Avoiding Incorporation Scams

							?Incorporating a business often makes good legal and tax sense. Absolutely.

But new entrepreneurs need to know that a handful of incorporation scams often
ensnare small businesses. And that is truly unfortunate. Getting entangled in an
incorporation scam always creates headaches, usually wastes money and may even
cause you to inadvertently break the law.

Scam #1: Incorporating for Automatic Tax Deductions

The first incorporation scam? Incorporating because someone (often an off-base
consultant or business coach) tells you that incorporation means you'll be able to
magically turn personal expenses like cars and travel into business deductions.

The reality sandwich is this: Incorporation does not produce automatic tax savings,
and incorporation does not convert personal expenses to tax deductions.

The general rule--which works for sole proprietorships, partnerships, regular
corporations and S corporations--says that any ordinary and necessary business
expense can be deducted. Personal expenses, in comparison, can not be deducted.

One related point should be made, too. The tax accounting rules for entities do differ.
For example, sole proprietorships have some tax planning tricks that can sometimes
make them the best entity choice. So do partnerships and corporations.

You definitely do want to consider the tax features of the various entity choices you
have available. A regular C corporation or a Sub S corporation might be optimal for
your business. Or perhaps a partnership might be best for you. You should consider all
your options.

But incorporating a business for automatic extra tax deductions, well, that's really just
a scam.

Scam #2: Incorporating in Nevada to Avoid Your State's Corporate Taxes

The second incorporation scam is incorporating in Nevada (or incorporating in some
other no-corporate-taxes state) to avoid your state's taxes.

The Nevada incorporation scam promises na?ve business owners that incorporating,
say, a California business in Nevada will mean the business doesn't have to pay
California state corporate income and franchise taxes. The scam sometimes also
promises that the business owner will avoid having to pay personal state income
taxes.

Anybody who suggests that this scam works is either an idiot or a criminal... or maybe
both.

Two problems exist with the Nevada incorporation scam. Problem one is that if your
Nevada corporation does business in, say, California, you still have to register your
corporation with California. That registration means you will have to pay any state
franchise taxes.

Problem two? If a corporation earns profits in a state, that state gets to tax those
profits. If a Nevada corporation in actuality operates in California, for example, all of
the profits are subject to California income taxes--regardless of where the corporation
was formed.

The bottomline? Make sure you don't incorporate in some other state because you
think that will let you avoid paying taxes to the state you actually live and work in.
The incorporate-in-Nevada scam amounts to state tax evasion, pure and simple.

And by the way just to make this point: If you're a Nevada business? Absolutely you
should incorporate your business in Nevada. Nevada incorporation, for Nevada firms,
is the right state.

Note: Scam #1 and #2 are actually pretty serious problems to get caught up in. Both
scams, once you know the law, probably amount to criminal tax evasion.

Scam #3: Paying for Registered Agent Services in your Home State

Scam #3 amounts to only a minor if costly annoyance: paying someone to be your
registered agent in your home state.

Here's the deal with registered agents. The state where your corporation operates
wants to know the name and contact information for a real person. In other words, the
state wants a real human being the state can contact if it has questions and to whom
the state can send correspondence. The contact is called a registered agent.

Incorporation services sometimes pitch you the idea they should be your registered
agent--often charging $100 to $200 a year for the service. But you don't need this
service if you, yourself, live in the state where you're incorporated. You can be your
own registered agent.

As the registered agent, you'll be the person to whom the state sends its letters. And
your name and address will probably be available online at a state web site as the
contact information for the corporation. But if you're in business, you shouldn't have a
problem with people (customers, clients, potential customers and clients, and so forth)
knowing who you are and where to find you. And you shouldn't pay potentially
thousands of dollars in registered agent fees over the life of your business.
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Seattle CPA Stephen Nelson has written more than 156 books about small businesses,
accounting and business technology. An adjunct tax professor at Golden Gate
University, he also edits the popular do-it-yourself limited liability company and
incorporation web sites.