Corporation number

[Michaeljftsmith]

So I'm getting my contractors license in California and the school is telling me that I need to get a corporation number to send with my application because I'm going the incorporated route. Does anyone know how I would go about doing that?

 

[JPfloor]

When you form a corporation (Usually an S Corp for small contractors) you’ll get an EIN number (tax ID) from the federal government.

I had my account do it. I’m sure now a days there are a lot of online services that can do it for you if you want to go that route but if you’re going to form a corporation you probably want to find a good accountant anyway.

 

[Michaeljftsmith]

When you form a corporation (Usually an S Corp for small contractors) you’ll get an EIN number (tax ID) from the federal government.

I had my account do it. I’m sure now a days there are a lot of online services that can do it for you if you want to go that route but if you’re going to form a corporation you probably want to find a good accountant anyway.

No it's not an EIN number. The secretary at the school made sure she empathized that. She called it a corporate number and said it would be about 6 numbers long. Thanks for your response though. I think it has something to do with registering the entity name.

 

[DarisMulkin]

I also had my accountant do it. Worked for me about 20 years. Some costs involved but well worth it to me.

 

[JPfloor]

No it's not an EIN number. The secretary at the school made sure she empathized that. She called it a corporate number and said it would be about 6 numbers long. Thanks for your response though. I think it has something to do with registering the entity name.

Policies vary from state to state. I’m sure I have a corporate number but I don’t know what it is and in 35 years no one has ever asked for it. California is a little tougher on the rules. I’m sure once you incorporate they will give you the number. Here in New York we don’t need any kind of license to install flooring.

Again, an accountant will take care of all of that and answer a lot of other tax questions you’re gonna have too.

 

[Incognito]

I'm still licensed as a sole proprietor. To incorporate I'm pretty sure you want to use professional services; accountant/lawyer. Seeing as how you're going down that road you'll need those guys for a lot of other crap-------once you're incorporated, especially with employees. Having a crew working for you requires pretty high level of effort and technical skills here in CA.

Generally speaking the accountants and lawyers will have all the correct software and expertise to perform those tasks efficiently. Your time and skill set is better utilized out in the field------selling, managing, installing and collecting. Just depends on how ambitious you are. I found being an employee fits my goals just fine and frankly, I guess i'm not all that ambitious.

 

[Michaeljftsmith]

I'm still licensed as a sole proprietor. To incorporate I'm pretty sure you want to use professional services; accountant/lawyer. Seeing as how you're going down that road you'll need those guys for a lot of other crap-------once you're incorporated, especially with employees. Having a crew working for you requires pretty high level of effort and technical skills here in CA.

Generally speaking the accountants and lawyers will have all the correct software and expertise to perform those tasks efficiently. Your time and skill set is better utilized out in the field------selling, managing, installing and collecting. Just depends on how ambitious you are. I found being an employee fits my goals just fine and frankly, I guess i'm not all that ambitious.

Yeah as I get deeper and deeper into this I'm finding your advice to be true. Basically if running your own business and every aspect of it was easy then everyone would be doing it. But it's not and that's why we hire those professionals to do the things that they're better, quicker, and more prepared at doing than I would be. Unfortunately I chose the "have my back work for me instead of my brain" route and I'll be of more use out on the field like you were saying. I'm ambitious enough to get my license and after that I'll have to reserve the rest of my ambition and use it in other places that'll benefit me better. Thank you and to everyone for their advice.

 

[kwfloors]

I used a lawyer to set mine up.

 

[DarisMulkin]

I used a lawyer to set mine up.

When my partners and i set up our business we used a lawyer also. He gave us bad advice and we lost acc'ts over it. When asked about it his comment was "What can I say, ignorance of the law."

 

[JPfloor]

When my partners and i set up our business we used a lawyer also. He gave us bad advice and we lost acc'ts over it. When asked about it his comment was "What can I say, ignorance of the law."

Out of curiosity and without trying to pry, what sort of bad advice? Setting up a corporation ain’t that big a deal? For me it didn’t really change how I ran my business much. In small businesses like ours it’s primarily about getting some tax breaks. Paying less into social Security…. Which can bite you in the a** later if you don’t invest wisely.