The Concept of Limited Liability and the Christian Worldview.
“Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless” (Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, 1963). These words of Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks volume to the society that we find ourselves. It is very rare to come across business owners like Frank who wants to do what is right; first of all, by God and secondly by the laws of the country. According to Henry Cheeseman, a limited liability company is an “unincorporated business entity that combines the most favorable attributes of general partnerships, limited partnership, and corporations” (Business Law: Legal Environment Online Commerce, Business Ethics, and International Issue). The overall advantages of a limited liability company include personal liability protection, business liability protection, no ownership restrictions, flexible tax statues, no separate tax returns, no double taxation and flexible profit distribution.
…show more content…
Frank has the right to form any type of business which he desires so far as its in line with the laws of the state. Now Frank chooses the limited liability company with a lot of advantages. There is nothing wrong with choosing sometimes that works for us so far as its in line with the law or with the bible if we are Christians. The problem comes when there us an abuse of the system. Limited Limited Company has a lot of advantages to the owners. What happens when there is an abuse of those advantages. One of the protections of limited liability company is asset protection. It will be ethical wrong to abuse this protection. One way that this protection can be abused is by intentional securing credit to buy personal assets knowing very well that should the company go under their personal asset cannot be
A corporation is a separate legal entity that possesses distinctive liabilities and privileges than that of their members or shareholders. As an investor, a corporation’s advantage is liability for their own investments especially in risky investments (Kubasek, et al., 2012, p. 760). Among the various types of corporations for Betty to select from, an S corporation is an enticing venture for new entrepreneurs given that it grants limited personal liability for debts, sharing of corporate profits, and taxation relief. Double taxation is a main disadvantage of C corporations but not for S corporations. The General Corporation Law (Corp C §§100-2319) treats S corporations similarly to partnerships for taxation purposes.
This essay will explain the concepts of separate personality and limited liability and their significance in company law. The principle of separate personality is defined in the Companies Act 2006(CA) ; “subscribers to the memorandum, together with such other persons as may from time to time become members of the company are a body corporate by the name contained in memorandum.” This essentially means that a company is a separate legal personality to its members and therefore can itself be sued and enter into contracts. This theory was birthed into company law through the case of Salomon v Salomon and Co LTD 1872. This case involved a company entering liquidation and the unsecured creditors not being able to claim assets to compensate them. The issue in this case was whether Mr Salomon owed the money or the company did. In the end, the House of Lords held that the company was not an agent of Mr Salomon and so the debts were that of the company thus creating the “corporate Veil” .
responsible for business debt, and has one or more limited partnership who are only liable to
Limited Liability Company (LLC) combines the tax advantages of a partnership with the limited liability aspects of a corporation. LLC’s are governed by the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act (ULLCA). All members of the LLC enjoy limited liability unless there is serious misconduct is committed by said member(s), or a member fails to follow through on an obligation. All this should be outlined in your preformation contract. You will have more flexibility with taxation and options on how to manage the company. It would be advisable to also have an Operating Agreement. This will dictate how management will be hired and fired, division of profits, how to transfer interest in the event a member chooses to opt out or dies. What steps to take in the event of dissociation of a partner, and if it causes the dissolution of the LLC. Most importantly how the members vote in the LLC. The weight of the members vote is in accordance with the member’s capital
Christians are called to the higher purpose of fulfilling a spiritual life in accordance to God’s will (II Timothy 1:9 New Living Translation, NLT). At the same time Christians are a part of society and therefore participate in the wealth of the economy. Although some have challenged business is morally neutral, business can be a wonderful way to bring glory to God (Grudem, 2003). This is possible when Christians apply their Christian worldview and abide by a code of conduct constructed from this worldview (Ruddell, 2004). This paper will examine the process of constructing an ethics program based on a Christian worldview.
The last of the four types includes the limited liability company, also known as a LLC. An LLC is an unincorporated form of business that carries characteristics of all of the other three forms of business. An LLC can choose to be taxed as a partnership, the owners can manage the business, and the owners have limited liability for debts and obligations of the partnership. LLC’s are
Also be obliged to pay taxes and dealt with civil and little acts of criminal penalties perform through agents. “The corporation is governed primarily by the statutory guidelines of the state statute that provides for its creation. The requirements for the creation and management of a corporation vary somewhat between the states, but as is usually the case, there are common threads that can be found in the corporate statutes of all states.” (Rogers,
* Limited Liability - Unlike partnerships and sole proprietorships, corporate shareholders are not liable for any of the corporation's debts.
A partnership is the best form of business given Shania’s situation. She has support from all angles that want to help her Christian coffee shop be a success. A limited liability partnership is best suited for Shania because of her possible partnerships with her husband, sister, and neighbor. According to the Limited Partnership (2015) article, this form of business is a “voluntary association where one or more partners contribute capital only, and those partners play no role in management.” Her husband wanted to make a contribution to Shania’s business but not in the lane of management, so by using this partnership he can still contribute his capital and maintain his partnership. The liability is limited to the amount of capital that the partner contributes. As a “silent partner” Marvin can make investments with the company, but not have any voting power or control over day-to-day operations.
This paper will explore what a Biblical Worldview is and present a Biblical Worldview process of contracts, ownership and responsibility.
Although doctrine of separate legal entity has the greatest importance in company law, it contains weaknesses that could be arguable. Professor Kahn-Freund described the doctrine as “calamitous” because it arise many issues, such as “How is it possible to check the one-man company and other abuse of company law?” Separate legal entity is inadequate for complex problems .
Limited liability Company (LLC): Business’ owners are only subject to limited liability for company’s debts and actions. Owners will be only liable for their own mistakes or negligence that they may show in occasions.
The concept of a company being a separate legal entity is the most striking illustration in separating the company from its owners. A paramount principle of corporate law is that no shareholder or member of a company is made liable for the obligations incurred by such incorporations A company is different from its members in the eyes of law. In continuations to this the opposite also holds true in the sense that neither can the company be held liable for the acts of its members. It is a fundamental distinction that a company is distinct from its members.
(63)” Limited liability is another thing that is not inherently bad. If shareholders were completely held responsible for the debts of a corporation, then nobody would want to invest in any company. Limited liability helps boost the economy by encouraging people to invest money in companies which then make products for consumers to buy. Limited liability can also be used in a bad way such as when the owners of BP were not able to be held accountable for the environmental damage and the loss of 11 lives because they ignored safety regulations to make a bigger profit. The BP oil spill is another example of corporation privatizing profits and socializing cost. BP cut costs by getting around safety regulations on their oil rig. They Saved money and increased their profit by doing this but all of that profit stayed among the BP shareholders, however when the oil rig exploded the shareholders were not forced to pay for the damages and reparations. The public was forced to pay the cost of cleaning up the gulf. The shareholders made a profit by cutting corners, but when it finally caught up with them and disaster struck, they passed the cost of it on to everyone
Corporation origin from the Latin word Corpus which means body. It is formed by a group of people and has separate rights and liability from those individual. In any means, corporation exists independently from its owner and this principle is called the doctrine of separate personality. Doctrine of separate personality is the basic and fundamental principle in a Company Law. This principle outline the legal relationship between company and its members. Company’s assets belong to the company not the shareholders as assets are the equity for creditors. Company must use up all its assets to pay off the creditors if it became insolvent. The same applies to the corporation’s debts. For limited liabilities company, the shareholder liability is limited which means that the shareholder is restricted to the number of shares they paid and not personally liable for the corporation’s debts. If the company does not have enough equity to pay off debts, the creditors cannot come after the shareholders. However, limited liability company can be very powerful when in hands who do fraud and on defeating creditors’ claims. Courts then can ignore the doctrine for exception cases and lifting the corporate veil. Lifting the corporate veil is a situation where courts put aside limited liability and hold a corporation’s shareholders or directors personally liable for the corporation’s debts.