Starting new consulting company, need help

I am finally going to start charging people for my know-how. FOr year s I have been building websites, takign calls, fixing computers and networks all for free... well not anymore!

I would liek to kow what kind of company to start and where... I hear Delaware doesn't have tax among other perks. I wouldn't need a brick and mortar building, just me and I'd occasionally contract work to other pros.

I may be gettign a fairly large contract soon to do a website and I'd like to have somehting on paper.

Any suggestions?

It sounds like you need to do a lot of research ... there is no substitute for professional legal advice here. You need it! And a spellchecker for those documents, too ;-)

Let me try to debrief quickly

Are you planning to move to delaware? Because if you are starting your own business and you don't have employees then you're self employed. Your place of business then is where you live. Your SSN is your Tax ID. People will ask for it, you have to give it to them, because anything over $600 they pay you they have to report on a 1099. It's income. It doesn't matter where you live you must pay income tax. Delaware has some laws that benefit the banking industry, thus you find a lot of your credit card/mortgage/car/etc payments end up going to Delaware. They also are lenient on sales tax. But you aren't in Sales. You're in Service.

You need to declare yourself as a business and file some paper work, usually at your local city hall. People there can usually help you.

You'll need an accountant to do your taxes. You don't want to do them yourself. That would be a good person to call right now, in fact.

wow, great advice... I asked my accountant already and he said a company in VA would be fine, but Iwanted some advice from someone 'in-the-know" so I guess that settles it.

Any recommendations on what type of company (LLC?, PC?)and how to go about it? I guess it'd be cheapest to do it myself by going to city hall - I've already let my lawyer start another company and it cost me $600.

Dang well if you have an attorney and an accountant why don't you just ask them? That's what I was saying :-)

because it costs per email to talk to them.

Yes.. it costs you a lot when you ask them questions, but they know the ins and outs of the law. Would you rather spend no money and get answers from us?.. keep in mind that if we miss something when telling you that it could cost you a LOT more in legal and court fees if the other party takes you to court because of something that was left out.

We can give you the basics, but if you want to start a business.. do it right... talk to a lawyer. It could possibly save you a lot in the long run.

Just an FYI though... if you're just wanting a small home based consulting company, just go with an LLC. A lot of states have the option to apply for the company online. Just do a search for the state you're wanting to do business in and LLC... for example just do a google search for
Florida LLC
if you were wanting to do business in Florida. Usually there's a state specific site for business.

exactly what I wanted to know - you see, I've already saved $1000.