Who knows Legal & Ethical Environment of Bus

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Writing Assignment BUSA 2106 Dr. Leanne M. DeFoor

Overview of the Assignment: This assignment is intended to be a fun (yes, fun) and practical application of the material you are learning in BUSA 2106 this semester. In this assignment, you can choose to work alone or in groups of up to 3 students to complete the documents required to form a new company (a small business, NOT a publicly traded company.) The type of company you wish to form is completely up to you- so feel free to be creative! The type of business entity you choose for your new company is also up to you (I will grade you on the appropriateness of your choice of entity, but for most business, there will be more than one choice that is equally appropriate). Examples of the types of entities you may choose from include sole proprietorship, partnership, LP, LLP, LLLP, LLC, Corporation (for profit), Subchapter S Corporation, non-profit corporation, and professional corporation. If you choose to work in groups, you must assume that all group members will be co-owners in the new company (although the ownership interest of each owner does not have to be equal).

What you will turn in: This assignment requires you to prepare and submit multiple documents. First, you will turn in a cover letter addressed to me at my UWG address briefly describing your new company (what kind of business it is, what it will do, how big you think it will be, etc.). You will also turn in ALL documents required to form your company under Georgia law, from the initial filing and legal notice, up through the documents related to the first organizational meeting. You do not have to turn in actual checks for the various fees associated with some of the documents, but you should turn in a document noting a check in the amount of $__ (enter the correct amount) made out to the appropriate party. In addition, if you are forming a Subchapter S Corporation or a non-profit corporation, you will need to provide any IRS documents required to obtain the desired tax treatment. If you are working as a group, you will be required to submit a group member evaluation for each member in your group (excluding yourself). The form to use for group member evaluations is attached below.

How you will be graded: You will be graded on the appropriateness of the choice of entity, whether you identified all documents required to form the company (and, if applicable, all documents necessary to obtain the correct tax status), and whether the documents include all of the provisions required to achieve valid formation under Georgia law. Points will be deducted for any deficiencies or errors in the documents or failure to include “checks” in the correct amount/payee. If you choose to work as part of a group, you will also be required to individually complete and submit a Group Member Evaluation form for the members of your group. Students failing to contribute equally to the assignment will have up to 10 points deducted from their grade. Students are required to honestly evaluate the other group members when completing the Group Member Evaluation form. EVERY student working as part of a group must upload the group member evaluation (completed for each member of the group); however, ONE group member should be responsible for uploading the individual documents required for the assignment. For those working individually, you will only have to upload your documents for the assignment (since you will not have a group member evaluation).

If you have questions: Be proactive and ask me before the deadline is imminent. I am happy to look over your documents or answer questions before the deadline, to the extent my schedule allows (however, if 150 students send me their documents 2-3 days before the assignment is due, I will not have time to review them). In other words, the farther in advance you get them to me, the better your chances of getting a thorough review and feedback. If you wait until the last minute, it is unlikely I will have time to go over them.

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Available resources and prohibited resources: I encourage you to refer to and use the wealth of helpful information provided on the Georgia Secretary of State Corporations Division website (www.sos.ga.gov/corporations) and the Internal Revenue Service website (www.irs.gov). You may refer to Title 14 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (available at http://www.lexis- nexis.com/hottopics/gacode/default.asp), your textbook, and the Powerpoints and other materials I give you. You may NOT refer to or utilize any other outside resource, including sample documents (except those posted on the GA Secretary of State’s website, as noted above), websites (other than the three listed above), books, library resources, attorneys, friends, family, or any other sources of information. You may not access outside websites linked to the Secretary of State’s website, but you can use anything internal on that website. UWG faculty have access to software that compares a student’s document to other documents available through the web and other copyrighted material, which will detect plagiarized material. I reserve the right to utilize that software and any other available resource or method for detecting plagiarized material. Any student caught utilizing any outside resource, other than those expressly permitted by the professor, will be in violation of the UWG Honor Code. This will result in a grade of “F” in BUSA 2106, in addition to additional disciplinary action, up to and including disenrollment from UWG. Each student working as a member of a group is responsible for ensuring other group members are not cheating. If a group turns in plagiarized documents or utilizes prohibited resources, ALL members of the group will be subject to discipline. If anyone has questions as to what does or does not constitute plagiarizing or cheating, please ask me before completing the assignment.