Washington State LLC & Corporations

The beautiful State of Washington is known across the country for being the home to both Microsoft and Apples.   The landscape is full of beautiful forests and water landscapes.  It is a very easy to see why people love to live in this area of the world and to enjoy the scenery.  But people choose to file corporations in the State of Washington because they live in the State or they have a foreign corporation they want to file.

Form a Washington State Corporation

Here ar a number of reasons to form in Washington:

  1. Shareholders are not typically liable for debts other than taxes.
  2. Corporations have bylaws that outline governance.
  3. Typically managed by directors who are elected by shareholders.
  4. C-Corporation - If standard corporation (c-corp), your entity will be taxed as a business.  If dividends are distributed to shareholders, dividends are taxed at the individual level.
  5. S-Corporation - Can elect with IRS to be taxed as an s-corp. Each s-corp shareholder reports their share of business revenues & expenses and pays taxes through personal return.

The corporation will provide pass through taxation to the S-Corp and the C-Corp will be taxed as a stand alone entity, as is described above.  You should make sure that you talk to an Attorney or Lawyer before making a choice to file a corporation.  You will also have limited liability as the owner of the company as long as you operate the business as complete and separate from you as a person.  This is one of the main reasons to incorporate.

Form an LLC in Washington State

The LLC is the newer entity type for businesses to form in the State of Washington.  This type of business registration will also offer the owners limited liability protection, meaning that if you operate the business separate from yourself then you will be operating in a way that appears separate to the customers and clients you work with.  

Here are a few reasons to file an LLC in Washington:

  1. Members are not typically liable for debts other than taxes.
  2. LLC members are responsible for having operating agreements and annual reporting.
  3. LLCs have an operating agreement that outlines governance and management.
  4. If one LLC member, typically pay taxes as individual. If more than one member, typically pay taxes as partnership. Can elect with IRS to pay taxes as a corporation (either c- or s-).

You will need to make sure that you choose an available name before submitting your Articles of Organization.  The name will have to meet certain requirements or else it will be rejected by the state, thus wasting valuable time.  So, you'll want to make sure that you end the name in LLC, Limited Liability Company, or L.L.C..  You'll also want to make sure that you also avoid reserved words such as "Bank" or "Banc".  

 

 

Washington Secretary of State Links:
Secretary of State Address :
Dolliver Building
801 Capitol Way
South Olympia 98501
Secretary of State Phone :
(360) 725-0377
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