What are the legal steps and paperwork that need to be filed for before starting a Business in your state?

Charis P

I generally recommend consulting and retaining an attorney for matters like these. While some people do this on their own, more often than not they make mistakes along the way that could have been avoided by simply retaining an attorney to counsel them and handle the paperwork, usually for a nominal fee of a few hundred dollars in legal fees plus out of pocket filing fees such as state filing fees.

For arguments sake though lets say that you want to incorporate your business which would be what many people starting off a small business as the sole owner would want to do.

First pick a name for your corporation and search here to see if it is already taken:

https://www.corporations.state.pa.us/corp/soskb/csearch.asp?corpsNav=|

Next prepare and file Articles of Incorporation. Form and instructions can be found here:

http://www.dos.state.pa.us/corps/lib/corps/20/7/1306-2102.pdf

After you get written confirmation from the state that your Articles of Incorporation have been filed, get a federal employer identification number online here:

https://sa1.www4.irs.gov/modiein/individual/index.jsp

Select the option to get your EIN confirmation letter online and you will get a pdf version of it right away.

File a Form 2553 federal s-election within 75 days of your incorporation date. Form is available here:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f2553.pdf

Instructions are available here:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i2553.pdf

Within the same time period file your Pennsylvania S-election. Forms and instructions are here:

http://www.paopen4businessbriefcase.state.pa.us/Download/rev1640.pdf

Order a standard corporation kit for your corporation through any number of legal vendors. I am not going to post any specific one here because I don't want anything here to be deemed as spam and these are commercial vendors but if you look for minute books in a web browser search you will get a number of vendors back in your search results. The kit will have a minute book for your corporation with initial forms of incorporator and board minutes for you to fill out and documents to fill out regarding the issuance of the stock of the corporation to you. These are internal documents you keep that don't need to be filed anywhere but which you may one day have to present to another party in your business dealings.

Again, I recommend you retain an attorney to handle this but this is the very raw information on what you need to do to incorporate in Pennsylvania.

Edit: I just noticed you mentioned that you have a business partner. Your really should consult an attorney if you are going into business with someone else. Because it is not really responsive to your question though I will leave it at that.

zeuz

It all depends on the business structure. If it is a sole proprietorship, then you probably only need to file a fictitious business name in your county.

If it is a corporation (LLC, C or S), then you'll need to make a corporate filing with PA. The PA Department of Corporations can answer all of your questions.

roadster9879

you are going to need the following:

1. you may or may not need a local small business license. It varies from area to area. Check with your local city clerks office for those details.

2. You will definitely need to get State and Federal tax numbers.

3. because you will be handling purchases and money belonging to other folks, there is a "fiduciary liability" involved. You are going to need to have a secured "operations trust" account, the may or may not be a legal requirement for a surety bond. (this account must be separate from your normal business operations account). This account would be there to receive customer payments for items they purchase by CC, Pay-pal, or the likes. From there the money is separated out to be sent to vendors, etc.. Gross profit is then transferred to your operations account

4. you will need a good general ledger book keeping system. I recommend INTUIT Quick-Books.

Try hooking up with your Local area Chamber of Commerce. They love small businesses and probably can provide a tremendous amount of resources and advice.

Hope this helps.

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