business entity this way is unwise.

So which is best? A Limited Liability Company (LLC), C corporation, S corporation or partnership? We can’t answer that here, but you can find questions you should consider when evaluating your options in “Choosing a Business Entity – Some Questions to Consider” in the online incorporation Knowledge Center.

You will address questions about yourself, your business, the cost of starting the business and where you are seeking funding. For instance, if you will have outside investors, a corporation may be the way to go.

With these questions, you can review a Basic Comparison of Business Entities for a quick comparison of each entity’s characteristics along with the more in-depth Overview of Business Entities.

Of course, when you are ready to incorporate your business online, MaxFilings is here to help you navigate the legal requirements in all 50 states.

Ever browse through online incorporation articles and blogs and get confused by all of the terms they use? Maintaining focus on your business is difficult enough so having to decipher what a particular word means can be a major headache.

This is one of the main reasons why MaxFilings maintains a handy list of business incorporation terms. In addition to providing online incorporation services across the nation, the business terms list provides concise explanation of many common phrases such as apostille, liquidity, quorum, and so on.

The glossary of business terms is a small but very helpful part of the Knowledge Center at MaxFilings, an extensive resource for small business incorporation.

So the next time you want to briefly know what “pass-through taxation” means, use the glossary of business terms as your first source!