Commercial organizations are organizations whose ultimate goal is to profit from the goods or services they produce. There are 3 main groups of commercial organizations: sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations.
Individual enterprises
An individual enterprise, or an economic society with a single participant, is owned by one person with little capital.
The advantage of this type of organization is the simplicity of its registration, sole ownership of all profits, independent decision-making and tax benefits. The downside is the small opportunities to raise funds for the development of the company.
This type of enterprise can be registered only in the form of a limited liability company - if it is necessary to pay off debts, the company itself will serve as a pledge, and not the personal property of its owner.
An individual enterprise is widespread in the field of services: medical, legal or trade.
Partnerships
A partnership, or partnership, is an organization owned by two or more persons. The partnership can be full, or based on faith - limited.
In a full partnership, all participants make common decisions regarding business management, bear responsibility for it, share losses and profits, and in case of debts they are fully responsible for them.
In a limited partnership, its members have different rights and obligations. The participants are divided into general comrades who will manage the business and be responsible for the property of the firm, and into investors who contribute some amounts of money to the firm, but do not participate in the management. Both those and others make a profit from the enterprise. This form of business reduces the risk of personal investment.
In the form of partnerships, mainly audit firms, service enterprises and brokerage firms are represented.
Corporations
Corporations, they are also joint-stock companies, or business companies, are companies created by a set of persons united for joint activities. Members of corporations hold shares in the firm.
Corporations have many advantages. They allow you to raise more capital through the issuance of stocks and bonds. Shareholders have limited liability to the company. It is easier to attract qualified specialists to this type of commercial organization. Another plus is the ability to promote your interests.
Two of the most important rights of shareholders are responsibility within the amount of shares purchased by them and the ability to freely sell these shares.
But there are also disadvantages here: the complexity of registering a corporation, the possibility of issuing shares that have no value, and double taxation of the dividend part of profits.
Previously, there were such forms of joint-stock companies as OJSC and CJSC. Since September 1, 2014, they have been abolished, replacing them with two new forms:
- public JSC. An analogue of the JSC, the shares of this JSC will be placed publicly on the securities market;
- non-public joint-stock companies. AO shares will not be publicly placed on the stock market.
The changes took place in connection with changes in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
