Looking for Advice from an Accountant or Legal Expertice

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nansnick
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27 Aug 2009, 11:04 am

I've been working on opening a business and was wondering if there was an accountant or person with legal knowledge on WP that I could talk with?

The facts are:

* I'm Canadian

My questions are numerous but basically it boils down to this:

* Is there a way to operate under two different business names?
* And if so, can this be done under one account book?


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zer0netgain
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27 Aug 2009, 12:57 pm

I don't know the specifics of Canadian law, but in the USA you can operate under an infinite number of business names. Your business entity (like a corporation, partnership, LLC or even a sole proprietorship) can have a "business name." If you do business under a "business name" as an individual, there are filing requirements so it is in the public record so if someone does a search on the business name, they find the link to the real person behind it. I would expect similar rules in Canada.

As far as an "account book" goes, I know that you can have as many or as few bank accounts as you please. A corporation, partnership or LLC that gets its own EIN from the IRS can have a bank account under its corporate identity and not the identity of the creator/owner of the business.

The danger of keeping funds from more than one business under one account is that you are commingling the funds, and while it may not be illegal, it can complicate bookkeeping. Balancing the account of business #1 on one set of books and one bank statement then doing the same with a different set is less prone to error than balancing both business accounts and hoping there is no inconsistency when you check their combined balance against a single account statement.