So after a week of filling out the online questionnaire with Legal Zoom in order to incorporate a small business, here’s how far along we are on their progress bar…
In other words, we have to accelerate this – I don’t want to still be doing this series of posts during Christmas. It also tells us that their “15 minute” estimate might have been just slightly off. It doesn’t help that I have to start over from scratch every time I leave their site to do other things. Hey, Legal Zoom, since you’re saving the information I enter (I can tell because the forms are pre-populated with my choices), can’t you save my place, too?
But, I digress. The next screen following the Compliance Calendar that I mentioned last week has three sections for stock, fiscal year, and corporate minutes. They all sound daunting, but the reality is that for most small corporations, these are all pretty easy questions to answer:
1 – How many shares of common stock can the company issue? Legal Zoom offers some basic help with answering this question, along with a suggestion that for new corporations with just a few shareholders, the amount can be an easy round number like 1000. So that’s what I’ll enter, although part of the reason it’s a little easier for me is because I don’t live in one of these states:
Connecticut
Delaware
Kentucky
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Missouri
Nebraska
Nevada
New York
New Mexico
Ohio
Oklahoma
Virginia
2 – What is the par value of the shares? The most common answer to this when forming a new corporation is 0.01, which is their default.
3 – Next it asks when the end of the fiscal year is for the new company, and the most common answer, especially if you’re an S-Corp, is December 31.
4 – The final question on this screen involves the maintenance of corporate minutes and offers to provide what basically sounds like a template for them for $69-$99/year. I think I’ll pass.
… to be continued…
President of Outskirts Press 