4 Reasons to Incorporate Your New Business as Early as Possible
November 6, 2022
peakreliance
Accounting, CPA, Taxes
Entrepreneurs and small business owners often get caught up in making sure their start-up thrives and get engrossed in planning spot-on strategies to innovate and develop their business idea. Often, the notion of securing the idea and legally owning it gets ignored.
Incorporating your start-up early is a very beneficial step that should be kept under consideration from the very beginning. In layman words, incorporating a new business means taking the legal ownership and turning the business into a formal company recognized by the related state of incorporation. In technical terms, it is turning your sole proprietorship or general partnership into legally and formally recognized corporation.
Incorporating your business is simple contrary to popular belief and is not nearly as complex as it may appear to be. While people have these misconceptions that this step should be taken once the business has matured enough or is generating a specific amount of money, there are many reasons why incorporating your business can come in handy and here’s how.
1. It will help avoid disputes among founders
Running a start-up may seem easy from afar but investing 60 hours a week into a business which doesn’t guarantee immediate rewards can be both tiring and frustrating. A considerable amount of business owners doesn’t even earn a salary while putting in tireless efforts.
Many times, this may leave owners and founders exhausted and disappointed — possibly with each other as well. Keeping this under consideration, it’s best to create an equity split as early as possible. This will help prevent clashes among all founding parties as co-founder equity negotiations will work better.
Incorporating early will make possession shares concrete so in case one co-founder decides to leave or sell their shares, incorporated businesses can handle that in an organized manner and with resilience, that would not affect the other parties which can prove an advantage if one co-founder wishes to sell their share within the first year or two.
2. Provides protection against personal liability
Since an incorporated business is known as a legal entity, and its proprietors are protected from all personal liabilities for corporate debts that the business may ensue.
So, in case your startup is sued and obliged to make a payment, your personal assets will generally remain secure. Even in worst cases like bankruptcy, the corporation will be held accountable not the founders.
Incorporating your start-up as soon as possible can relieve you of some of the emotional strains and anxieties that founders may experience.
3. It will help attract more investors and bank support
With a corporation, it’s generally easier to raise additional capital or secure a loan because of the sense of legitimacy it brings to the business. When you incorporate your start-up, it makes you eligible for opening up a bank account and you can start building a line of credit, which, for a small business owner, is a requirement.
Any startup without a formal business entity defined is viewed as a mere hobby, and seldom interests investors or potential partners. Also, with changing trends and rapid advancements these days, you need to be ready to move quickly from an idea/hobby to a business. Successful startups are all about being equipped to move to accomplishment before the market and it’s need changes or new competitors appear.
4. Tax benefits
Another noteworthy benefit of incorporating your business, and one of the most crucial to leverage, are the numerous tax deductions that are accessible to corporations only. When a start-up goes from being a sole proprietor or a general partnership to a corporate business structure such as an LLC, there are plentiful deductions at your disposal that were not available to individuals. Specifically, you may see tax benefits such as:
- The capacity to spread out your loss over a longer period of time
- The opportunity to deduct start-up and operational expenses
- The right to deduct employee benefits like pf and health insurance
The local and state taxing authorities can offer multiple incentives to you more readily and more often if you are a corporation. Keep in mind, however, that tax laws are complex as they always have been and it’s a great idea to consult a certified accountant or CPA before claiming any deductions from the state.
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Accounting, cpa, Incorporating a business, Online CPA, pros and cons of incorporation, tax
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