Can You Form a Corporation Online?

If your company is looking to incorporate you may be intimidated by the process.  In a few steps you can form a corporation online. 

Forming a corporation comes with many requirements that need to be met first.  The first step to form a corporation online is to choose a company that you can register with online.  By doing this you ensure that when you form a corporation online everything is done properly and your business is protected.  After that a corporate name search needs to be performed to verify the business name you want to use is not already a corporation. 

If your company hasn’t already, Articles of Incorporation need to be prepared.  Before you can form a corporation online the articles of incorporation need to be complete.  These are the guidelines of how your company will be structured.  Along with those articles you will need bylaws.  The bylaws are the internal formal rules for form a corporation online.  During the first shareholders’ meeting they can be decided and adopted.  The bylaws should contain guidelines to rule the actions of officers, shareholders, and directors. 

Why should you form a corporation online? 

There are many advantages of forming a corporation and being able to form a corporation online provides that much more ease convenience.

One of the main advantages of a corporation is the protection it provides for small business owners.  The state you form your corporation in regulated by that state.  Because you can choose to incorporate in your home state some companies seek better protection and incorporate in preferred states such as Nevada and Wyoming to form a corporation online.  Once incorporated the company becomes its own entity.  Protection of personal assets exists because an owner or shareholder cannot be personally liable for actions of the company.  Creditors cannot seek personal assets or payments that are owed by the company.  In order to ensure personal liability protection certain criteria must be met.  The corporation must be properly set up and maintained. 

There are also some disadvantages when you form a corporation online.  Corporations have requirements that need to be met in order to operate.  Company meetings must be held and minutes and documentation must be kept, the formal approval of major corporate decisions and the approval of the board of directors and shareholders.  Not observing these formalities may result in the loss of tax deductions and asset protection.   

If forming a corporation doesn’t sound like it would be beneficial to your company there are several other entities to be considered.