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Steps to Forming a Rhode Island Corporation

Information We Need From You to Start Your Corporation

1: Select a Name: Your company name must include one of the following: Company, Incorporated, or Limited (or an abbreviation of one of those words).

2: Authorize Shares: Corporations are owned by their shareholders, who own shares of stock in the company. Rhode Island requires you to identify how many initial shares you will authorize. Most of the time, it only makes sense to authorize a small number of shares, say 100. At your first shareholders meeting, you would then issue 51% of those shares to yourself, giving you control of the company. The remaining shares can be held for future business partners.

3: Choose Management: A corporation is managed by its Directors. Directors are responsible for setting major company policy, issuing additional stock, appointing corporate officers, and determining salaries and bonuses. Typically, you would appoint yourself the sole Director and take on the roles of the corporate officers (President, Secretary, Treasurer). 

4: Remaining Info Needed to File:

  • Registered Agent: a legal registered agent must have a physical street address within the state. This is known as a registered office, and it cannot be a PO box. All of our Speedy filings come with one free year of Rhode Island registered agent service by Northwest Registered Agent. This service keeps your private home and office addresses out of the public record and fulfills your registered agent, mailing and principal office requirements.

  • Par value: par value is not the actual value of your shares of stock, but rather the lowest price at which they can be sold. You can choose a par value, otherwise the value is set automatically at $0.01.

  • Effective date: if you want the official formation date of your corporation to be later than your filing date, you may specify a day (cannot be later than 90 days after filing).

Form Your Corporation Here Online

Steps to Forming a Rhode Island LLC

Information We Need From You to Start Your LLC

1: Select a Name: Your company name must contain Limited Liability Company or the abbreviation LLC (either upper or lower case, with or without punctuation). If you want to see if your company name is currently available, you can perform a Rhode Island business name search

2: Membership: An LLC is owned by its members. Unlike a corporation, LLC members are not given shares of stock. Instead, they receive an ownership percentage. The percentage of each member is generally in proportion to what they have invested in the company, though this is not always the case.

3: Choose Management: LLCs are usually managed by their members. Members set the company policy, make financial decisions, and engage in the daily business activities. In some cases, an LLC will choose to appoint a manager to run the company. Managers can be either members or outside parties.

4: Remaining Info Needed to File:

  • Resident Agent: a resident agent (also known as a registered agent) in Rhode Island must maintain a physical street address within the state, called a registered office. This cannot be a PO box. Our Speedy filings come with one free year of Rhode Island resident agent service. This free service keeps your private home and office addresses out of the public record and fulfills your resident agent, mailing and principal office requirements.

  • Federal income taxation designation: Rhode Island requires LLCs to identify how they want to be taxed by the federal government: as a partnership, as a corporation, or as a disregarded entity.

  • Principal office: the address of the business office where your company records and financial books are kept. 

  • Duration: if you want your LLC to be dissolved at a specific later date, you can indicate the date, otherwise its existence is considered perpetual.

  • Management: whether your LLC is managed by its members or by a manager.

  • Managers: if your company is managed by a manager (or managers) you must list their names and addresses.

  • Effective date: if you want the official formation date of your company to be later than your filing date, you can specify a later date (cannot be more than 90 days after filing).

Form Your LLC Here Online

Testimonials

I would like to thank Speedy Incorporate for the help and advice provided to me during the recent incorporation of my company. The whole process was very simple and completely trouble-free.” -Che B., Providence , Rhode Island

My business partner agrees that of all the websites that provide this service that we looked at we thought yours was the best of the bunch. We look forward to doing business with you again. ” -Leroy R., Providence , Rhode Island