Legal Question in Business Law in Maryland

Re: building structure in corp.

You can incorporate a business, and decide not to incorporate a building. It's your choice! If you want to hire me to incorporate you, you may call me. Wishing you all the best!

Re: building structure in corp.

There is no reason that you have to transfer ownership of the building to the corporation that you set up to operate your business. However, if you retain ownership of the building, but the business uses it, the business is in effect renting the building from you. You should check with your accountant or tax adviser as to the way to treat this on your books and tax returns.

Re: building structure in corp.

As the other two lawyers have stated, there's no

reason that you have to transfer ownership of the

building to the corporation. However, at the very

least you need to be sure that you have the right

kind of insurance in place. If someone falls in that

building and is hurt, and if you own the building

yourself, you may well find that you have defeated

the purpose of incorporating since a lawyer may be

able to argue the fall (or whatever accident) was

due to a problem that you as a landlord should have

known about. Now you're personally back on the hook.

A better approach might be to set up two corporations,

one running the business and the other holding the

building. The idea is to build as much of a wall

between potential lawsuits and you, personally. If

incorporating is too expensive you may want to consider

an LLC for one or both of the companies. There are

a variety of considerations you need to take into account,

but in terms of price I personally charge less to set

up an LLC than a corporation since it's quite a bit

less involved...

Good luck with your assisted living center.