Types of Business Entity - United States

United States

In the United States, the individual states incorporate most businesses. Very few special types are incorporated by the federal government.

For federal tax purposes, the Internal Revenue Service has separate entity classification rules. Under the tax rules, an entity may be classified as a corporation, a partnership or disregarded entity. A corporation may be either a Subchapter S corporation or a C corporation. A disregarded entity has one owner that is not recognized for tax purposes as an entity separate from its owner. Types of disregarded entities include single-member LLCs; qualified subchapter S subsidiaries and qualified REIT subsidiaries. A disregarded entity’s transparent tax status does not affect its status under state law. For example, for federal tax purposes, the sole-member LLC (SMLLC) is disregarded, so that all its assets and liabilities are treated as owned by its single member. But under state law, an SMLLC can contract in its own name and its owner is not personally liable for the debts and obligations of the entity.