13. Corporation (definition)

NOTE: if you’re new to Ground-Up Governance, or are finding anything a bit strange or confusing, you might want to START HERE.

If there were a competition for words that get used to mean the most different things without any consideration given to their actual definition, “corporation” would probably be in the top 10 finalists.  It’s not one of those words that seem to automatically make people act really annoying,[1] But still, “corporation” is a word that different well-educated and well-meaning people will use to indicate multiple – sometimes mutually exclusive – things without thinking. 

NOTE: No promises, but this is almost definitely the last time Ground-Up Governance will mention taxes. If you have tax questions, you know who to call.

So, what is a corporation?  In a lot of the world’s countries and territories, you probably want to consider turning your company into a corporation.  There are A LOT of reasons why, but two big ones are 1) it makes it harder for *you* to be personally sued by angry stakeholders, because they will have to sue your corporation instead, and 2) corporations pay way less tax than people do.  So even if your company is small, there are some cool advantages to incorporating (NOTE: “incorporating” is another way of saying “turning into a corporation.”). You might let people know that you’ve incorporated your company by adding “Inc.” to the company’s name, or some other abbreviation that looks/sounds cool but most people will ignore (ever seen “Corp.” or “Ltd.”?) .Anyway, corporations are just things that people create for legal and tax reasons.

All that is to say that Reallie Steilish Inc. is more than just a cool name and a tax shelter, it also means that your growing fashion empire has graduated to the next level of jargon. Congratulations!

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[1] Like the ones who say “well, you know ‘fulsome’ actually means excessively flattering (ed: itself a bit redundant, no?), so when you talk about ‘fulsome financial disclosure’ you’re really saying that the financial disclosure was somehow complimenting my auditor, Captain Taxtastic’s technique to an obnoxious degree.”  To which the appropriate reply is, “not only does ‘fulsome’ originate from Middle English, translating as ‘abundant’, but its current positive definition has been widely used for at least 60 years, so relax!  You know what I meant!”