Re: [Harp-L] Incorporating a band

[Bob Cohen <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Jul 12, 2007, at 11:03 AM, pdxharpdog@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Greetings - anyone out there have practical advice on incorporating  
> a band?  We are in the season of festival gigs and weddings -  
> mostly we have been getting checks made out to one of the band  
> members and distributing cash from that, but several checks are  
> made out to the band and we need a corporate shell to deposit and  
> disburse from.  An LLC?  Cost/benefit of incorporating?  Mostly  
> interested in what is easy and what has worked for others.

You don't have to incorporate to receive checks in name other than  
your own.  You could go to your local town hall and set up a sole  
proprietorship.  Essentially you are informing the government that  
you, or one of your band members, does business under a name other  
than yourself and associating a social security number with that  
name.  This is the simplest form of business organization.  It's not  
substantially different from what you're doing now.  Something to  
consider about this form of organization is that the other band  
members have to trust the person holding the business certificate.  I  
don't think that the other members have any inherent rights to the  
proceeds. That's where the other, more formal, arrangements come in.  
But now you're involving lawyers having to file lots of paperwork  
with the government, including the IRS.  The lyrics from BTO's  
"Taking Care of Business" have just started running through my head.   
"It's the work that we avoid, look at me, I'm self-employed, I love  
to work at nothing all day."  Keep it simple.  Play fair.  Of course  
the one good thing about corporations is that the individuals are  
insulated from liability, providing you act like a corporation.   
I.e., keep proper books, file your paperwork, pay your taxes, etc.    
This might seem especially prudent when doing weddings.  You never  
know what might cause  Bridezilla to feel the need to flatten Toykyo.

Bob Cohen
Principal, MojoTools Web Design
Blues Harmonica Lessons
Web   :   www.mojotools.com
Office :   508.384.0405
Cell    :   508.954.3051