Articles Posted in Corporations

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I was talking to a client in Cupertino this week about helping his friend with a start-up business in San Jose. Originally, my client wanted to form a corporation online by himself, but he was not sure if the company should be an S corporation (“S-corp”) or a C corporation (“C-corp”). He was only thinking about the pass-through implications of an S corporation and the “double taxation” of a C corporation, but was unaware of the small business stock tax exclusion in C corporations and the potential benefit to investors.

I explained that as an incentive to investors to make long term investments in small businesses, for investments made after September 27, 2010 but before January 1, 2012, 100% of the capital gain from qualified small business stock held for more than five years will not be taxed. The amount of gain excluded is the greater of $10 million or ten times the taxpayer’s basis in the stock (usually the amount paid for the shares).

To qualify for this incentive, there is a list of rules. The taxpayer must acquire the stock upon its original issuance for cash, property or services. The corporation must be a C corporation with a maximum of $50 million in assets, including the investment. It must not be a regulated investment company, real estate investment trust, real estate mortgage investment trust or other type of entity with special taxation, must not own investments or real estate with a value exceeding 10% of its total assets, must not own portfolio stock or securities with a value exceeding 10% of net assets, and must use at least 80% of the value of its total assets in the active conduct of a trade or business. The corporation’s trade or business cannot include professional services, banking, insurance, financing, leasing or the hotel or restaurant business.

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I was recently asked by a Cupertino real estate investor whether he should form his limited liability company in Nevada or some other state in order to avoid California taxes. I had to tell him that if anything, this would just increase his overall costs and taxes.

California franchise taxes can be much higher than taxes in other states, and include a minimum tax of $800 per year. As a result, companies often do not want to be classified as doing business in California. One way to avoid this classification used to be to form your entity in another state, and not register it in California. Some of my clients have numerous Delaware LLCs or Nevada LLCs. Often, those LLCs own other LLCs, which own property in California. In order to avoid the California minimum franchise tax for multiple entities, they just register the entity that actually owns the property in California.

However, a new ruling says that if the entity is doing business in California, owns property in California, or is managed by people in California, this exemption is no longer available at the parent LLC level.

The California Franchise Tax Board just issued FTB Legal Ruling 2011-01, stating that activities of a disregarded entity will be attributed to the entity’s sole owner. A disregarded entity is a single member LLC or a Qualified Subchapter S subsidiary (“QSub”) which is disregarded for income tax purposes so that its income passes through to its parent for tax reporting purposes. Therefore, if the disregarded entity is doing business in California, the 100% owner will be considered to be doing business in California and, if it is an entity, will have to register with the Secretary of State in California. This is true even if that owner entity has no other activities in the state, other than owning the disregarded entity.

This ruling is in addition to a previous California Franchise Tax Board ruling that an entity will be considered to be doing business in California if its managing person(s) are in California, even if all of its other activities are out of state.

For real estate investors, lenders often require a special purpose entity (“SPE”) to hold the property, which is structured as a single member Delaware LLC. Under these new Franchise Tax Board rulings, the single member LLC holding the property must be registered in California, and its 100% owner parent company must be registered in California as well. The bad news is that both entities are required to pay the $800 minimum franchise tax to California. However, the LLC gross receipts tax is not incurred twice on income that flows through from one LLC to another.

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Bridge financing for Silicon Valley start-up companies is a fairly standard, relatively inexpensive method to raising money pending a larger investment round. This type of financing is typically provided in the form of debt that converts into shares issued in the next funding round, often at a discount from the per share purchase price.

Recently, the simple convertible bridge loan has changed to provide substantial tax incentives to investors. For any qualified small business stock, or QSBS, purchased before December 31, 2011, the recently enacted 2010 Tax Relief Act allows 100% of the gain recognized from the stock to be excluded from taxable income.

Although a convertible loan will not qualify as QSBS, the stock that a start-up company issues normally will. Bridge loan investors have a great incentive to purchase stock in exchange for their bridge funds instead of a convertible note. Designing stock that has many of the same attributes as convertible debt has provided some additional complexities to what was formerly a plain vanilla transaction.

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Acquiring a financially troubled company, whether in San Jose, Palo Alto, or New York often requires consideration of the bankruptcy process. If the seller is already in bankruptcy, the buyer must convince the bankruptcy court that it represents the best source of funds to repay existing creditors. If the bankrupt company has attractive technology, there may be other buyers, and the court will typically award that company to the buyer who will pay the most money.

If the seller is not yet in bankruptcy, the parties may decide to purchase the company through a bankruptcy proceeding. If planned properly, the bankruptcy process can provide the buyer with a number of advantages. First, the seller’s assets are purchased free of any liens or other claims (although courts continue to wrestle with allowing subsequent successor liability claims). Second, because the assets are purchased “as-is,” sale documentation is typically shorter than for sales outside of bankruptcy, and stockholder approval is not required.

Planning for purchasing a company through a bankruptcy involves entering into arrangements with the selling company’s creditors and other stakeholders before the bankruptcy filing. As part of these arrangements, a reorganization plan and acquisition agreement may be prepared and agreed to prior to the filing. Once the appropriate pieces are in place, the seller will file for bankruptcy and include the pre-agreed reorganization plan in its bankruptcy documentation. The sale can be completed in a few months barring no other suitors or other unforeseen impediments. Bankruptcy counsel is necessary for both parties to properly shepherd the transaction through the proceedings, and corporate counsel is critical to insure that documentation is accurate and necessary corporate formalities are followed.

Financially troubled companies often provide the opportunity for others to purchase businesses at a relatively lower cost. Reaping the advantages successfully requires balancing the needs of all the business’s stakeholders.

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Just like estate planning is so important for those we leave behind when we die, a good shareholder or partnership agreement is crucial for the well-being of a business after a traumatic event for one of the owners. Death, disability, retirement, bankruptcy, insolvency, divorce, and even a partnership disagreement can be traumatic events for a company to endure, and could result in the end of a business if they are not planned for in advance. Planning includes deciding whether the company or the other owners have an optional right or a mandatory requirement to purchase the interest of the subject owner, at what price, and on what terms.

Any business with more than one owner needs a good shareholder, LLC or partnership agreement. It is equally as important for family owned businesses. For years, I worked with a real estate investment family business in Saratoga. When the father died after years of working together with his adult children, the LLC agreements we put in place were absolutely critical to keep the management control in the one child who was capable of running the business. In this case, the agreements put in place the succession plan which enabled the business to go on after the death of the majority owner.

A good shareholder or partnership agreement should consider what restrictive covenants the owners want to impose, including restrictions on sale and rights of first refusal. Agreements for companies involving sweat equity should deal with the amount of time, effort and capital (if any) required of each owner, and the vote required to remove someone from the company. Companies that are considering a sale as an exit strategy should consider rights to force the minority owners to go along with the majority owners on a sale, and rights of the minority owners to force the majority owners to include them in any sale.

The value of the company should be decided in advance of an event, and should be reviewed regularly. A formula or a method for valuation should be clear in the buy-sell agreement. And if the death or disability of one owner could materially impact the value of the company, the owners should consider funding the buy-sell agreement with life insurance and disability insurance. The future of the company is dependent on the agreements the business owners put into place now. Failure to have a buy-sell agreement could be a fatal mistake.

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In my last segment, I mentioned a recent deal involving a Northern California company structured as a stock sale. Having tax advisors assist at the early stages helped keep the transaction on track. The next major issue was allocating the risk of business liabilities between the buyer and the seller.

Like any stock purchase transaction, liabilities of the seller stay with the business. This is often a significant disincentive to the buyer, because it must hold an entity that cannot escape its past liabilities. Two mechanisms are commonly used to alleviate the buyer’s risk.

First, a working capital cushion may be created to provide a source of funds to pay the ongoing debts of the business. The amount of the cushion is agreed in the purchase documentation. A portion of the purchase price is then held back at the closing in an escrow. The amount of net assets as of the closing is determined through a post closing audit, and the held back amounts are distributed following the audit to the buyer or seller depending on any difference between the agreed amount and the amount determined under audit.

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In a recent acquisition that I handled for a company in Santa Cruz, the buyer decided to purchase, with cash, the stock of the company rather than its assets. Acquisitions through stock or equity purchases are a common method of buying a company. From an administrative standpoint, equity purchase acquisitions are one of the easiest deal structures to implement.

In an equity purchase acquisition, a company is bought by purchasing all of the ownership interests of that company. If the company is a corporation, a buyer purchases all of the company’s shares of stock from the company’s stockholders. If the company is a limited liability company or partnership, a buyer purchases all the ownership interests of the company from its members, in the case of a limited liability company, or its partners, in the case of a partnership. This discussion will focus on a stock purchase, although the basic issues outlined here are the same when dealing with a limited liability company or partnership.

The administrative benefit of a stock purchase transaction is that ownership changes simply by transferring all of the company’s shares. Contrast this with an asset purchase structure, where each desk, chair and personal computer must be accounted for and sold to the buyer.

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In Parts I and II of this Article I talked about how important a complete and properly formed business entity is for estate planning and liability protection. There are also many other potential impacts of not having your corporation or LLC documentation in order. Here are just a few:

IRS Problems: Just over five years ago I got a call from a licensed contractor in Campbell who was being audited by the IRS and needed to present his corporate minute book to the auditor in five days time. His company had not done minutes of the shareholders or the board of directors for the previous six years. It took us much more time to go back and recreate the corporate minutes and ended up costing my client at least twice what it would have if we had prepared the minutes each year when the information was fresh. However, it was necessary to document certain shareholder loans which would not have been upheld by the IRS if they weren’t properly authorized by the corporation.

Securities: Many new business owners do not understand that an ownership interest in a corporation or a manager-managed limited liability company is considered a security and may require federal and/or state securities filings. Failure to make these required filings may result in shareholders having rescission rights whereby they can demand their investment back from the company, and any person controlling the entity could have personal liability to return those funds.

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Filing your Articles of Incorporation or Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State is only the first step in creating your corporation or LLC. Unfortunately, most online business formation services take your money and don’t do much more than that for you. And many do-it-yourselfers don’t perform the required tasks unless they are somehow notified that additional filings or documents are needed to complete the formation of their entity. Even some business owners that have an attorney form their company correctly initially often fail to keep up the required formalities. The problem with stopping at filing your Articles, or even your initial formation documents, is that if you do not treat the corporation or LLC properly, then the courts can do what is called “piercing the corporate veil” and look through the company to the business owners for liabilities of the business.

Some of the basic formalities required in order for the courts to maintain the liability shield of a corporation include:

• Holding annual meetings of the shareholders and the board of directors.
• Maintaining the corporate minute book, including organizational minutes, corporate resolutions authorizing or ratifying major decisions, and minutes of annual shareholders and board meetings.

• Issuing and canceling stock certificates as appropriate and maintaining an accurate stock ledger.

For both corporations and limited liability companies, requirements include:

• Having bylaws for a corporation or an operating agreement for an LLC.
• Not commingling funds with personal funds or funds of another entity, including maintaining separate bank accounts, paying company expenses out of the company only, and not running individual expenses through the company.
• Making required Secretary of State filings.
• Filing federal and state business tax returns.
• Making required federal and state securities filings

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I recently met with a new client from San Jose whose father was dying. My client’s father owned a small business and was a director and officer of that company. There were two immediate issues for us to deal with. First, the corporate minute book was a mess and we needed to clean up the stock certificates and minutes of the board and shareholder meetings quickly to make sure they actually said what my client’s dad intended. Second, we needed to re-title several assets that were supposed to be in the corporation but were not currently titled that way, including some real property in Campbell.

Why is the minute book important? In this case, the share certificates were inconsistent and did not agree with the Articles of Incorporation or the stock ledger. This could result in a shareholder dispute as to ownership of the company and voting control. Also, there were no minutes for the last five years. Without minutes of the shareholders and the board of directors, the corporation was risking its liability shield. [See Part II of this Article for more about Liability Protection.]

Why is the title of the assets important? Assets owned by the corporation should be in the name of the corporation and not held personally by a shareholder. In this case, assets were in dad’s name but he had always treated them as owned by the corporation. So, if dad died and left the corporation to his son, he was intending those assets go with it. But, those key assets of the company would not be included in an inheritance that leaves the corporation to the son and the other assets to other beneficiaries. In addition, property that is not titled in the name of the corporation might not carry the liability protection of the corporation in case of a lawsuit. [See Part II for more about Liability Protection.]

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