An unincorporated entity has not been granted formal corporate status by
incorporation. An unincorporated entity will generally be a separate entity for accounting purposes, but may or may not be a separate legal entity. For example, partnerships in England and Scotland are separate entities for accounting purposes, but while English partnerships are not separate legal entities, in Scotland they are separate legal persons (but are not regarded as corporations).
The most common and traditional unincorporated entities are sole traders, partnerships, and trustees of trusts, and the more modern unincorporated entities include
limited partnerships (LPs) (but not incorporated limited partnerships),
limited liability partnerships (LLPs) (but not UK Limited Liability Partnerships which are corporations),
Limited liability limited partnership (LLLPs) and
limited liability companies (LLCs).
[Miller ES, Rutledge TE. (2005)]
The Duty of Finest Loyalty and Reasonable Decisions: The Business Judgment Rule in Unincorporated Business Organizations
''The Delaware Journal of Corporate Law''. Unincorporated societies and clubs are also unincorporated entities.
In
Australian law, incorporation occurs under the
Corporations Act 2001, and includes:
* a branch of an overseas company not incorporated in Australia (often the name ends in corporation)
* incorporated associations which are incorporated under an Act of one of the
States and territories of Australia, and
* incorporated
charitable institution
A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good).
The legal definition of a ch ...
s.
* people grouped together by a common purpose with
club-like characteristics, for example, a sporting club, social club or
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...
.
* It does not include
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
s.
In Indian Law, an unincorporated company means any partnership firm whether registered or not under Indian Partnership Act, 1932, whose number of partners exceed 20 and exceed 10 in case of a banking business. Such unincorporated company is also known as an illegal association.
It does not include an HUF.
References
Types of organization
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