How are sole proprietorship's, corporations, and partnerships owned?

Question

This question is in terms of whether they are publicly or privately owned. Please give some explanation if possible.Thnx!

Answer 1

Public companies are listed on the stockexchanges. i.e public can buy or sell their shares.  A sole proprietorship is a person's business and is unregistered. i.e. if you sell cakes you make you are a sole proprietor of your business.  A corporation (close corporation) is similar to a private company but instead of directors, shareholders it has members and member's interests.  A partnership is formed when two or more people pool their resources to make a profit.

Answer 2

Sole Proprietorship.

If I open a small business for a service or to sell merchandise, I can run the business alone, or hire workers.

I might call my business, Ed's Hamburgers, Ed's Bookeeping Service, etc.

When this is done, my business will be known as Ed Doe, (My name),  DBA "The Business Name".

DBA = "Doing Business As".

In this case, I am responsible for all debts and liabilities of the business and pay personal income tax on all the profits.

I can  also form a Partnership with one other person or more, and each one may invest money to start the business.  I could put in 51% of the cash, another could put in 49%.

In this case, I have controlling interest, as I invested 51%, more than half.

The debts and liabilities are the responsibility of the partners.

Each one would share in the profits according to the percentage of their investment.

When I form a Corporation, I can still run it alone or with partners.  (This is a Closely Held Corp)

The difference is that the Corporation is like "Another Entity".  It is responsible for it's own debts and liabilities, and any Corporate taxes.  

The corporation issues stock to me, and/or any other partners according to their investment.

In this case, there is a President, Vice President, and Secretary.

All the officers draw a salary from the business and pay personal income tax on their own income.

Any profits remaining in the corporation is taxed separately, but, at a lower percentage than personal taxes.

The corporation can pay all the expenses of operation, health care for the officers, furnish automobiles, pay for business related travel and any other business expenses.

When the corporation grows to a large size, it can issue "Public Stock" and become a publicly owned corporation.  Stock can then be sold on the market, "Wall Street".

The officers no longer own the corporation, they just operate it and are obligated to make a profit so that dividends can be paid to stockholders.

This kind of corporation must follow all the laws pertaining to a public corporation.

Answer 3

Corporations are publicly owned, the others are private.  If you would just look up in any dictionary "proprietorship" and "Partnership" you will have your answer... because those are standard terms and they are in the  DICTIONARY.