| Business and Corporate Law |
| Incorporation - Different Types |
| Limited Liability Company |
| The Best Structure For Your Business |
| Business Forms |
| Shareholders Agreements |
Business Forms
When starting and running a business, most of the legal work that must be done involves completing the proper business forms and providing reliable information. You should already have completed and submitted the Articles of Incorporation.
If you are organizing a corporation or limited liability company (LLC) or limited liability partnership (LLP), you and the lawyer assisting you may want to get a "corporate kit." The kit is a compilation of various business forms that need to be filled out and submitted.
For a corporation, the kit contains forms for bylaws, and some IRS forms pertaining to the employer identification number (EIN) which corporations need from the IRS to be used for taxation purposes. There should also be a form that serves as a template for reporting the Minutes of the first Board of Directors meeting.
For the LLC or LLP, you will have to complete forms that spell out in detail a kind of operating agreement (in lieu of bylaws) that will be approved and signed by all the members of the LLC or LLP. This operating agreement sets out the rules of governance and other specifications on the management relationships (with members who may be asked to manage the LLC or LLP, or with the professional managers that may be hired) and the rights of members.
The bylaws and rules of governance contain default provisions that normally should be included in these documents. However, these standard provisions may be lacking, or may not fully suit what you want for your business. Your lawyer should be able to help you make the appropriate modifications, or to choose which clauses or sections to eliminate or add.
If you are the only member of the LLC, or do not have more than three partners in the LLP, the operating agreement will not need to be as extensive as that for a bigger LLC/LLP. Your lawyer should be able help you prepare a simpler document that outlines the basic operating rules for your business.
You will also need to provide details of your bank accounts and the authorized signatory for checks, and traditionally, the names of your attorney and accountant are also indicated in the forms. All documents and business forms should bear the signature of the board secretary and the organization’s top executive (either the chief executive officer of the corporation or the managing member of the LLC or managing partner of the LLP).