How to Form a Florida LLC or Corporation
The State of Florida has many beautiful natural wonders to look at including magnificent beaches, the everglades, and Dry Tortugas National Park. The State also boast a robust economy and home to millions of Floridians. To support this economy, the State of Florida has SunBiz.org which is their State Business Portal and website. You can visit the Division of Corporations Website here to Form an LLC or Corporation in Florida.
Using the Flordia website you can make on online E-FIling for a Corporation, limited liability company, and many other types of business filings. You can also prepare a form to submit directly to the Secretary of State, and we will describe the process here.
Form a Florida LLC
The limited liability company fling in Florida can provide a number of benefits to the business owner. One of these benefits is that of limited liability protection. The protection allows a member, or business owner, to separate their personal assets from their business assets. The protection essentially means that a customer or creditor of a LLC will sue the LLC and not the individual, thereby separating the two asset pools.
Naming a Florida LLC
The naming of a Florida LLC is based in the Corporate States and have very defined requirements that must be met. First, the name must be available in the State and you can test this using their website and online tools, we have these linked below at the bottom of the page. Also, the name must have the following endings:
- Limited Liability Company
- LLC
- L.L.C.
Lastly, you can file your Florida LLC online using the States Sunbiz website.
Incorporate in Florida
Choosing to incorporate in Florida is a very popular choice among business owners in the State. When a person incorporates they can either setup a C Corporation or an S Corporation. The C corporation is the default type of corporation that is formed in Florida, and all 50 states. The S corporation filing required an additional Federal Tax Form, the 1120-s form to be file to make the election to be taxed as an S Corporation. The S Corporation is selected most often to provide pass through taxation to the shareholders and allow the avoidance of possible double taxation.
Naming a Florida Incorporation
To research and see if a name is available for registration in Florida, you'll need to research to make sure that it is available. To do this, you'll want to do a name search using the link that we have provided towards the bottom of this page. Also, you'll have to make sure that the corporation has one of the following endings:
- Corporation
- Company
- Incorporated
- Corp.
- Inc. or Co.
You'll also need to make sure that the name is distinguishable and we have a link for information on this below as well. Forming your first corporation is very exciting, and we wish you the best of luck, and please reach out to us if you have any questions.
Florida Secretary of State Links:
