Articles Posted in Limited Liability Companies

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In the past couple of years, corporations and limited liability companies that were formed or registered in California have had to deal with long delays from the Secretary of State in getting their documents processed. Whether the document that is being filed is a Statement of Information, Certificate of Dissolution or Cancellation, or Articles of Incorporation or Organization, the Secretary of State is taking weeks or even months to process a filing. As a business lawyer in San Jose, I have seen a multitude of problems resulting from such delays.

Statements of Information are experiencing the greatest delays, as the Secretary of State is taking several months to process a filing. This has actually created problems for some businesses that pay the filing fee with a check that contains an expiration or “void-by” date. If the check expires before the Secretary of State is able to process the Statement of Information, the Secretary of State will either reject the Statement or treat the payment as a dishonored payment.

Since many of my San Jose clients are newly formed LLCs, I frequently see these delays cause another type of problem. Very often, my client’s bank will require a copy of the LLC’s filed Statement of Information before opening a bank account or approving a loan. Because of the significant amount of time that it is taking for the State to process Statements, I often have to work with my client to take advantage of a relationship with the bank and ask the bank to accept a copy of the Statement that the LLC has submitted for filing.

I can avoid this situation in several ways if I am aware of the need to provide a filed copy of a Statement of Information by a certain date.

For a corporation, we can file the Statement of Information online with the Secretary of State and then request a copy of the record (this option is currently not available to LLCs). This avoids the usual queue. In addition, most regional state offices offer the opportunity for a corporation or LLC to pay an expedited service fee for filing a Statement of Information in person at the Secretary of State’s Sacramento office. We can email the document to our agent in Sacramento who actually walks it into the Secretary of State and files it on an expedited basis over the counter. The benefit to using the expedited service is that we can receive a filing confirmation or response within a guaranteed time frame (usually 24 hours).

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Every corporation, limited liability company and limited partnership, that either forms in California or registers to do business in California must pay an annual minimum franchise tax of $800. However, I just read an article in Spidell’s California Taxletter that really annoyed me (Volume 34.7, July 1, 2012, pages 75-76). The article, entitled “Midyear switch from S to C corporation means an extra $800” says that when a corporation files two short year returns for one calendar year, each return is subject to the $800 minimum tax even though the corporation is the same entity for civil law purposes. Because it is changing its tax status, it is two different entities for tax purposes and therefore must pay the minimum tax twice in one year. As a corporate and business attorney, I am sensitive to this issue since many of my clients are small businesses or partnerships in San Jose, Santa Clara and other parts of Silicon Valley, and every dollar counts when you are running a small business.

This could be an issue in many midyear circumstances, including:
• When an S corporation loses its S election
• When an LLC switches from single member to multiple member
• When an LLC switches from multiple member to single member
• When a limited partnership changes into a limited liability company
• When 50% of the ownership of a limited partnership or limited liability company changes hands
• When an LLC elects to be taxed as a corporation, or revokes such an election
• If an entity changes accounting periods resulting in two short-period returns

Although this may look reasonable on the surface of one tax return independently, when you look at both returns together this looks like double-dipping to me. If one entity has to file two tax returns for one calendar year, I think the entity should get credit in the second tax return for any minimum tax already paid for that entity for that year. However, with California’s ongoing budget crisis, I know this argument will fall on deaf ears. Therefore, I applaud Spidell’s California Taxletter for informing tax practitioners of this tax trap. I’m hoping California business owners, as well as out of state owners with businesses registered in California, will read this blog and avoid inadvertently paying double minimum taxes. As a California business lawyer, I will do what I can to structure deals for my clients to avoid this double tax.

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As a Silicon Valley business lawyer, I have many clients that are limited liability companies, partnerships, and corporations which own real property in California. It is common knowledge that when property changes hands in California, the property will be reassessed (unless an exception applies). However, people often forget that similar rules apply for business entities like corporations, partnerships and LLCs that own real property, when interests in the business entity change hands. As of January 1, 2012 there are some new rules and some higher penalties regarding reporting a change of ownership or control of real property in California. The required period for reporting has been extended from 45 to 90 days. The maximum penalty is now $5,000 for property eligible for the homeowners’ exemption and $20,000 for property not eligible for the homeowners’ exemption.

A change of ownership can happen in one of two ways:

1. Change in Control of a Legal Entity: If real property is owned by an entity and any person or entity gains control of that entity through direct or indirect ownership of more than 50% of the voting stock of a corporation or a majority interest in a partnership or LLC, the real property owned by that entity is considered to have undergone a change in ownership and must be reappraised.

2. Cumulative Transfers by Original Co-Owners: If real property is owned by an entity and over time voting stock or ownership interests representing more than 50% of the total interests are transferred by the original co-owners (in one or more transactions), the real property owned by that entity is considered to have undergone a change in ownership and must be reappraised.

There is no change of ownership when the direct or indirect proportional interests of the transferors and transferees do not change.

For legal entity transfers, the Form BOE-100-B Statement of Change in Control and Ownership of Legal Entities must be filed with the Board of Equalization in three circumstances. The personal or legal entity acquiring control of an entity must file when there is a change in control and the legal entity owned California real property on the date of the change. The entity must file when there is a change in control and it owns California real property. An entity must file upon request by the Board of Equalization. Source: Spidell’s California Taxletter, Volume 34.2, February 1, 2012

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As a Silicon Valley small business attorney, I am regularly helping new clients with choosing their form of entity. Almost as often, I am asked to help new clients complete entity formations that they did themselves on-line. Much too often I have to tell these small business owners that their intent to save money by forming the entity on-line is going to cost them a lot more money because they picked the wrong entity for their business and we need to dissolve it and form a new one. More than once I have had licensed California contractors come to me to complete the California LLCs they formed, only to have to tell them that they are not eligible to be LLCs. There was even more confusion when the LLC law changed as of January 1, 2011 to allow LLCs to be licensed as contractors, but the Contractor State License Board was not licensing LLCs.

Back in January 2011 I wrote about the change to the California Limited Liability Company Act to allow contractors to operate as LLCs. However, until now contractors could not actually form as LLCs because the California Contractor State License Board had not yet changed their rules to allow the issuance of licenses to LLCs. Finally, the Contractor State License Board is now authorized to issue a contractor’s license to an LLC.

Keep in mind that if you are going to operate as a licensed contractor in an LLC, your business will be subject to additional liability and insurance requirements. A contractor-LLC must either have a $1,000,000 insurance policy, or put $1,000,000 in cash into an escrow or deposit account. If the contractor-LLC has more than five employees, it must have an additional $100,000 of insurance or deposits for each employee (not including the first five), up to a maximum of $5,000,000.

It is also crucial to make sure your contractor-LLC stays in good standing with the California Secretary of State. In the event the licensed contractor-LLC is suspended at any time, each member who is a licensed contractor will be personally liable for up to $1,000,000 in damages as a result of the licensed activities of the LLC during a time in which it is suspended. Since one of the main reasons you would operate in an LLC is to insulate the members from personal liability, make sure you have a good LLC lawyer, or a business lawyer that is very experienced with forming and maintaining LLCs, that will remind you to file your statement of information when due, and a good accountant who will make sure your California income tax returns are filed on time and the LLC’s franchise taxes and gross receipts fees are paid when due.

Source: Spidell’s California Taxletter, Feb. 1, 2012, vol 34.2 p 16.

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Whether your company is a large manufacturer corporation in San Jose or a small service partnership in Los Gatos, you will eventually be forced to deal with terminating an employee. Terminations can be especially daunting because they are one of the most common reasons companies are sued. Therefore, whenever possible, it is important to plan and prepare for a termination before actually firing the employee.

I recently helped an LLC in Santa Clara set up a progressive discipline plan for their company in order to set up systems to assist management and employees before someone gets to the termination stage. Before an employee is fired, many companies use a form of progressive discipline when dealing with employee problems. Under progressive discipline an employee receives greater disciplinary measures when employment continues to be unsatisfactory. It is imperative that all disciplinary actions are documented in writing. If a system of progressive discipline is used, all managers should be trained on that system. If managers are not properly trained, a disgruntled employee may have a stronger claim for wrongful discharge than if the system had not been used at all. Whether a system of progressive discipline is used or not, it is critical that all disciplinary actions be documented.

If a termination is inevitable, you should have a plan in place before firing an employee. However, there are times when you must fire an employee immediately, without any prior planning, because he has done something that poses a threat to other employees, your company or your clients. Prior to termination, you should review any termination procedures in the employee handbook, to the extent they exist, to ensure that your company is following its own procedures. If you are worried about an employee making a claim against the company upon termination and you want to request the employee release the company from all claims, you should contact an attorney to assist you in preparing a severance agreement.

On termination, you must provide the former employee with the final paycheck including any accrued but unused PTO or vacation pay, a change of status notice, and the EDD pamphlet “For Your Benefit, California’s Programs for the Unemployed.” If the employee is a shareholder or option holder, you should review all applicable documents prior to the termination for notices or deadlines related to termination of employment. However, do not give the employee legal or tax advice regarding those documents or their rights.

When conducting a termination, conduct it in a neutral, private place such as a conference room. Have the final paycheck and change of status notice ready for the meeting. If you are offering a severance agreement, have that agreement prepared as well. Many employees will not sign the severance agreement immediately so be sure to give them the allotted time in the agreement to sign it and don’t give the employee any severance payments until the severance agreement has been signed, or 8 days later if the employee is over 40 and therefore subject to age discrimination rules.

You should always have two managers present during a firing. During the meeting, tell the employee within the first few minutes that he is being fired and tell the employee why he is being terminated. Although you do not need a reason to fire an at-will employee, you may not do so for the wrong reason (e.g. discrimination), so be careful in what you say. Also, if you say the termination is a result of restructuring, but the reason is really poor performance, the inconsistency may be used against you if the company is sued. Do not argue with the employee and do not be so complimentary that the employee wonders why he is being terminated. You are not required to give employees a written reason for termination. However, if you decide to, be sure that your legal counsel reviews those reasons. Avoid any reference to anything that could be considered evidence of discrimination, especially if you are terminating someone who is in a protected class. Always be courteous to the employee. You should also explain any benefits, such as COBRA, that the employee may receive. Have someone take notes during and after the termination to document the process and what was said at the meeting. Lastly, you should remind the employee of any continuing obligations to the company, such as confidentiality.

Once an employee has been terminated, be sure to get any company keys, cell phone or laptop that the employee had. Also be sure to change phone codes, computer passwords, alarm codes or other passwords that the employee may have had access to.

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I recently did a blog about California clients wanting to form LLCs outside of California in order to avoid California franchise taxes, and how the Franchise Tax Board has been steadily trying to eliminate those possibilities. In response to that blog, I was asked about other non-tax considerations for choosing a state for the formation of a business. So, here is a brief analysis of some of the things I consider when helping my clients choose the right jurisdiction for their new corporation.

When a client comes into my office in San Jose and asks about forming a business entity outside of California, the most common jurisdictions they are considering are either Delaware or Nevada. Delaware has traditionally been the favorite jurisdiction, and Nevada is gaining in popularity.

Why incorporate in Delaware?

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I was recently working with some doctors who co-owned their Sunnyvale medical office building. They were concerned about the liability of having the property in their own names, so we worked with their lender and transferred the property into an LLC. Then, I suggested forming a professional corporation to operate their medical practice. Although doctors cannot avoid personal liability for their own malpractice, the corporation will limit their vicarious liability for the acts of their professional partners.

The California Professional Corporations Act allows licensed professionals in the fields of law, medicine, dentistry and accountancy to conduct business in a corporation, through the licensed individual shareholders. The Articles of Incorporation must include special language about the professional corporation. In addition to registering with the California Secretary of State, the corporation must also follow the naming and registration rules of the professional agency. The shareholders must be licensed, and transfers may only be to other shareholders or back to the corporation.

If a shareholder dies, the shares must be transferred within six months. If a shareholder is no longer qualified to practice medicine, the shares must be transferred within 90 days. For these reasons, I always recommend a shareholder buy-sell agreement to give the corporation or the remaining shareholders time to pay for the shares so it does not create financial difficulties for the company. Ideally, the corporation will also obtain life insurance on the professionals to fund a cash buy-out of a deceased shareholder’s shares.

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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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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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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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