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> I am not
> yet at a point where I would consider incorporation, but an acquaintaince
> of mine recently began this process on the advice of her CPA. She has
> been doing contract work for about 7 years. What she told me is that a
> lot depends on how much you are currently worth--and therefore how much
> you have a need to protect. This would suggest that for those who are
> starting out in this field incorporation may be down the road a bit
> yet. The advice to check with your CPA and/or get legal advice from a
>good lawyer is still the best advice.
You may be missing the point here. A corporation has no special protection
for its own assets; it's your PERSONAL assets that will be protected
(in the event of business failure, a lawsuit, or, in the case of a "C"
corporation, from the IRS coming through with a vacuum cleaner and
sucking up all the money they can find).
So I found incorporation very attractive, not because I own lots of neat
business equipment (I don't), but because I have a 37-acre farm that I'm
quite attached to, and retirement plans and college funds that I don't want
to put at risk.
I agree that it's important to take expert advice on setting this up.
I have two sets of experts: my CPA and and a small-business consulting firm.
The additional folderol of a corporation is something I can absorb,
since I've brought my wife into the business (and with a goal that
involves substantially few billable hours than mine, so we have
time budgeted for administration.)
By the way, the estimates I've heard for incorporating in Oregon vary
between $1500 (with a lawyer) down to $550 (with a paralegal). In
Oregon, at least, all corporate papers are literaly identical, with
the exception of about a or two page of fill-in-the-blanks, so having
an actual corporate lawyer set up the cookie-cutter structure is
not tremendously helpful.
-- Robert
--
Robert Plamondon * President/Managing Editor, High-Tech Technical Writing, Inc.
36475 Norton Creek Road * Blodgett * Oregon * 97326
robert -at- plamondon -dot- com * (541) 453-5841 * Fax: (541) 453-4139