4 ms·

Wow, quite a variety of situations! I love especially the contract between the condo case (old school, more formal) and the holding LLC (git-based, super tech &

Wow, quite a variety of situations! I love especially the contract between the condo case (old school, more formal) and the holding LLC (git-based, super tech & lean). How are you keeping track of other necessary “formalities” such as filing officers with Secretary of State, renewing licenses, maintaining the stock ledger etc? I was doing everything by hand (word docs + dropbox) for my company (Delaware C corp, <10 people) but I asked myself many time: am I missing some deadline? Am I not documenting something important? - if you see what I mean… So I was wondering if others use any tool to help with this, aside attorney help. I know Clerky is great but we didn’t use it for incorporation and I didn’t have access to it for the company mgmt..

eldavido 7y ago
There really isn't as much stuff as you'd think. For the condo association, it's a California nonprofit so we just need to file a statement of information annually. We get a postcard reminding us to do this. We have to file taxes, but if you have an accountant, they should ask you to do this (since typically they get paid for completing your return). Our attorney (specialist condo law attorney) also has been really helpful. For the holding company, we also need to file an SI, but it's an LLC so a lot more lightweight (e.g. no annual report). You just do it when you have to, I think once every two years (don't quote me on this). No annual report. There's also no share ledger. We just have an operating agreement spelling out peoples' ownership. So, statement of info (California) and two tax returns annually (federal and state). When we get to quarterly the accountants will help. In general I think the common answer to this is to get help from an accountant and attorney. My accountant charges about 500-700 for a full set of returns, which isn't bad. If you can't afford that, just buy liability insurance and do business under your own name (schedule C) rather than having the bother of a full corporation. I would never go the delaware C route unless it was pretty clear I was going to fundraise...not worth the hassle.
- federiconitidi 7y ago
  I see, thanks for the detailed breakdown. Condo/ LLC are definitely a little more lightweight vs. a C Corp. But even managing a C Corp is not that bad at the end of the day. You can do it yourself if you know what you are supposed to do and by when. That's the point where I got stuck with my previous company - I didn't have much guidance and missed some pieces here and there. I'd be curious to see if others had my same problem/ if there are nice, lightweight software for guiding small businesses in their legal entity mannagement/ due dates etc. I found something but looks from the '90s...

eldavido 7y ago

There really isn't as much stuff as you'd think. For the condo association, it's a California nonprofit so we just need to file a statement of information annually. We get a postcard reminding us to do this. We have to file taxes, but if you have an accountant, they should ask you to do this (since typically they get paid for completing your return). Our attorney (specialist condo law attorney) also has been really helpful. For the holding company, we also need to file an SI, but it's an LLC so a lot more lightweight (e.g. no annual report). You just do it when you have to, I think once every two years (don't quote me on this). No annual report. There's also no share ledger. We just have an operating agreement spelling out peoples' ownership. So, statement of info (California) and two tax returns annually (federal and state). When we get to quarterly the accountants will help. In general I think the common answer to this is to get help from an accountant and attorney. My accountant charges about 500-700 for a full set of returns, which isn't bad. If you can't afford that, just buy liability insurance and do business under your own name (schedule C) rather than having the bother of a full corporation. I would never go the delaware C route unless it was pretty clear I was going to fundraise...not worth the hassle.

federiconitidi 7y ago
I see, thanks for the detailed breakdown. Condo/ LLC are definitely a little more lightweight vs. a C Corp. But even managing a C Corp is not that bad at the end of the day. You can do it yourself if you know what you are supposed to do and by when. That's the point where I got stuck with my previous company - I didn't have much guidance and missed some pieces here and there. I'd be curious to see if others had my same problem/ if there are nice, lightweight software for guiding small businesses in their legal entity mannagement/ due dates etc. I found something but looks from the '90s...