In A Nutshell - Keeping the Veil
By  Jim Costa
 

1) Pay Annual Corporate Renewal Fees to the State.

 

If you don’t you can’t claim you are a corporation if sued nor can you sue another party.  If you are lucky you can pay the arrearage that is now greatly overpriced with penalties.

The State will bill you several hundred Dollars for this each year.

 

2) Put your legal name on EVERYTHING.

“Jim’s Drinking Business, Inc.”

 

Failure to do so will void the legal protection of a corporation.
Courts will rule it was always just you outside of the corporation.

 

3) Renew your Fictitious name annually.


     If you operate under a Fictitious registered name with the state, renew it too!
      ie.    “Jimbo’s Good Time Emporium”

Otherwise the court will not rule it was a corporation using a
    DBA (doing business as).

 

4) Never sign as an OWNER.

 

Your corporate signature should always be:

         Jim’s Drinking Business, Inc.

 

        ___________________________

        By: Jim Studd, It’s President

 

Or:         Jim Studd, President

 

If an invoice or contract signature area reads:

 

           OWNER:

         ______________________

 

     Then scratch it out and sign it as “ By: Jim Studd, President”

 

     Failure in this area makes you responsible for all money owed to this company,
    today and in the future, as you led them to believe you were not a corporation.

 

5) If ever asked if you are the “owner”, reply “President” or “It’s my corporation
    (or firm).”

 

6) Exception to #4 above.

 

In order to get credit at times, a supplier will insist you personally guarantee payments on his shipments.

 

But if you do so to get credit, that is your deliberate decision. If you do it for Merchant A, Merchant B cannot treat you as the OWNER as well. It is a one time decision by you to Merchant A only.

 

7) Keep Annual Meeting Minutes.

 

This proves you are actually running a corporation. You only need one meeting per year. Vote to have a Christmas party, but this time without both your wife and girlfriend in attendance. This demonstrates you are really trying to leave the business to your kids.

 

Note: Call your meeting on Jan 1st without closing it. Adjournment as a continuous meeting and close it at the end of the year on Dec 31st.

This way every time you and a stockholder have a lunch together at the ball game it is a business expense. This is also good for a road trip for the play-offs.

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