If you have a business and you want to incorporate in Canada then you are required to know the steps for it. There are a lot of considerations to be made starting from where you would incorporate your business right up to receiving the certificate of incorporation. Although these steps vary a little from one province to another, the general outlay remains the same.
Decide whether it would be a federal or provincial incorporation
Both have their advantages and disadvantages. If you go for federal incorporation, the benefits you are going to reap are:
Your enterprise can make business in all provinces and territories given that your enterprise in registered in those provinces.
You will be able to use a identical name in all provinces even if there is some other business with that name in that province.
The disadvantages you will face are that the setup will be more costly and the annual paperwork that would be required to maintain is tedious and cumbersome.
In case you decide to go for provincial incorporation you can carry on business only in the province where you have done the incorporation. However you decide to incorporate mainly depends upon the scope that your business. A small start-up with no expansion plan in near future is best incorporated provincially.
Choose the right name for your company
It is very important to choose the right corporate name for your incorporation. This is way more difficult as compared to choosing a name for a partnership as the requirements are stricter. The three elements required for a corporate name are:
A separate portion identifying the particular corporation
A description briefing the activities of the corporation
Legal element signifying the company as a corporation.
In Canada you can choose your corporate name in either French, English or in a mixture of both languages. The procedure to get the name can be complicated as it is demanded by the registrar that your name cannot be identical to any other existing company name. Get the name searched through various facilities available in order to determine the suitability of the name.
Prepare the documents for incorporation
In order to incorporate your business, you would be required to provide some documents. These documents are:
The Memorandum which sets out the rules for the conduct of the company.
The Articles for Incorporation – the rules and regulations which will direct the conducts of the members of the company and its directors.
The Notice of Offices which states which will inform the location of the two required offices of your corporation the registered office and the records office.
In case you are going for Federal incorporation, you will have to prepare a Notice of Directors and also submit a report of federally-biased NUANS. Provincial incorporation will require some specific papers for each province which you need to check.
File the documents and apply for incorporation
There are websites forthe federal Corporations Directorateand many other provincial registries giving you the scope of incorporating your business online. You can also submit your form in the traditional way by mailing the required incorporation forms and fees to the suitable registrar. The website will also give you information about what to do further or you can directly contact the office of the registrar to get the information.
Thus, by following the above four steps you can get you company successfully incorporated in Canada.
