What is a corporation?

What is a corporation?Most businesses start out as a small company,owned by one person or by a partnership. The mostcommon type of business when there are multipleowners is a corporation. The law sees acorporation as real, live person. Like an adult,a corporation is treated as a distinct andindependent individual who has rights andresponsibilities. A corporation's \"birthcertificate\" is the legal form that is filed withthe Secretary of State of the state in which thecorporation is created, or incorporated. It must

have a legal name, just like a person.A corporation is separate from its owners. It'sresponsible for its own debts. The bank can't comeafter the stockholders if a corporation goesbankrupt.A corporation issues ownership share to personswho invest money in the business. These ownershipshares are documented by stock certificates,which state the name of the owner and how manyshares are owned. the corporation has to keep aregister, or list, of how many shares everyoneowns. Owners of a corporation are calledstockholders because they own shares of stockissued by the corporation. One share of stock isone unit of ownership; how much one share is worthdepends on the total number of shares that thebusiness issues. the more shares a businessissues, the smaller the percentage of totalowners' equity each share represents.