Should I make an LLC or Corp for a social app?
First, you will need to set up a corporation in California, not Delaware or Nevada or anywhere else. If you work in California at all, you are required by law to register as a foreign corporation in California, if you incorporate in another state. You will have to pay the California taxes and fees, you cannot get around it. Plus you will have to pay incorporation fees in 2 states, have to keep corporate records in 2 states, have to know corporate law in 2 states, etc. Plus, if there&#x27;s a lawsuit, you&#x27;re going to be spending a lot of time in Delaware, or Texas, or wherever you incorporate.<p>You&#x27;ll probably want to start either an LLC or a S Corporation. There are a lot of resources on the internet, and on youtube. Just look up &quot;what structure should I use for my business&quot; and searches like that. Watch videos and read about them. That way, when you go into your CPA to discuss which option is best for your specific requirements, your CPA won&#x27;t have to waste time explaining what a C corporation or an S corporation or LLC, except for a few lingering questions that you might have.<p>There&#x27;s a LOT of companies that will start your corporation up. They usually charge $50 or $100 or thereabouts. Don&#x27;t pay some lawyer to do it for you for $5,000. Well, if it is a &quot;standard&quot; type of business, that is, which it seems like yours is. For example, you can use <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.swyftfilings.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.swyftfilings.com&#x2F;</a>  They charge $49. This does not include state fees. This is just the price that swyft charges for what they do. I would get the Basic choice for $49. It does not cost a cent for an EIN and it is easy and fast to get, for example. For the corporate bylaws, just do a search on that: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;duckduckgo.com&#x2F;?q=corporate+bylaws+examples&amp;atb=v217-1&amp;ia=web" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;duckduckgo.com&#x2F;?q=corporate+bylaws+examples&amp;atb=v217...</a><p>Just copy and paste into a document and see what pertains to your company. It helps to look at a bunch of bylaw examples to see all of them and take from then what applies to your company. when you see a lot of bylaws, you start to understand how they are put together, rather than just look at only one sample.<p>Here are a copy of the state of California fees: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bpd.cdn.sos.ca.gov&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;be-fee-schedule-062018.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bpd.cdn.sos.ca.gov&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;be-fee-schedule-062018.pdf</a><p>Here is info on California&#x27;s Franchise Tax Board: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ftb.ca.gov&#x2F;file&#x2F;business&#x2F;types&#x2F;corporations&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ftb.ca.gov&#x2F;file&#x2F;business&#x2F;types&#x2F;corporations&#x2F;inde...</a>  You will see that there is a minimum of $800 per year for operating a California corporation.<p>Remember, the government comes first before anything. They are #1. Before paying rent, before paying your health insurance, before getting needed medication for your children. OK that last one was not really true but used to emphasize a point, in that the government is really #1. They will kick you ass with penalties and interest if you don&#x27;t pay correctly. Do not mess around with them, especially with payroll. Use a payroll company, don&#x27;t do it yourself. Most payroll companies will take full responsibilities to pay penalties and interest if they mess up.<p>Remember, the corporation really isn&#x27;t &quot;yours.&quot; The corporation is a legal person. A corporation can open up a bank account in it&#x27;s name, but your office chair cannot. You will be both a board member and an officer, which are two different things, so you need to put on a different hat for each role. This is extremely important because if you run the company as an extension of yourself, the courts will &quot;pierce the corporate veil&quot; and declare that the corporation is not a corporation, and you will be personally responsible for any debts, etc. Which defeats the purpose of having a corporation. So what that means is that you don&#x27;t pay for your personal expenses out of your corporate monies. This is in the same way that the CEO of Apple cannot pay his children&#x27;s college tuition by writing a check on an Apple checkbook. In your capacity of CEO at your company, you are actually an employee, same as any other company. And if you DO want to pay for your children&#x27;s education from your company, as a perk, then you have to go to the board of directors, ask permission, and get an approved written piece of paper that allows it. Even if you are the board member yourself. So you sit on both sides of the table. Your CEO persona must ask your board of director persona&#x27;s permission. And then it must be approved by an actual real vote (even if it is only yourself - you have to keep formalities whether you personally think it is important or not). Then you have to pass the resolution and write it down and put it in your corporate binder, in case the courts ask for it somewhere down the line.<p>Here is the actual corporate code for California: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;leginfo.legislature.ca.gov&#x2F;faces&#x2F;codesTOCSelected.xhtml?tocCode=CORP" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;leginfo.legislature.ca.gov&#x2F;faces&#x2F;codesTOCSelected.xh...</a>   Read it.<p>Good luck.