From the Blog

It’s not surprising that bankruptcy filings increase in a down economy, but probably few people expected the rate of filings to triple in just a four-year period. Our recent in-depth analysis of Northern District of California bankruptcy filings over...

New employment laws that went into effect on January 1 will impact California startups and small businesses. One of the new laws that businesses won’t want to ignore is SB 459, which imposes heavy penalties of between $5,000 and...

On January 1, 2012, California introduced two new corporate forms: the “flexible purpose” corporation and the “benefit” corporation.  Both forms are designed to encompass businesses that operate for profit but also have social objectives. California is the first state...

With the end of the year quickly approaching, it’s a good time to tie up loose ends.  If you have a corporation, partnership or LLC that you are no longer interested in maintaining, you may want to consider winding...

Kalia Law P.C. has been getting a lot of questions about franchises recently, so we figured a summary might be useful.  A franchise is a business arrangement where the owner, or franchisor, sells the some of the business rights – often including the...

Whether you are currently employing people, or are considering hiring people in the future, it’s crucial to stay one step ahead of employment laws. (To read more about hiring an employee, please visit this post.) Employment law issues are one of...

The American Jobs Act, which is currently being considered by Congress, proposes several important tax changes that would affect startups and small businesses.  Some of the most notable aspects of the Act for small businesses are: 1) a proposal to cut the payroll tax in half...

http://www.women2.org/five-equity-tips-for-a-successful-startup/

When it comes to splitting the company, equal is not always equitable. Do you and your co-founder have a 50-50 (or 33-33-33) equity split?  If so, it’s probably for two reasons: one, it’s simpler, and two, you may believe,...

Everyone who works at a startup wants their stock options, and they want the good kind – incentive stock options (ISOs).  Why?  ISOs offer two distinct tax advantages over their less popular sibling, nonstatutory stock options (NSOs).  First, the...