Your Corporation Needs a Registered Agent
by: howiecopywriter
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You need a registered agent for your new corporation or LLC
(Limited Liability Company), whether you are having professionals do your
incorporation, or it’s a do-it-yourself incorporation. The purpose of a registered agent is to
receive papers, “service of process” and information from the state, and
perform other functions related to paying taxes and other fees. You can choose a registered agent if you live
in that state, and you certainly have to have a registered agent if you live
out of the state that you are incorporating in.
Many new entrepreneurs realize they need to form a
corporation or an LLC. By having a legal
entity, one’s personal property and assets are shielded in the event of one’s
business going bankrupt, or suffering some type of disaster. For some types of legal suits and debt
collections there is an advantage of having some sort of corporate identity or
at least an LLC.
Business people
are cautioned that the registered agent of a company is a matter of public
record and can be looked up. Westlaw has
a combined corporate record’s data base which is pretty inclusive except for
the states of Nevada and Delaware.
These two states tend to have the most business friendly corporate laws
in any case. The databases are listed
under CORP-ALL and CORP-(state abbreviation).
Other resources for looking up company agents are the websites of the
Secretary of State for each state. The
registered agent accepts any legal service of process document, record the
service in your company file, and then is to forward the documents to you. That includes any official documents and tax
notices received from the Secretary of State and/or Department of State.
There are other
things that can get complicated about being incorporated. If you are a retail
store, or are selling things, you have to register to pay sales tax. On the
federal level you have to register with the IRS and get a tax ID number. You
may have to pay registered agent fees and keep updated about state regulations
in the state where you are incorporated. Also, remember a corporation is an
independent legal entity and must pay its own taxes.
According to the IRS, an S-Corporation is exempt from
Federal Income tax except for taxes on certain capital gains and passive
income. On their tax returns, the shareholders, which are under 70 people,
include their portion of the corporation’s income, loss, etc. You can get more
detailed information at http://www.irs.gov.
A regular corporation, a C-Corporation, which is incorporated in your
state, can be changed into an S-Corporation, by having the shareholders sign
and submit a form 2553 to the IRS, to request that status. After that it is a pass-through entity for tax
purposes.
Selecting a registered agent for your company is not only
smart business, in most states it's required by law. You protect your privacy as well as keep yourself
in good legal standing by getting registered agent services. They accept
"service of notice" on your behalf and promptly forward all legal
documents and official state correspondence via overnight shipping.
About the Author
Howard Giske works on incorporations at http://www.incparadise.com . Be sure to get registered-agent for your company.
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