| Four Websites To Access Business Entity Structure and Formation Information October 10, 2007 I. Introduction. The purpose of this article is to identify four Internet websites from which most, if not all, of the important information needed to educate a small business decision maker about business entities, their legal and tax attributes, advantages, and disadvantages, and how to go about registering a business entity can be assessed. Each of these websites provide links to other sites that supplement information that is at the website, including links to state’s websites that provide business entity information. The following section identifies these four websites and some of the business entity information that is available at each website. II. Four Websites With Business Entity Structure and Formation Information. A. IRS’s Business Structure Website (http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98359,00.html). This Internal Revenue Service (IRS) site identifies the common business structures (five) and provides tax-related information for each, such as IRS tax forms to use for each business entity. From this site, you can also access IRS information on starting a business, which includes selecting a business structure and obtaining an IRS employer identification number (EIN). B. SBA’s Advantages and Disadvantages of the Various Business Entities (http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/start/chooseastructure/index.html). This Small Business Administration (SBA) site provides lists of the advantages and disadvantages (pros and cons) of various business entities. Several factors are suggested as being important to consider in making an entity choice. C. State Websites That Offer Assistance and Information About Establishing a Business Entity (http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99021,00.html). This IRS site provides links, for each state, to state websites containing various types of information of interest to businesses doing business in that state. Many states, but not maybe all, provide a very user-friendly guide to establishing a new business in the state. These guides often, but maybe not always, discuss business entity choices This IRS site lists each state, and clicking on the state’s link should lead you to a page of links, one of which is to the state’s main homepage site. From the state’s homepage, usually a link is available to a section specially designed for businesses, at which often a guide to establishing a business in the state is available. These guides can be quite extensive, and well-written and produced, and a very valuable resource of information on doing business in a state. These guides often include information describing business entities, from the state’s perspective, and factors related to business entity choices and implementation. D. USA.gov's Links to State Websites Where Business Registration Procedures Are Available (http://www.usa.gov/Business/Incorporate.shtml). This USA.gov (a US government portal to government websites) site provides links to the state sites that deal specifically with incorporating (registering) a business in the state. Registration forms and fees, and answers to registration questions are usually provided. Registration can often, but maybe not always, be done online from these state sites. Most, if not all, of these links go to the state department (e.g. the Secretary of the State) that deals with legal requirements (forms and fees) for business formation in the state. Other state departments often provide business formation information from a different perspective – that of providing characteristics of the various business entities and how to start a business in the state. Section IIB, above, provides links to these other state departments. The links in this section (Section IID) are to state sites that are at a step beyond the sites in IIB. Initial business formation information has been obtained (e.g., at IIB sites), and now detailed registration information (fees and procedures) is sought, and, possibly, registration initiated, at Section IID’s links. III. Conclusion. The websites provided in this article were found by searching the Internet for suitable sites. The four websites have these characteristics that resulted in their selection, and the decision to include just four sites: A. The sites are government sites. Business entity structure (attributes) and formation are driven by government regulations, and therefore, it seems to me, the best sources of good, reliable information on the structure and formation attributes that these regulations create are the governments administering the regulations. B. An evaluation of the four sites, by going to the sites and the links at the sites, and analyzing the information at the sites, resulted in a conclusion, by me, that adequate information on business structure and formation can be obtained from these four sites. C. With four sites, the seeker of business structure and formation information should be able to fairly quickly find most, if not all, the information needed for basic decision making about business entity types and formation. Click here to return to the Management Accounting Information Center's homepage Click here to send an email to send comments about this article to the author. |