Legal Question in Business Law in Minnesota

Re: Sole-proprietorship

First, any competent business attorney would advise you to consider an LLC or Sub-S Corporation.

The tax benefits and limitation of personal liability alone are compelling reasons NOT to set up business as a Sole Proprietorship.

You can find alot of information on the WWW to support the above position.

That being said, there are numerous considerations and forms which must be evaluated before starting business.

I would be happy to confer with you by telephone at no charge to cover many of these.

I have 25 years of Business Law experience, and as a business owner.

Re: Sole-proprietorship

David is right, you should take a close look at setting up a limited-liability entity. But, if you are certain you want to do it as a sole proprietor under an assumed name, you can set it all up yourself and don't necessarily need a lawyer. Here is the link to the forms at the Secretary of State's office (note, you may need to copy & paste this addresss into your browser):

http://www.sos.state.mn.us/home/index.asp?page=18&dc_id=96

You will need to talk over the details of the tax stuff with your accountant (you should make sure to set up a relationship with an accountant early on in your business life). However, if you are not going to have employees, you probably don't need to set up anything special with the IRS. If you are going to have employees, you may want to consider getting a separate tax ID for for the business. Go to www.IRS.gov and search for the "SS-4" form.

If you will have taxable sales, or if you will have employees, again, you will want to obtain a Tax ID number from MN. Here is a link to the MN Dept of Revenue's business site, which should give you all the info you need. http://www.taxes.state.mn.us/business_taxpayers/index.shtml

Standard disclaimer: The comments above are based on limited facts and should not be considered legal advice. We do not have an attorney-client relationship. That said, good luck to you and feel free to get in touch if I can be of further assistance.