A sole proprietorship is a business owned by one person. This is the easiest type of business to start and is the least regulated form of organization. A sole proprietor performs most of the major duties and functions, such as general manager, sales manager, and financial manager. The owner not only retains revenue and title to all assets of the business, such as profits, but is also responsible for all losses, debts, and liabilities incurred. Although a sole proprietorship must comply with all required licenses and permits for its type of business to operate legally, there is no legal requirement to start the business. Since the owner is the sole owner of the business, generally no agreements or formalities are necessary. Termination of an individual estate can be made by choice of the owner and is limited to the lifespan of the owner considering once that person dies, as well as individual estate. A partnership is very similar to a sole proprietorship except that there are two or more owners. It is defined as a voluntary association of two or more persons who carry on as co-owners a legal business for profit. The people involved in the partnership are called partners and are considered agents rather than employees of the partnership. How the partnership's profits and losses are split is described in the partnership agreement. This agreement may be an informal oral agreement or a long formal written document. There are a few types of partnerships. A general partnership created to carry on a particular type of business; a special partnership created for a single transaction; a business partnership created for buying and selling purposes; and a public company not among...... middle of paper ...... which is a private company formed to provide an important service on which the public depends (for example: Con Ed); a national corporation organized under the laws of a particular state and doing business in that state; a foreign corporation that is a corporation organized under the laws of one state and does business in another state; a professional body organized to practice a profession; and a non-profit corporation established for charitable purposes and subject to frequent government inspection. Furthermore, there is a closed corporation in which all shares are held by one shareholder or a small number of shareholders and as a corporation which, if all shareholders consent, can be treated as partners, retain the limited personal liability provided by a corporation and avoid double taxation.