Form Your California Corporation

The Process

California corporations are formed by filing Articles of Incorporation with California Secretary of State. The entire filing process in California greately depends on the season and the choice of expedited options. Generally it varies from 2 to 3 weeks with regular filing, but periodically can be as long as 2 months or as short as 1 week. Expedited options exist for extra fee. We recommend you to contact our office to check the most recent processing times. To learn more about incorporating in California you can visit California State government website.

Name Identifiers and Abbreviations

The name of the California corporation must end with one of the following words/abbreviations:

• Inc.
• Corp.
• Co.
• Ltd.
• Incorporated
• Corporation
• Incorporation
• Company
• Limited

Additional Filings

Depending on the nature of your business some additional filings could be necessary to complete the proper set up of your corporation. Click on the items below to learn about each:

• EIN (tax ID)
• S-Corporation Election
• Sales Tax Registration
• Payroll Registration & Business Licensing
• Statement of Information

Bylaws and Minutes of Meetings

Bylaws is an important corporate document, serving as the “constitution” of the corporation. It defines various aspects or ownership and management of the corporation, as well as other aspects of corporation’s existence. To properly establish, maintain and manage the affairs of the corporation directors and shareholders must meet periodically, and those meetings should be documented (minutes of meetings). Bylaws, minutes of all meetings, as well as other corporate documents, must be kept with your corporate records and are not filed with the state.

California mandates all corporations to have bylaws, and properly maintain minutes of all meetings taking place. We can provide you with standard bylaws and minutes of initial meetings of directors and shareholders, as well as other important documents such as stock ledger and bills of sale of shares to initial shareholders.