Why form a limited liability entity (Corporation or LLC)?

A limited liability entity (a corporation or an LLC) provides both financial and liability benefits. The financial benefits include the ability to deduct more business expenses from annual revenue when calculating taxable income than would be possible without an entity. Forming a limited liability entity also helps protect your personal assets in the event of a lawsuit or from debtors in a situation where your business’s liabilities exceed its assets. This means that as the owner of limited liability company, your personal assets will not be placed at risk because of the actions of your company, as long as the company is kept separate from your personal assets. This requires the corporation or LLC to: 1) make sure the company is adequately capitalized (it has the money necessary to cover the reasonably predictable legal and business responsibilities of the business); 2) that the company keeps clean accounting books and has accounts that are separate from the personal accounts of its owners or employees; and 3) that all legal documents are adequately maintained and the company complies with corporate governance laws.

Also, forming a corporation or llc usually makes it easier for a business to borrow money and to sell all or parts of the business in the future. It is important to note that the longer a business operates without a legal entity, the more complicated and expensive it becomes to transform it into one. For this reason it is very important to form a legal entity as soon as feasible.