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Characteristics Of A Business Entity

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=Characteristics of Business Entities=

Before we can review each type of business entity, we need to cover a few characteristics that may differentiate each business structure:

' ' 'Liability ' ' ': Liability refers to how much financial responsibility will be held by a business or individual in the event of business losses. In business terms, this often means who will be held financially responsible in the event that debts cannot be repaid or the business suffers losses from an action by a court of law. This issue brings about two distinct concepts called unlimited liability or limited liability. Unlimited liability means that the owners of the business will be held financially liable for loses incurred by the business. What this ultimately means is that creditors or a court of law can seize an individual’s personal assets (their personal home, personal car, personal bank accounts etc.) in order to pay debts that were incurred by the business. Limited liability, on the other hand, means that often times the owners or investors will only be held liable up to the extent of their investment. However, courts can still seize personal assets of investors if fraud has occurred that lead to the failure of the business.

' ' 'Double Taxation ' ' ': For certain business structures, primarily corporations, the profits of the entity will be taxed a minimum of two times. When a corporation earns profit, the corporation will be levied a corporate income tax on those profits. If the

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