I made a similar mistake myself, forming an LLC in Massachusetts. I did IT consulting for the SoHo and home market. It was around $550/year to keep the LLC in business ($500 plus filing fees), ~$50 to register with the town you're based for four years, and something like $250 to dissolve the LLC with the state. Every state has different fees; some are quite high, and others very low, pending on the type of business created.
I did it mainly to limit liability, among other reasons. However a little while after forming, I spoke to a lawyer and he said that it basically doesn't limit you from being sued personally. You "can" attempt to deflect personal lawsuits with the LCC (easiest if you keep its finances/files/bank-account separated from your personal stuff, which I did), but it's no guarantee.
He basically advised me that forming the LLC was a waist of money in my situation, and I would have been better off simply as a sole-proprietor (e.g. DBA - doing-business-as). From the IRS's perspective, I was treated as a sole-proprietor for tax purposes (they don't recognize LLC's for single individuals). Of course by then, it was too late to easily dissolve the LLC and "switch" it to a DBA, so it was money wasted.
What annoyed me the most is the same problem Hamza had in the article. You have to pay money to dissolve a business! Really? REALLY?!? Obviously the business failed, or is being abandoned, because it didn't make enough money. Charging a "death tax" on a business seems pretty harsh. I understand if there's a filing fee of $20 or $30, but anything higher than that is ridiculous. Delaware wanting $1,600 from Hamza is downright insane. Perhaps there's more work involved dissolving a C-Corp than an LLC, but still, $1,600 is ridiculous.
Charging a business death-tax reduces seed capital needed to form a new business. Second, it reflects badly on the state, reducing the likelihood of incorporating in it again. Lastly, why not ignore paying the fee altogether, declare bankruptcy, and waste the time/money of the court system dealing with it all? I'm not sure about the legal implementations of that, but it might be a valid option if the C-Corp has no assets left. AFAIK you cannot ask shareholders to pay for it since they're legally shielded from the debts of a C-Corp.
What your lawyer meant was that its very easy to "pierce the veil" of the business entity (your LLC) to go after the owner when the business is owned and operated by a single person. In such instances, it is very difficult to show that the business has a separate identity from the owner. This is especially true for consulting, where the consultant is the business.
On the other hand, it is very difficult to pierce the veil of a business entity with more than one owner (unless the second owner is a spouse or family member of the first).
The ease with which one can "pierce the veil" varies dramatically from state to state. Another reason to be careful about your choice of location for corporate headquarters, employment, "significant contacts," and so forth.
In the meantime, how about IRS code that allows an inventor who owns his invention personally to take capital gains treatment on the sale of that invention contrasted with ownership by an LLC (even single person LLC) or other entity which subjects the owner at sale to normal income taxes at (usually) a much greater rate? I can imagine many convincing reasons for the entity to own the code. But why do that unless you have to? I would tend to want to own the code personally. More flexibility.
I did it mainly to limit liability, among other reasons. However a little while after forming, I spoke to a lawyer and he said that it basically doesn't limit you from being sued personally. You "can" attempt to deflect personal lawsuits with the LCC (easiest if you keep its finances/files/bank-account separated from your personal stuff, which I did), but it's no guarantee.
He basically advised me that forming the LLC was a waist of money in my situation, and I would have been better off simply as a sole-proprietor (e.g. DBA - doing-business-as). From the IRS's perspective, I was treated as a sole-proprietor for tax purposes (they don't recognize LLC's for single individuals). Of course by then, it was too late to easily dissolve the LLC and "switch" it to a DBA, so it was money wasted.
What annoyed me the most is the same problem Hamza had in the article. You have to pay money to dissolve a business! Really? REALLY?!? Obviously the business failed, or is being abandoned, because it didn't make enough money. Charging a "death tax" on a business seems pretty harsh. I understand if there's a filing fee of $20 or $30, but anything higher than that is ridiculous. Delaware wanting $1,600 from Hamza is downright insane. Perhaps there's more work involved dissolving a C-Corp than an LLC, but still, $1,600 is ridiculous.
Charging a business death-tax reduces seed capital needed to form a new business. Second, it reflects badly on the state, reducing the likelihood of incorporating in it again. Lastly, why not ignore paying the fee altogether, declare bankruptcy, and waste the time/money of the court system dealing with it all? I'm not sure about the legal implementations of that, but it might be a valid option if the C-Corp has no assets left. AFAIK you cannot ask shareholders to pay for it since they're legally shielded from the debts of a C-Corp.