Medium and Small Businesses
Our primary focus is on serving the needs of a variety of small businesses structured as Sole-Proprietorships, Partnerships, S Corporations, and C Corporations. Our clients may provide the following services or products: legal, accounting, architectural, real estate development, real estate sales, medical, food, maintenance, retail and other.
Sole Proprietor
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Business owned by one person.
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Owner makes all decisions.
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Owner is responsible for all debts and liabilities; owner receives all profits and suffers losses.
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Profits are taxed as personal income.
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Operation is simple; the business is easy to start and dissolve.
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May have any number of employees.
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May do business under a tradename.
Partnership
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Business owned by at least two people.
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Two or more individuals must participate in the ownership of a partnership.
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Each partner is liable for the actions of every other partner.
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The business itself isn’t taxed directly, but an information tax return must be filed and profit or loss is allocated to each partner.
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A written partnership agreement spelling out details is strongly recommended.
C Corporation
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May have one of more owners.
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Owners are called shareholders or stockholders.
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Exists separately from and independently of the owners.
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Ownership evidenced by stock certificate.
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Liability for debts is usually the company’s, not the owners’.
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Charter restrictions may limit what the company and its owners can do.
S Corporation
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Company must file on election request with the IRS to be treated as an S Corporation for tax purposes.
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All shareholders must consent to S Corporation status.
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Limited to 100 shareholders.
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The corporation can have only one class of stock.
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Must be a domestic corporation. Individual shareholders must be U.S. citizens or residents.
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The corporation must use a permitted tax year, or elect to use a tax year other than a permitted tax year.
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Only individuals, estates, certain trusts and certain charities may be shareholders.
