Rhode Island Corporation

For Rhode Island Corporation prices and State fees, please visit the costs page for forming a Corporation in Rhode Island.

Rhode Island corporation has a couple options for taxation. Standard "C" corporations have one major disadvantage, "double taxation". This situation is when the corporation pays corporate income tax and the shareholders pay income tax on the distribution of the profits, or dividends. In order to have the corporation to be taxed as a partnership or sole proprietorship, the corporation can elect "S corporation" tax status. This requires one additional document to be filed. The "S" election means that the corporation’s profits "pass through" to the shareholders who pay taxes individually, this way there is only one level of taxation.

Rhode Island corporation must observe some operating formalities and maintain its separate legal status. Holding shareholder meetings, at least annually, is one of these formalities. At these meetings the corporation shareholders discuss and decide on critical business matters and approve actions taken by the corporation for the operating period. These meetings should be recorded in the form of meeting minutes, this is a legal record that shows the shareholders are approving actions and the officers are indemnified by the stockholder approval of the business actions.

A corporation is a common form of business organization that is chartered by a state government. It is granted many legal rights as an entity separate from its owners. The corporation is distinguished by limiting the liability of its owners, issuing shares of stock that can be transferred from one individual to another, and its ability to have perpetual existence. Because a corporation is separate from its owners it can protect them from being personally liable when the company is sued (known as limited liability). In addition there are tax benefits available to incorporated businesses that are not available to unincorporated businesses.