incorporate

incorporate

To obtain a state charter establishing a corporation. Owners of proprietorships and partnerships incorporate in order to obtain limited liability for themselves and for potential investors. The limited liability makes it easier for the firm to raise additional equity capital.

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incorporate

To form a corporation by filing documents in the appropriate state authority, which may be one's own state or a corporation-friendly state such as Delaware. Once having formed the corporation,one must pay annual franchise taxes to the state for the privilege of existing as an artificial entity, and one must observe all the forms and conventions of corporate existence. In other words, the sole shareholder cannot form a corporation and then never have meetings, never sign documents in the corporate name,take all corporate money for personal use without accounting for it on the books and records of the corporation, and generally behave as if the corporation did not exist.If the shareholder(s) behave as if the corporation does not exist, then creditors may be able to pierce the corporate veil and seize assets of the individual shareholders.