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Low-profit Limited Liability Company
A low-profit limited liability company (L3C) is a legal form of business entity in the United States. Commonly referred to as a hybrid structure, it has characteristics of both for-profit and non-profit entities. L3Cs were created to comply with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program-related investments (PRIs) rules which allow most typically private foundations the ability to maintain tax-exempt status through investments in qualifying businesses and/or charities. With a social mission as the primary objective and a secondary objective of profit generation, the L3C legal form is considered a viable option for businesses seeking a reputation or marketability for being a social enterprise. Background & Concept The L3C structure was designed by Robert M. Lang, Jr., who was the CEO of a New York-based family foundation. Lang developed the structure as a way for foundations to clear tax and regulatory hurdles when it came to donations. With the first L3C statute being enacted in 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Business Entity
In law, a legal person is any person or 'thing' (less ambiguously, any legal entity) that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. The reason for the term "''legal'' person" is that some legal persons are not people: companies and corporations are "persons" legally speaking (they can legally do most of the things an ordinary person can do), but they are not people in a literal sense. There are therefore two kinds of legal entities: human and non-human. In law, a human person is called a '' natural person'' (sometimes also a ''physical person''), and a non-human person is called a '' juridical person'' (sometimes also a ''juridic'', ''juristic'', ''artificial'', ''legal'', or ''fictitious person'', la, persona ficta). Juridical persons are entities such as corporations, firms (in some jurisdictions), and many government agencies. They are treated in law as if they were persons. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Damages
At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at law, the loss must involve damage to property, or mental or physical injury; pure economic loss is rarely recognised for the award of damages. Compensatory damages are further categorized into special damages, which are economic losses such as loss of earnings, property damage and medical expenses, and general damages, which are non-economic damages such as pain and suffering and emotional distress. Rather than being compensatory, at common law damages may instead be nominal, contemptuous or exemplary. History Among the Saxons, a monetary value called a ''weregild'' was assigned to every human being and every piece of property in the Salic Code. If property was stolen or someone was injured or killed, the guilty person had to pay the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Types Of Business Entity
A business entity is an entity that is formed and administered as per corporate law in order to engage in business activities, charitable work, or other activities allowable. Most often, business entities are formed to sell a product or a service. There are many types of business entities defined in the legal systems of various countries. These include corporations, cooperatives, partnerships, sole traders, limited liability companies and other specifically permitted and labelled types of entities. The specific rules vary by country and by state or province. Some of these types are listed below, by country. For guidance, approximate equivalents in the company law of English-speaking countries are given in most cases, for example: *private company limited by shares or Ltd. (UK, Ireland and the Commonwealth) *public limited company (UK, Ireland and the Commonwealth) *limited partnership *general partnership *chartered company *statutory corporation *state-owned enterprise *holdin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of organizations, which vary in size, aims, and beliefs. For-profit entrepreneurs typically measure performance using business metrics like profit, revenues and increases in stock prices. Social entrepreneurs, however, are either non-profits, or they blend for-profit goals with generating a positive "return to society". Therefore, they use different metrics. Social entrepreneurship typically attempts to further broad social, cultural and environmental goals often associated with the voluntary sector in areas such as poverty alleviation, health care and community development. At times, profit-making social enterprises may be established to support the social or cultural goals of the organization but not as an end in themselves. For exampl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Community Interest Company
A community interest company (CIC, colloquially pronounced "kick") is a type of company introduced by the United Kingdom government in 2005 under the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004, designed for social enterprises that want to use their profits and assets for the public good. CICs are intended to be easy to establish, with all the flexibility and certainty of the company form, but with some special features to ensure they are working for the benefit of the community. They are overseen by the Regulator of Community Interest Companies. CICs have proved popular and some 10,000 were registered in the status's first ten years. Objectives A community interest company is a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximize profit for shareholders and owners. CICs tackle a wide range of social and environmental issu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liquidation Preference
A liquidation preference is one of the primary economic terms of a venture finance investment in a private company. The term describes how various investors' claims on dividends or on other distributions are queued and covered. Liquidation preference establishes that certain investors receive their investment money back first before other company owners in the event the company is sold, has a public offering, pays dividends, or has another liquidation (payout) event. Types Liquidation preferences can be partial (they apply to less than 100% of investment funds), full (100%), or at a multiple of original investment funds. Further, interest or guaranteed dividends may or may not be added to the preference amount over time. Occasionally the multiple shifts over time as well. Another distinction is that preferences may be "participating", meaning investors receive their preference first and are then entitled to a share of any remaining funds based on their ownership, or they may be "no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act
The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, is a law intended to encourage funding of small businesses in the United States by easing many of the country's securities regulations. It passed with bipartisan support, and was signed into law by President Barack Obama on April 5, 2012. Title III, also known as the CROWDFUND Act, has drawn the most public attention because it creates a way for companies to use crowdfunding to issue securities, something that was not previously permitted. Title II went into effect on September 23, 2013. On October 30, 2015, the SEC adopted final rules allowing Title III equity crowdfunding. These rules went into effect on May 16, 2016; this section of the law is known as Regulation CF. Other titles of the Act had previously become effective in the years since the Act's passage. Legislative history Following a decrease in small business activity in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress considered a number of solutions to help spu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accredited Investor
An accredited or sophisticated investor is an investor with a special status under financial regulation laws. The definition of an accredited investor (if any), and the consequences of being classified as such, vary between countries. Generally, accredited investors include high-net-worth individuals, banks, financial institutions, and other large corporations, who have access to complex and higher-risk investments such as venture capital, hedge funds, and angel investments. Laws may require that some types of financial offerings may only be made to accredited investors. Criteria for accreditation Australia s 708(8) of the Corporations Act 2001 is found in Chapter 6D (Fundraising). It defines "sophisticated investor" so as to exclude them from certain disclosure requirements. That section provides for an accountant to issue a certificate stating that an individual meets the criteria prescribed in the ''Corporations Regulations 2001'', namely net assets of at least $2. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double Taxation
Double taxation is the levying of tax by two or more jurisdictions on the same income (in the case of income taxes), asset (in the case of capital taxes), or financial transaction (in the case of sales taxes). Double liability may be mitigated in a number of ways, for example, a jurisdiction may: * exempt foreign-source income from tax, * exempt foreign-source income from tax if tax had been paid on it in another jurisdiction, or above some benchmark to exclude tax haven jurisdictions, or * fully tax the foreign-source income but give a credit for taxes paid on the income in the foreign jurisdiction. Jurisdictions may enter into tax treaties with other countries, which set out rules to avoid double taxation. These treaties often include arrangements for exchange of information to prevent tax evasion such as when a person claims tax exemption in one country on the basis of non-residence in that country, but then does not declare it as foreign income in the other country; or who cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flow-through Entity
A flow-through entity (FTE) is a legal entity where income "flows through" to investors or owners; that is, the income of the entity is treated as the income of the investors or owners. Flow-through entities are also known as pass-through entities or fiscally-transparent entities. Common types of FTEs are general partnerships, limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships. In the United States, additional types of FTE include S corporations, income trusts and limited liability companies. Most countries require an FTE (or its owners) to file an annual return reporting the shares of income allocated to owners, and to provide each owner with a statement of allocated income to enable owners to report their shares of income on their own tax returns. In the United States, the statement of allocated income is known as a K-1 (or Schedule K-1). Depending on the local tax regulations, this structure can avoid dividend tax and double taxation because only owners or investors are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piercing The Corporate Veil
Piercing the corporate veil or lifting the corporate veil is a legal decision to treat the rights or duties of a corporation as the rights or liabilities of its shareholders. Usually a corporation is treated as a separate legal person, which is solely responsible for the debts it incurs and the sole beneficiary of the credit it is owed. Common law countries usually uphold this principle of separate personhood, but in exceptional situations may "pierce" or "lift" the corporate veil. A simple example would be where a businessman has left his job as a director and has signed a contract to not compete with the company he has just left for a period of time. If he sets up a company which competed with his former company, technically it would be the company and not the person competing. But it is likely a court would say that the new company was just a "sham" or a "cover"; and that as the new company is completely owned and controlled by one person that the former employee is deliberatel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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