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Corporation

A business corporation is an institution established for the purpose of making profit. It is operated by individuals. Their shares of ownership are represented by stock certificates. A person who owns a stock certificate is called a stock-holder.

There are several advantages of the corporate form of owner­ship. The first is the ability to attract financial resources. The next advantage is that a corporation attracts a large amount of capital it can invest it in plants, equipment and research. And the third advantage is that a corporation can offer higher salaries and thus attract talented managers and specialists.

The privately owned business corporation is one type of corpo­ration. There are some other types too. Educational, religious, charitable institutions can also incorporate. Usually such corpo­ration does not issue stock and is nonprofit. If there is a profit it is reinvested in the institution rather than distributed to private stockholders.

In some western countries, cities, states, federal government and special agencies can establish governmental corporations. A few examples of these governmental corporations are state hospi­tals and city owned utilities. Governmental corporations are non-profit as a rule and usually they do not issue stock certificates.

Business Partnerships in the USA

When a proprietor wants to expand a business, one way to do it is to form a partnership, a business formed for profit by two or more co-owners. The rights and duties of a partnership are regulated by laws of the state where it is formed and by a legal agreement entered into by the co-owners. Usually an agreement specifies the amount of the money each is investing and duties each partner assumes. A partnership agreement also may provide for a «silent partner» who does not take part in the management, but who invests money in the business.

The partnership has the advantage of pooling managerial tal­ent. One partner may be qualified in production, another in market­ing. The partnership, like individual ownership, is exempt from most of the reporting that the government requires of corporations. Furthermore, it has a favorable tax position when compared with the corporation. Federal taxes are paid by individual partners on their share of earnings; beyond that the business is not taxed.

A major disadvantage of the partnership is that each member is liable for all the debts of the partnership; the act of any partner is legally binding upon the others. If one partner takes a large amount of money from the business and squanders it, the others must pay the debt. Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. If partners have serious and constant disagree­ments, the business is bound to suffer.

Nonetheless, the partnership remains a vital part of the overall business economy.