C Corporation

  

A type of business structure designed to separate the owners' legal and financial liability from that of the company. Unlike S Corporations where profits are taxed at the level of the shareholder, C Corps have their profit taxed at the corporate level...and again at the shareholder level after profits are distributed. Wait, why would a corporation want to be double-taxed? Well, it offers the most protection to stakeholders. If the corporation goes belly up, they're not on the hook. Most big corporations, like McDonald's, are C Corporations. It's the McCorporation Structure.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is a Corporation?89 Views

00:03

Finance a la shmoop what is a corporation? corp-o-ration.. [Mouth saying syllables of corporation]

00:11

see the Corp in there? well it's latin short for corpse or

00:16

body so a corporation may or may not be cold and covered with maggots [Man disguised as a corpse wakes up and screams]

00:21

corporations are just legal bodies they're generally set up so that

00:25

there's a clear legal distinction between things and individual does and

00:29

things that the company she works for does let's say you want to set up your [mime artists at the window of a shop]

00:34

own mime training studio brother can you spare a mime, but then you hit a wall

00:39

one of your mime trainees becomes badly injured while trying to get out of a [mime trainee gets injured while attempting to get out of a glass box]

00:43

glass box and you get sued you lose..wow you're totally speechless so your

00:50

corporation which was basically just you ten grand in the bank and a hat rack [Laptop showing $10.000 in the bank beside a hatrack]

00:55

full of berets well it loses everything you turn over your 10k to the sue-er

01:01

the one who sued you and you dust off your hands and move on try new venture [mime dusts off hands]

01:06

tapping into your prior experience as a mime therapist well legally the guy who

01:11

sued you while working for the corporation can't sue you personally

01:15

your $350,000 home is untouchable yeah who knew miming paid so well same deal [Mimes $350,000 home]

01:22

on that untouchable-ness of your Prius and the untouchable-ness of your

01:26

collection of invisible ropes, the legal body of the corporation threw itself on [Mime pretending to move along an invisible rope]

01:30

the landmine of your lawsuit and took the blow while you just walked away [Mime artist moon-walking off stage]

Up Next

Finance: What is an LLC?
4 Views

What is an LLC? LLC stands for Limited Liability Company. It is a hybrid type of company that combines the corporate protections of separating corp...

Finance: How Do You Become Incorporated?
48 Views

How do you become incorporated? Go to Legal Zoom. Pay $150, file with the state of Delaware or whoever each year. Pay another $150. Most file as LL...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)