LIT1 Task 1

| The partners are jointly and severally liable for business debts and obligations. The partners are held personally responsible for the business and may be sued personally for liability. Partners’ personal assets are subject to lawsuit(s) made against the business. Lack of continuity; death of a partner may end the partnership/business if a buy/sell agreement is not in place. Disagreements may be difficult to resolve.

Due to its nature, partnership is generally liable for the acts of the individual partners if committed in the course of the partnership business. However, liabilities of every partner may be regulated by the written agreement signed by partners. If no written agreement is signed by partners, liabilities of the partnership are regulated by the Partnership Act. If one of the partners retires, he or she may not be liable for the future debts of partnership if an official notice of the change is sent to creditors and the public. However, there were no official notice sent by the partners in the case; therefore, Toby may be liable for the debts of partnership. Due to the death of the third partner, partnership may be dissolved. In order to pay off the debts, assets should be sold and partners are free to continue the same kind of business after the dissolution of the

Whether certain allocations of partnership income, gain, loss, deductions, and credits have substantial economic effect and whether that has any impact on the partners’ distributive shares.

When splitting the profits in a general partnership you are also splitting the income tax that needs to be paid. Depending on the profits of the business this may drop you into a lower tax bracket than if a single person had filed for all of the profits. This also drops the amount of income tax paid by each person resulting in lower individual taxes paid.

When it comes to partnerships Alex, Bill, Carl, and Devon will have two options- a general partnership or a limited partnership. Partnerships are beginning to be a business form of the past. Once upon a time, partnerships were “the default form of business and provided the benefit of pass-through taxation, but lacked the important feature of limited liability” (Chrisman, 2010, p. 465). In a general partnership, each partner associated with the entity will be held liable for their own business decisions as well as

Liability All liabilities are the responsibility of each partner. In the event of litigation, any creditors can go after the personal assets of each partner to recover any debt owed. But since liability is spread out between the owners, one may feel less risk is being taken. 2. Income Taxes General partnership may also benefit from pass-through taxation, meaning the partners are taxed like sole proprietors. Business income is reported on the personal tax filing while business losses can be deducted to reduce personal tax liability. The partnership itself is not subject to federal income tax. However the partnership needs to file an information return utilizing the IRS Form 1065. 3. Longevity or continuity of the organization Once the partnership agreement is fulfilled, the general partnership may dissolve. A buy/sell agreement may be included in the articles of the partnership to allow the

Profit retention- The general partners share profit and losses equally. The limited partner(s) will receive a amount of profit according to their investment and any agreements.

Without a partnership agreement, loss of income and profits are split between partners that wish. The partners then report individual amounts divided in their tax returns, pay taxes accordingly. Gains and losses are passed directly to shareholders, with each LLP partner personally liable only for its own negligence or the negligence of an employee who is under the direct supervision of the partners. The other

SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP: Has only one owner. Easy to start up. Some of the advantages are: owners may do whatever they want to with the business and if they want to go on vacation they can. One of the disadvantages they cannot bring in another person to help run the business. This business form is particularly common.

This protects the limited partners from the full liability that is shared by the general partners.   Income Taxes – The limited partner’s profits are considered personal income and taxed as such. All profits from the limited partnership are considered personal income and taxed at their personal tax rates.  Longevity / Continuity – The continuity of the business is not affected by the death or disassociation of a limited partner.  An advantage for a limited partner is that the limited partner’s investment takes priority in the general partnership dissolves due to a death or disassociation of one of the general partners.

A1a: The Sole Proprietorship is the most common business form in the U.S. It offers the advantages of no-cost, easy startup, and full owner/operator autonomy with regard to business decisions.

After the creation of a business plan, the next step to operating a business is the selection of an appropriate business structure. Different legal forms of business ownerships affect different managerial and financial factors from the business names to the tax obligations (Gregory, n.d.). The most common forms are sole proprietorship, partnership, cooperatives, and corporations. There are different types of corporations in the business world, but the two most general corporation types are S Corporation and Limited Liability Company (LLC) (Ferrell et al., 2013). The sole proprietorship is the easiest and most basic form of business ownership. It is owned and run by one individual, which is the proprietor. The individual is entitled to all profits and is responsible for all the business’s

* The ownership of the partners is dissolved and they become mere employees who are responsible to the shareholders and Board of Directors

Is the most common business type, where the business is operated and owned by a single individual. In this type of business, the sole proprietor provides capital, does not share profit or loss and runs the business alone. As such, the business and the owner are indistinguishable for tax and legal purposes (Dlabay, 2011). To differentiate this business from other business types, a sole proprietorship is discussed under the following characteristics.

All you need is money and a realistic vision. 4) Another advantage of a sole proprietorship is that you pay lower taxes. This happens because as you own your own business, the earnings are considered as the owner’s personal income. Because of this, the sole proprietor may be subject to lower taxes than other forms of businesses, such as a partnership or corporation. 5) In addition to all the other advantages listed, another advantage of owning your own business is that you, the owner determines how much you want your firm or company to grow. You decide if you want to stay a small business or expand, whether it be locally or nationally. This can be advantageous because the owner can determine whether it’s better to stay small or grow. If you’re business is successful, you may want to expand to reach more and more clients, helping you make more money and to establish your firm as a successful one. Or you might think that it might be better to stay small and local, because you might not want to take a chance because you might not want to mess with a good thing. Whatever the situation, the owner decides what suites the company.