What would be the best way to setup my company?
I currently have a 2 other sites I have with different people. I am currently working on my own project that is totally different from those other websites. I am looking to setup a company as currently none of the sites are a legal entity, I had a thought of maybe setting up an umbrella company and house all the sites under that and have shares split between different people depending on the properties they owned. Do you think this would be the best way to setup the company or should each site be its own company?
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I assume you seek answers from people familiar with the laws of Australia, as you're in Sydney? Which needs are driving you to incorporate (outside investment, liability shielding, "it's the done thing", taxation, etc)? A rough level figure for the revenue (total sales) from these sites? – Jesper Mortensen 14 years ago
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Is your goal to share the risk/reward of all three sites among the 3 of you? – Jeff O 14 years ago
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Probably more for taxation reasons as I am hoping the sites will be my main source of income next year. No the goal isnt to share the risk/reward as the other members of the other sites dont know each other or involvement of the other sites. – Jdeleon 14 years ago
2 Answers
Variations on this question come up frequently.
My perspective is set forth in Do I Need a Separate Corporation/LLC for My New Business? Summarized briefly: A single entity minimizes costs. A separate entity for each business protects each business against the failure of any other. Only you can figure out which consideration is more important to you.
Disclaimer: This post does not constitute legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship.
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Nice to the point brevity. – John Bogrand 14 years ago
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+1 great answer! – Marco Demaio 14 years ago
If you have three sites with different owners for each, you should have each in its own business/corporation. In regard to your personal ownership of each project, you may want to create a holding company which owns shares in each of the three companies that has an actual business.
You'll need to talk to an accountant who's familiar with your local rules and the revenues from each project to determine if this is the best route for you.
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That's the common 'best' solution, agreed. But, depending on the revenue of the businesses, it may be overkill. It costs money to set up up multiple companies; and doing bookkeeping, tax returns etc for multiple companies. – Jesper Mortensen 14 years ago
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That's why I said to talk to an accountant familiar with the local rules and the revenue situation of the individual sites. – Elie 14 years ago
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I think creating a holding company that has part ownership in the shared websites would be the best solution. This way I would only need to setup one company for myself as the partners of the other websites still have full time jobs and can own their share privately. – Jdeleon 14 years ago
