incorporate

Incorporation

The process by which a business becomes a legal entity separate from its owner(s). Incorporation presents a number of advantages: becoming a separate legal entity means that the business itself makes or loses money, which protects owners from liability for its debts. Likewise, a corporation is taxed on its earnings separately from its owners, and, in many countries, the corporate tax rates are lower than personal tax rates. The process of incorporation involves writing articles of incorporation and registering them with the appropriate government entity in order to receive a corporate charter, which confers corporate legal status.

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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.

Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investor by David L. Scott. Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. All rights reserved.

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.

The Complete Real Estate Encyclopedia by Denise L. Evans, JD & O. William Evans, JD. Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.