Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: for-profit entity

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

The only reason to mess with this that I can think of  offhand is for tax
stuff. Talk  to a local accountant. There seems to be lots of cohousing
groups that do not set up a separate  accounting and run all the operations
you spoke of under the HOA accounts just fine. We do.  Our tax guy is fine
with it. All our billings are done in one set of books. But our state is
perhaps more loose about this than yours  is, so check a local tax  guy.

As far as I know, and that's definitely not very  far, only California and
NY have exceptional stringent rules regarding HOA management and even have
some sort of report required annually. Up here in the Evergreen state, the
state doesn't pay attention to HOA's  at all except to collect an annual $10
registration fee.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood

-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org
[mailto:cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org]On Behalf Of Willie Schreurs
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2000 10:21 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: for-profit entity


Howard

You could talk to someone just up the road, here at Greyrock Commons.  I
don't
know the full details, but I could give you a couple of names privately if
you're interested.

We've set up an entity called Uncommon, Inc. (which is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the HOA) to handle the cash flow for the meal program, the
LAN,
the office, and a few other things.  Strictly speaking, the HOA is not a
"non-profit" in the 501(c)3 sense, but some of the things we do (like meals)
don't fit well into a HOA budget and are best dealt with separately.  Hence,
Uncommon, Inc.
----------------------------

Howard Landman wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> We at River Rock are looking at setting up the "for-profit entity" that
> will comprise all the activities in which a non-profit is not allowed to
> engage.  So for example, our LAN service, our TV service, etc. will have
> to come under this.
>
> My question is, how have other communities dealt with this?  What legal
> steps did you have to go through and what form of organization did you
> choose and why?  We've considered various alternatives from just opening
> a separate bank account to getting a taxpayer ID to incorporating in one
> of several ways.  What are the good and bad points of each?
>
> It might be most effective if answers were sent to me in private email
> and I summarized to the list, but of course feel free to post if you
> feel it's of general interest.
>
>         Howard Landman


--

  /\                        Willie Schreurs                        /\
 //\\ <Willie [at] Greyrock.org>(H)  <schreurs [at] lamar.colostate.edu>(W) //\\
///\\\            Greyrock Commons, Fort Collins, CO             ///\\\