What North Carolina Corporations should be doing now

A corporation is a separate legal entity from its owners that keeps the owners’ other assets separate from the corporation – if the corporation is properly run.

What does it mean to properly run a corporation?

1. You should have prepared and sent W-2s to employees and 1099s to contractors or vendors by January 31.

2. The Corporation must file annual reports with the NC Secretary of State, at the same time, it files its corporate tax return (usually March 15). Many corporate owners now e-file their taxes and forget to file their annual reports. Click here for a video on how to do this. Click here to go right to the annual report site.

NC Attorney General Josh Stein just sent out this alert regarding annual report scams. Don’t fall for any of these.

3. The Corporation must file a tax return, even if there is only one shareholder. It may not need to pay any taxes, but all corporations need to file informational returns. For more information, click here or contact a CPA. Remember, owners of an S-corp. must take a reasonable salary before paying tax-advantageous distributions of profit.

4. The Corporation must hold annual meetings of shareholders and should have an annual meeting of directors.

5. If your corporate documents require annual valuations of the company, this would be a good time to set the current valuation and review the year.

If you have questions, talk with your business attorney.