What You Should Know About Incorporating in Florida

2007-03-08 10:33:40

( Business )



You should incorporate your business to protect and separate your personal assets and liabilities from your company's own assets and liabilities. Incorporating in Florida gives your company better employment fringe benefits and the opportunity to raise more capital through the sale of corporate shares. In addition, the corporation does not stop its operations at the death or illness of the owners.

Incorporating in Florida requires more paperwork, time and money compared to other states. Although the dividends that are awarded to stockholders are liable to federal tax, and can cause a company double taxation, there are special zones or areas around the state of Florida where the payment of local and state taxes are exempted.

Incorporating in Florida requires that the articles of incorporation of your company be submitted to a certain government department. It should include one or more names and addresses of the incorporators, the name of the corporation which should end in the words "corporation", "incorporated", or "LLC" in its long or abbreviated form, the purpose for forming the business, a list of the names and addresses of the corporate directors, the number of shares that your company plans to issue, the contact information of its principals, the mailing address of the corporation and its registered address and the contact details of the registered agent(who must show proof of acceptance to become the registered agent of the corporation). When you submit your articles of incorporation, you should be prepared to pay a filing fee. Each year, you are liable to pay annual and franchise taxes.

In order to avoid possible double taxation, you can choose to convert your company to an S-Corporation if you meet certain federal tax law criteria.

A Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), whose filing procedures are less complicated than a corporation, can be formed in the state of Florida.

There are websites on the Internet that accept applications for incorporating in Florida, forming an LLC and forming S-Corporations for a fee. By completing the online questionnaire that is available on their website, the service will review your information, create the articles of incorporation, company by-laws and at times board meeting minutes. The submission of papers to the proper government authorities will be part of their service, and once they receive the legal documents, it is then dispatched to you.

If you still prefer to make your application personally when you incorporate your business, it is strongly suggested that you seek the help of a lawyer and/or an accountant before submitting any documentation to the government authorities.


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