What are shares and how many shares can I issue?

Corporate ownership is determined by shares issued to individual “share-holders” where each share represents a “unit” of ownership in that entity. The value of each “unit”, or share, is determined by several factors, including capitalization, company valuation, and the number of authorized shares issued. A typical start-up corporation may issue 10,000 or 100,000 shares while a start-up S-Corporation might only issue 1000 shares.

C-Corporation Shares:
C-Corporations have an advantage when it comes to raising capital because they can have foreign investors, and raise funds through the sale of stock.

C-Corporations can be a good choice for medium and large businesses, high-risk businesses, businesses that need to raise capital, and businesses that plan to “go public” with and IPO.

C-Corporations can issue preferred shares as well as common stock.

S-Corporation Shares:
An S-Corporation can’t have more than 100 shareholders, and all shareholders must be U.S. legal resident

An S-Corporation can only issue one class of common stock where all shares have equal value & voting power.