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California Incorporation
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Cost to Incorporate in California
The cost to incorporate in
California depends greatly on the type of legal
entity you wish
to establish and weather or not
you consult a lawyer, hire a service to file your paperwork or
do it yourself.
Currently the State of California charges $100.00 for the filing
of a California "C" Class corporation and there is
no fee to file the form to become a California "S" Class
corporation. A California Limited
Liability Corporation or "LLC"
costs more to file at $150, but does not offer the same level of
protection
as a corporation. On top of these costs there are special fees
for over the counter processing including $15 to file corporate
documents and $10 to reserve a corporate name.
The real cost incurred to incorporate in California by yourself, is
time. California state forms were not created for everyday people and
can therefore be quite complicated and require special delivery or mailing
to state offices. Missing one section or answering incorrectly could cost
you weeks to fix. As it stands the typical timeline to incorporate in
California is 4-6 weeks.
This is where an online service will help speed up the process to incorporate in California. For a fee many services allow you to process
your request online by answering questions in a guided form. In
most cases there are
no hard forms to understand or to mail in. Unlike filing
the paperwork yourself, services are able to get you incorporated in California in about
a week, with expedited service. Your submitted information
is also reviewed by someone who knows what the state requires and
flagged for inaccuracies.
Considering what you will save in time and peace of mind,
a service is the way to go for most newbie business people to take
the hassle out of
California incorporation.
If your needs are more complex or you do not trust the ease of
an online service, the other option is to enlist the help of
a corporate attorney. Attorney's will sit down with you to define your
business
goals, will prepare your documentation based on this discussion
and in many cases
will file all of the paperwork for you with the state
of California. Often they will work with you after the incorporation to ensure that your business
is legally protected. This can be a lifesaver for California
corporations that deal in international trade, have complex stock
disbursement strategies
or require special handling. For the common business
the expense of a lawyer, which is on average $500 - $1000, can not
be justified.
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