Government agencies often provide a wealth of information for small business owners. That’s true of the Small Business and Self-Employed Tax Center, which is published by the IRS. According to the website, it serves taxpayers who file Form 1040, Schedules C, E, F or Form 2106, as well as small businesses with assets under $10 million — in other words just about all small business owners.

SB/SE contains a collection of tax forms and publications that are relevant to small businesses, but it has much more. For example, the Starting, Operating, or Closing a Business page contains links and information about starting and operating a business, and the Closing a Business page has resources for helping a small business owner close a business — a common occurrence that doesn’t seem to get a lot of press. If you click on the “Operating a Business” link on the page, you’ll find information about such topics as independent contractors, tax recordkeeping, changing your business name, and paying estimated taxes.

Check out the SB/SE page, click on a few links, and explore the wealth of information that’s available.

[This article was first published at bluemavenlaw.com on March 6, 2014 and is being republished here without updating.]

When you sell your business, you will likely need to transfer your domain name to the buyer. This is easy to accomplish, and here is a step-by-step guide. The exact process will depend on your domain registrar. In this post, we’ll use GoDaddy as an example.

The buyer should set up a new account

The easiest way to transfer a domain name is for the buyer to set up an account with the registrar that the domain name is currently registered with. It’s possible to transfer the domain name to from one registrar to another, but it’s a more complicated process, and it’s usually best to stick with the same registrar. If the buyer wants to switch registrars later, they can always do so after they buy your business.

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Here’s a typical scenario. … You need a new website for your business, and your next-door neighbor just happens to be a great website developer. So you hire her to build your website. When it’s finished, she uploads the site on your hosting company’s servers, switches it on, and gives you the original files. You’re thrilled with the work, and you pay her in full. Now you have a great website to market your business. But do you own your website?

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Nondisclosure agreements (also known as NDAs and confidentiality agreements) help companies protect their confidential information when they need to disclose the information to third parties. Businesses need nondisclosure agreements when they are entering into new business arrangements with vendors or customers, when they are hiring new employees or consultants, or when they are exploring strategic transactions, such as selling their business or expanding by buying a new company. This post explains some important background information about nondisclosure agreements and breaks down the most common provisions that they usually contain. [continue reading…]

Even the smallest of businesses enter into contracts virtually every day. Contracts with customers, with vendors, potential business partners, online contracts. Small companies are often required to use the standard contract documents presented by larger counterparties. But there are a few form contracts that most businesses should have that were designed just for them. [continue reading…]

Business owners have a number of entity choices when they form a new company to operate their business. But for most businesses, the best choice is a limited liability company. This post is part of a choice-of-entity series. The other posts cover S corporations, where we learned how S corporations can be a good choice for businesses that are required to operate as corporations but want to save on income taxes, and C corporations, which are often a good choice for high-growth startup companies and businesses that intend to go public.

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Every business owner has to choose at the outset what type of entity they want to create for their business. This choice has important effects on how the company is operated, how it is taxed, and the owner’s after-tax proceeds when the business is sold. This is the second in a series of posts about choice of entity. The first post covers S corporations. [continue reading…]

Every business owner has to choose the type of entity they will establish through which to conduct their business. This choice can have important implications on how the business is taxed, how it will be permitted to raise capital, and how easy it will be to sell the business when the business owner decides to exit. Clearly, this is an important decision. This post is the first in a series on choice of entity. [continue reading…]

Limited liability companies offer a lot of flexibility when it comes to tax matters. Often, when I ask someone how their company is taxed, they’ll say “It’s taxed as an LLC” or maybe just “It’s an LLC.” That doesn’t tell me much, because LLCs can be taxed as sole proprietorships, partnerships, S corporations, and C corporations. That’s a lot of choices.

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