Incorporation in California

Find the right Business Incorporation attorney in Belmont, CA

California law allows a business to incorporate and be identified as its own legal entity. As a separate entity from the owners, the business is then considered to be functioning on its own when it buys and sells property, assents to contracts and exercises legal rights. A business looking to incorporate in California must file with the Secretary of State in accordance with established guidelines.

Benefits of Incorporation in California

There are distinct advantages to incorporating a business. Most importantly, liabilities the business accrues may be satisfied only by assets that the owners have specifically invested in it. With unincorporated businesses, personal property of owners can be liquidated in order to fulfill the liabilities of the business. Also, creditors in the Belmont area typically prefer to deal with corporations, since a loan is an investment more easily evaluated when the credit-worthiness of various owners is not an issue. Lastly, ownership of a corporation is divided into equal portions or "shares" of stock, which may be bought and sold much more easily than the ownership of an unincorporated business.

Costs of Incorporation

Incorporation comes at a price. First, California might charge a filing fee to process applications for incorporation. Also, the corporation will pay taxes as its own entity. The individual incomes of owners who are paid disbursements from the corporation's earnings are still taxed as well. This is called double taxation, but it may be avoided with proper planning and assistance from a local Belmont lawyer.

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Life in Belmont

Belmont, California is a city in San Mateo County, in the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area. It currently has a population of about 25,000 people.

Belmont is known for having one of the most restrictive set of anti-smoking laws in the U.S. In Belmont, smoking is prohibited in all public parks, all workplaces, and all multistory apartment buildings. The law largely owes its existence to lobbying by a group of retirees who were concerned over the health effects of secondhand smoke drifting into their retirement community from outside. While the law is not particularly popular among smokers, non-smokers and public health organizations are overwhelmingly in favor of it.

Because this law imposes new regulations on landlords and business-owners, the lawyers of Belmont, California sometimes have to advise those parties about complying with the law, providing them with a good amount of business.

So, if you live in Belmont, California and are in need of a lawyer, you're in luck. There are plenty of successful and experienced Belmont, California attorneys who can help you with almost any legal issue.

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