Easy Mississippi Incorporations For S Corps And LLCs

Incorporating in Mississippi? Before you telephone a CPA or lawyer, look into the money-saving alternative of preparing the articles of incorporation yourself. Free Internet resources provided by the IRS and the state of Mississippi mean the work is quite a bit less complicated than people think.

Reason #1 to try do-it-yourself: Free forms from state

To create a corporation or limited liability company in Mississippi, the entity's organizer (this is probably you) files some paperwork with the Secretary of State. This paperwork is called the articles of incorporation for a corporation and the articles of formation for a limited liability company. While creating these articles from scratch is best left to a professional, it turns out that the Mississippi Secretary of State will provide you with fill-in-the-blank forms you can use in place of "from-scratch" articles. And with the state's fill-in-the-blank forms, all you need to do is, quite literally, fill in the blanks

The Mississippi Secretary of State office changes the actual Internet website addresses of the fill-in-the-blank forms pretty regularly as part of updating its website. But if you know the exact name of the Mississippi forms, you can Google or Bing using the form name. That search will quickly locate the free forms.

Sound like something you're willing to try? Great. Here are the Mississippi form names. For incorporating in Mississippi, search on "Mississippi F001 Articles of Incorporation." To form a Mississippi limited liability company, search on "F0100 MS LLC Certificate of Formation."

Reason #2 to try do-it-yourself: Free EINs from the IRS

After you set up your Mississippi corporation or limited liability company, you need to get a taxpayer identification number, or EIN, for the new entity.

You might think you need an accountant for getting an EIN. However, you probably can quite easily get this employer identification number by using either a free form available from the Internal Revenue Service website or an online EIN application you start by clicking a link on the IRS website's home page.

To use the free form to get your EIN, visit the irs dot gov web, enter SS-4 into the search box on the home page, and then download the SS-4 form and instructions that the website makes available in its search results.

Tip: As the SS-4 instructions indicate, you can fax your SS-4 application—and that's usually a good idea. A faxed application should be processed more quickly.

To use the online EIN application, visit the Internal Revenue Service website and click the home page hyperlink labeled "Apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) Online." To use the online application, follow the on-screen instructions.

Tip: Use the online application if you need an EIN for your Mississippi corporation or limited liability immediately. With the online application, you should get your EIN at the end of the roughly five minute process.

Reason #3 to try do-it-yourself: There's Subchapter S info available at IRS website, too

You don't necessarily need to go to a tax accountant or tax attorney to make a subchapter S election for your new Mississippi corporation or limited liability company. (Note that both corporations and limited liability companies may make an S election.)

All you need to do to make an S election is correctly and timely file the IRS form 2553 with the Internal Revenue Service center in Ogden Utah. (This is the IRS location processes corporation tax returns for Mississippi S corporations.) The Ogden mailing address is Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service Center, Ogden, UT 84201. Or you can use the fax number: (801)-620-7116.

To use the free form for electing subchapter S status, visit the irs dot gov web, enter "2553 form instructions" into the search box on the home page, and then download the 2553 form and instructions that the website makes available in its search results