What are those letters behind a company's name?

Such as:

LLC
LTD

can anyone give me a list?

LLC = Limited Liability Company. It's a business entity that offers certain advantages over sole proprietorships but less cumbersome than a corporation. LTD (Limited) is another designation some states in the US give it.

Take a peek at http://www.lycos.com/business/cch/guidebook.html?lpv=1&docNumber=P01_4710 for more info.

thanks for you help

LTD refers to a corporation (i.e. an Inc.) By US law a corp must say Inc. or LTD in it's name to indicate it's a corporation.

An LLC is a realtively new form of business. It's basically a partnership with the liability protection of a corp. I don't want to go into a full business course on the in's and out's of partnerships and corps. Suffice to say you need to select the type that is best for your business goals.

Keep in mind that the liability protection of a corp or LLC may not help you in the hosting or web design business. That may be considered "professional liability" for which you need seperate insurance.

(Disclaimer: not a lawyer, not a legal opinion)

You can also check out http://mycorporation.com/ for more info.

In the UK LTD refers to private limited company (one where its shares are not sold on the stock exchange). LTD are very easy to setup in the UK, basically one person and a secretary is required. They can maintain all shares if they wish or if they have a few or a few dozen employee given them shares. LTD also protect the owner (or shareholders) for liability.

PLC are public limited companies, where its shares are exchanged on the stock market, £50k capital is required in the business for it to float on the stock market. Most companies are LTD first then go to PLC to raise additional capital.

Synergy:

IMHO, if you are reselling webhosting and/or dedicated servers, you need legal protection. LLC is the best business form for 1-person companies because Inc is overkill.

There are good clients out there, but there are always some bad clients around, "sharks" trying to start lawsuits against your small business to get money, your domain, and more... sometimes just for fun, really (I have read some *real* horror stories...)

If you have good TOS on your site, a legal LLC, and a good business agent working with a local attorney, you are 99.99% protected.

I'm not a lawyer but I don't think you can LLC or Inc. a 1-person company. An LLC is basically a partnership and you can't had a partnership with yourself (multiple personalities not withstanding). With an Inc. you need to designate officers. One person can't be both pres, VP, directors etc.

You really need to check with a lawyer expert in the field.

I'm not a lawyer either, but at least in Minnesota you can incorporate yourself or create an LLC as a sole proprietor. I have a friend who incorporated himself as a consultant and I'm about to form an LLC. Minnesota also has LLP's for partnerships. As with most laws, each state is a little different with its corporate laws.

AP

Originally posted by Jaiem
I'm not a lawyer but I don't think you can LLC or Inc. a 1-person company. An LLC is basically a partnership and you can't had a partnership with yourself (multiple personalities not withstanding). With an Inc. you need to designate officers. One person can't be both pres, VP, directors etc.

In many states the above quote is incorrect. One person can form a corporation (and hold all three of the required positions). One person can also form an LLC. As was said, check your state for specific requirements (though you don't have to file in your state).

Originally posted by Chicken
Originally posted by Jaiem
I'm not a lawyer but I don't think you can LLC or Inc. a 1-person company. An LLC is basically a partnership and you can't had a partnership with yourself (multiple personalities not withstanding). With an Inc. you need to designate officers. One person can't be both pres, VP, directors etc.

In many states the above quote is incorrect. One person can form a corporation (and hold all three of the required positions). One person can also form an LLC. As was said, check your state for specific requirements (though you don't have to file in your state).

This is 100% accurate. Been There Done That, have the Certificate to boot.

Gasp, the lawyer enters the room.

LLCs, INCs, and LLPs, are all creatures of state law not federal law so there will be variations from state to state, but they all follow the same pattern. The main issue with the one person LLC is taxation. Normally with an LLC you can elect to be taxed as a partnership (income passes through the LLC) or a corporation where you have the old double taxation issues. The easiest way around this issue is to include a token member in your LLC so you’re not a one person LLC. A lot of the legislative types see a one person LLC as a problem because some people with bad credit have been organizing business and getting fresh EINs to use instead of their Social Security numbers. So they keep a close eye on one person LLCs.

So, you're saying that if I get a LLC, I should say, make my wife an officer in it to avoid these issues?

Also check out the law publishers site www.nolo.com they print very affordable and comprehensive books for the regular folks on all topics that are law related. They have many for the entrepeneur starting up. Type in "LLC" in the search field on the site for internal links on the subject.