Entities of entrepreneurial activity are persons who conduct business on a professional and ongoing basis. These may be persons with or without a legal entity. All these legal entities have certain property rights, are vested with rights and obligations at the level of legislation, and must be registered in the manner prescribed by regulatory enactments.
Signs
All business entities must meet certain criteria:
- possess (dispose) of property and bear full responsibility for it;
- have the appropriate competence;
- have property and non-property rights;
- manage the process of activity in person or through authorized persons;
- register their activities as required by applicable law.
In addition, a citizen carrying out entrepreneurial activities must meet certain requirements:
- have full legal and legal capacity;
- have a permanent place of residence.
For individual entrepreneurs, there is another requirement - for debts formed in the course of conducting business activities, they are responsible for their own property. In the absence of property, a compulsory bankruptcy procedure is carried out.
The main types of classifications
The legal status of business entities implies doing business as an individual entrepreneur or legal entity.
Individual entrepreneurs are the simplest form of business in which a citizen conducts business without creating a legal entity, but with full responsibility of his own property for possible negative consequences.
Legal entities, respectively, are required to create a legal entity, and have a broad classification. First of all, they can be commercial and non-commercial. The last form of doing business does not involve making a profit, although this is not prohibited by law, provided that it is provided for in the charter documents and does not contradict the main purpose of creating an enterprise. The following classification involves the gradation of business entities in legal form. This is actually a business structure established at the level of legislation with a definition of the obligations and rights of the founders, with established rules for the formation of an enterprise, property, and operating procedure. At the level of legislation, various organizational and legal forms are clearly spelled out, namely in the Civil Code, however, a number of requirements are provided for by separate regulatory acts.
There is another classification that allows you to distinguish the types of business entities according to three criteria:
- Companies that do not have their own property, but dispose of it on the basis of operational or economic management. A striking example is unitary enterprises.
- Formations with mandatory rights, that is, the founders have the right not only to profit from economic activities, but also to part of the property in the event of liquidation. For example, consumer cooperatives.
- Non-profit companies whose founders do not have property rights.
Business without a legal entity
Individual entrepreneurs - individuals, also heads of farms after undergoing official registration fall into this category.
The basic rights and obligations of such formations include:
- obligation to answer for debt obligations with own property;
- have the right to create a legal entity;
- IP provides for bankruptcy litigation.
Otherwise, the norms provided for legal entities apply to such persons.
The legislation provides for another form of enterprises without the formation of a legal entity - a simple partnership or association of entrepreneurs (two or more). Such persons combine their material resources on the basis of an agreement to achieve maximum profit, without forming a legal entity. All participants in this case are jointly and severally liable.
Business Companies
There are several types of business entities in this category: JSC, LLC, ODO. All of them have several similar features:
- availability of a charter;
- issue of shares through open or closed subscription;
- public reports on their financial activities;
- the presence of controls of two or three levels.
Nonprofit Organizations
The main distinguishing feature of doing business in this case is the lack of a goal in the form of profit.
According to the legal form, enterprises can be created in the form of:
- Funds. This form does not imply membership. Created with the goal of achieving social, educational or cultural, other goals. The founders are not liable for the debts of the fund.
- Consumer cooperatives. They are created on a voluntary basis by combining property contributions.
- Religious or community organizations. They are also voluntary formations, but are created on the basis of a community of interests.
- Unions or associations between legal entities. They are created to coordinate efforts to achieve common goals, often professional ones.
Entrepreneurs are independent and legally independent, have property under their jurisdiction. The material basis of such units is formed by membership voluntary contributions, which can be made on a regular or irregular basis. At the same time, consumer cooperatives can distribute and make a profit, their activity is regulated not only by the rules of the Civil Code, but by individual federal acts.
Municipal and state unitary enterprises
A distinctive feature of these types of business entities is the absence of property rights, while enterprises have property, but on the basis of operational or economic management. In light of this, it is indivisible, cannot be allocated to shares or deposits and is wholly owned by the state or is in municipal ownership.
Such enterprises are formed to solve state problems, when property is not subject to privatization, or to implement social tasks and ensure subsidized activities.
Production cooperatives
This type of business entity is also called an artel and is created on a voluntary basis, through the unification of citizens, their economic, industrial activity, share contributions and other things. Artels may include even legal entities.
The main objective of the production cooperative is the processing, production, marketing of mainly agricultural products, consumer services and other services. In this case, a legal entity that is part of the composition may perform certain services or work.
All members of the cooperative bear subsidiary liability, the amount of which is established at the level of legislation. The name “artel” or “production cooperative” must be present in the name of such an enterprise. In such societies there is no charter capital, and all common property is divided into units.
Conclusion
A complete list of possible types of economic activity can be found in the All-Russian Classifier (OKVED-2). But in general, it is possible to conditionally divide all types of activities into 4 categories: production, financial, commercial and advisory.