What business documents and filings are required for a Florida professional association?

 

As I previously wrote about, a Florida professional association is simply a special type of Florida corporation. So as with any corporation, you must file Articles of Incorporation with the Secretary of State’s office to incorporate. However, with a professional corporation, you cannot simply state that the business purpose is any lawful business. You must specify the services to be performed by the professional association. This sets a professional association apart from your typical corporation.

After your Articles of Incorporation are filed, you must then apply for an Employer Identification Number with the IRS. You will need this number and your Articles of Incorporation to open up a bank account for the business. Lawyer firm in Pennsylvania. You may also need to obtain a state employer identification number, depending on the services that will be provided by the professional association. Finally, you will need to obtain a business license for every county where you intend to have an office.

The above takes care of all the outside paperwork with the P.A. but that is not everything that should be done. You should also prepare a stockholders/buy-sell agreement amongst all the shareholders of the P.A. so that once one owner becomes disabled or dies, there is a gameplan for how their ownership will be transferred to the other owners. This is important because all owners of a P.A. need to be licensed. For instance, in a law firm, all the owners must be licensed attorneys. However, if one attorney dies, their heirs cannot become stockholders unless they are also licensed attorneys. For this sole reason, buy-sell and stockholder agreements are vital to the continuous existence of the business.

To learn more about creating a professional association, please contact our business law attorneys at Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. located in Jacksonville and Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.