Company Form
A Company (also called corporation) may be understood as an association of persons in which money is contributed by them, to carry on some business or undertaking. Persons who contribute the money are called the shareholders or the members of the company. A corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible and existing only in contemplation of law. Being the mere creature of law, it possesses only those properties which the charter of its creation confers upon it.
Definition of Company/Corporation
A Company (also called corporation) may be understood as an association of persons in which money is contributed by them, to carry on some business or undertaking. Persons who contribute the money are called the shareholders or the members of the company. A corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible and existing only in contemplation of law. Being the mere creature of law, it possesses only those properties which the charter of its creation confers upon it, either expressly or an incidental to its very existence. It is an association of many persons, who contribute money or money's worth to a common stock and employ it for a common purpose. The common stock so contributed is denoted in money and is the capital of the company. The persons who contribute it or to whom it belongs are members. The proportion of capital to which each member is entitled is his share.
Main Features
- Once incorporated, a company assumes the identity of an artificial person
- An incorporated company is a corporate body and by action of law it is treated as a legal person
- The company may sue or be sued by its members/shareholders
- The company can enter into contracts in its own name and likewise may sue and be sued in its own name
- The company is a separate legal entity distinct from its management and shareholders
- Company affairs are managed by a Board of Directors
- A company has perpetual existence and is not effected by the joining, leaving, death, insolvency or insanity of any of its shareholders
- The shares of a Joint Stock company (except private company) are freely transferable
- A private company through its articles may place certain restrictions on the transferability of its shares
- In case of a company limited by share, the liability of the members of the company is limited to the nominal value of
- shares held by them
- Capital for the company is contributed by a number of persons called shareholders
- Large number of shareholder give ability to company to raise large amount of capital
- Shareholder is not the agent of the company or its shareholders and hence he cannot bind company with his acts
- The scope of the business of a company is limited and restricted to what is mentioned in the 'object clause' of its Memorandum of Association. The company cannot take up any new business without changing the object clause.
To summarize shareholders are the real owners of the company, Their liability is limited. They can also transfer their shares to others. Since the shareholders are very large in number, the company cannot be managed by all. They elect a board of directors to manage the company. The destiny of the company is guided and directed by the directors. These directors employ some people to carry on the day-to-day business of the company.
Different types of companies
Statutory Company: A company established by a special Act of the Parliament or State Legislature is called 'Statutory Company'. Such companies are established in special cases when it is necessary to regulate the working of the company for some specific purposes. Examples of such corporations are Central Banks etc.
Chartered Company: A company which is incorporated under a special Royal Charter granted by the Monarch is called a 'Chartered Company'. It is regulated by the provisions of that charter. Examples are: British East India Company, Bank of England, Hudson's Bay Company, etc.
Unlimited Company: A company in which the liability of the members is unlimited, is called 'Unlimited Company'. At the time of winding up of the company shareholders have to pay, if necessary, from their personal assets to clear the company's debts. Such companies are very rare.
Companies Limited by Guarantee: In the case of some companies, members give guarantee for the debts of the company up to a certain limit in addition to the amount of shares held by them. The additional amount guaranteed by the members is, generally, laid down in the Memorandum of Association. Such companies are not formed for the purpose of profit. They are formed to promote art, culture, religion. trade, sports, etc. Clubs, Charitable organizations, trade association, etc. come under this category.
Companies Limited by Shares: In this case the liability of the members is limited to the amount of the shares held by them. A shareholder can be called upon to pay only the unpaid amount of shares held by him and nothing more. Most of the companies come under this category.
Private Limited Company: A private limited company means a company which by its article restricts the right to transfer its shares; limits the number of its members; and prohibits any invitation to the public to subscribe for any shares or debentures of the company.
Public Limited Company: A public limited company is one which is not a private limited company. The right of the shareholder to transfer his shares is not restricted and it can invite public to subscribe for its shares and debentures.
Government Company: A company in which not less than 5 1 per cent of the paid up share capital is held by the Central Government, or by any State Government or jointly by Central and/or State Governments.
National Company: When the operations of a company are confined within the boundaries of the country in which it is registered, such a company is called a national company.
Multinational Company: When the operations of a company are extended beyond the boundaries of the country in which it is registered, such a company is called a multinational company. It is also called 'transnational company'.
Foreign Company: Foreign Company refers to a company that operates in the foreign country outside the country of its registration.
Holding and Subsidiary Company: A subsidiary is a company that is completely or partly owned by another company known as holding company.
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
Shared Services is the centralization of service offering at one part of an organization or group sharing funding and resourcing. The providing department effectively becomes an internal service provider. The key is the idea of 'sharing' within an organization or group.
-
Trial Balance in General Ledger
One of the greatest benefits of using a double-entry accounting system is the capability to generate a trial balance. What do we mean by trial balance? As the name suggests a trial balance is a report that must have its debits equals to credits. Understand the importance of trial balance and why it is balanced. Learn how it is prepared and in which format.
-
Divisional Organizational Structures
The divisional structure or product structure consists of self-contained divisions. A division is a collection of functions which produce a product. It also utilizes a plan to compete and operate as a separate business or profit center. Divisional structure is based on external or internal parameters like product /customer segment/ geographical location etc.
-
An organizational design is the process by which a company defines and manages elements of structure so that an organization can control the activities necessary to achieve its goals. Good organizational structure and design helps improve communication, increase productivity, and inspire innovation. Organizational structure is the formal system of task and activity relationships to clearly define how people coordinate their actions and use resources to achieve organizational goals.
-
In every journal entry that is recorded, the debits and credits must be equal to ensure that the accounting equation is matched. In this article, we will focus on how to analyze and recorded transactional accounting information by applying the rule of credit and debit. We will also focus on some efficient methods of recording and analyzing transactions.
-
Driving Business Efficiency through Divisions and Departments
In case of a multi-divisional organizational structure, there is one parent company, or head-office. And that parent owns smaller departments, under the same brand name. Dividing the firm, into several self-contained, autonomous units, provides the optimal level of centralization, in a company.
-
Defining Organizational Hierarchies
A hierarchy is an ordered series of related objects. You can relate hierarchy with “pyramid” - where each step of the pyramid is subordinate to the one above it. One can use drill up or down to perform multi-dimensional analysis with a hierarchy. Multi-dimensional analysis uses dimension objects organized in a meaningful order and allows users to observe data from various viewpoints.
-
Multi Currency - Functional & Foriegn
Currency is the generally accepted form of money that is issued by a government and circulated within an economy. Accountants use different terms in the context of currency such as functional currency, accounting currency, foreign currency, and transactional currency. Are they the same or different and why we have so many terms? Read this article to learn currency concepts.
-
Network Organizational Structures
The newest, and most divergent, team structure is commonly known as a Network Structure (also called "lean" structure) has central, core functions that operate the strategic business. It outsources or subcontracts non-core functions. When an organization needs to control other organizations or agencies whose participation is essential to the success, a network structure is organized.
-
In most of the automated financial systems, you can define more than 12 accounting periods in a financial year. This article will explain the concept of the adjustment period and the benefits of having adjustment periods. Adjustment periods have their inherent challenges for the users of financial statements and there is a workaround for those who don’t want to use adjustment periods.
