Overview
When individuals form a corporation, they form an entity which has a legally recognized identity, separate and apart from themselves. A corporation is regarded as a legal person or entity and as such enjoys many of the same rights that individual citizens enjoy: a corporation may acquire, own, and convey property in its own name, sue or be sued in its own name, and is afforded the protection of the due process and equal protection clauses of the United States Constitution.
Corporations are statutory creatures formed under the authority of the appropriate state code. In addition to the statutes contained in that volume, numerous laws and regulations affecting corporations are contained in other volumes of the state code, and, in some instances, may be found only by reference to common law. Additionaly, corporations are subject to federal and local regulations, various tax laws, and are required to comply with federal and or state securities regulations.
There are many variations of corporate organizations within state statutory schemes. Because of the multitude of variations of corporate organizations and the complexity of the statutory and regulatory scheme under which corporations are organized, it is not feasible to set forth in this work all of the laws, rules, and regulations which may apply to a particular corporation. However, the following information serves as a general overview for organizing and maintaining a corporation.