When I was in the sixth grade, I belonged to a municipal baseball league where the teams were known by the names of the sponsoring businesses. One of my classmates, believed to be the dumbest kid in the entire sixth grade, once told me he was on the team sponsored by "Wiedenbeck Ink". He explained that the Wiedenbeck company "makes ink". In fact, Wiedenbeck Inc. has nothing to do with ink.
I recently established a Washington corporation, called "Useful Work, Inc. of Washington". One of the first steps after starting a new corporation is to obtain a tax ID number from the IRS. The confirmation letter I received yesterday from the IRS was addressed to "Useful Work Ink of Washington". Now I'm not saying that everybody who works at the IRS is as dumb as the dumbest guy in sixth grade, but at least one of them is.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 06, 2003 01:44 PM"Dumb" and "Illiterate" do not
necessarily mean the same thing.
Maybe the author is your friend from sixth grade.
Posted by: CCD on December 6, 2003 03:49 PMThey were probably thrown of by the position of the "Inc.," which typically appears at the end of a corporation's legal name, not in the middle. FYI, the Secretary of State lists your company's name as Useful Work, Inc., not "Useful Work Inc. of Washington."
Posted by: Xrlq on December 7, 2003 11:27 PM"thrown of" = "thrown off." Duh. Reminds me of some idiot graffiti I remember from Germany, where someone told everyone to "f--- of."
Posted by: Xrlq on December 7, 2003 11:28 PMDamn, you're thorough, Xrlq. You should be a lawyer or something...
The legal name of the corporation in WA state is Useful Work, Inc., as you point out. For reasons that are too obscure to go into,the IRS asked me to add the word "Washington" to the name for purposes of the IRS records.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on December 7, 2003 11:34 PMLet me guess - they probably figured their working stiffs were too dumb to tell Useful Work, Inc. and Useful Work, Inc. apart, even though the two companies have separate FEINs and are incorporated in different states?
Typically, where two or more companies have the same legal name, I refer to each as "ABC, Inc., a Washington corporation," rather than "ABC, Inc. of Washington." That helps to clarify the fact that Washington is merely the company's state of incorporation, and not part of its name.
If you really want to make these guys' heads explode, try forming a third corporation called Useful Work, Inc. of Washington, a California corporation.
Posted by: Xrlq on December 16, 2003 02:54 PM"If you really want to make these guys' heads explode, try forming a third corporation called Useful Work, Inc. of Washington, a California corporation."
Now that's a great idea! :)
Great Blog
Posted by: Guida Ai motori on May 15, 2004 02:45 AM