How to Find Incorporation Date of a Company in the Articles of Incorporation
It is important to know the date when your company officially started. It is the date when the State considered your company legally effective. Thus your obligations and taxes will accrue on this date.
Do you want to know how to find the incorporation date of a company? Do you want to know your company’s incorporation date? We’ve got you! This article lays down where to find and how to know a company’s date of incorporation. We will help you understand how company formation in India works.
Is It the Registration Date? How to Find the Incorporation Date of a Company
The date of incorporation is the date when the State granted your company the right to transact as a separate juridical entity. Simply stated, it is when your company becomes like a person in itself. This separation between the company and the owners protects the owners from being sued for the actions of the business.
You could say that your company started when you began hiring people or when you hosted a grand opening for your business. But legally speaking, your company starts on its date of incorporation. And this might confuse you because you can find a lot of significant dates on your documents. There’s the registration date and there’s the date of filing of corporate papers. Which one is it?
The registration date is different from the date of incorporation. Registration results in the company having a license to operate. In contrast, incorporation results in the company having a juridical personality that protects its owners.
Date of Incorporation in the Articles of Incorporation
The Articles of Incorporation is a set of documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The Articles of Incorporation contains the companies’ information like its name, address, purpose, officer’s names, and stock details.
Typically, the date of Incorporation is the date you filed your Articles of Incorporation. However, processing sometimes takes time, and it may be possible that the leading officer will receive your documents at a later date. Nevertheless, the filing date stamped in your Articles Incorporation is the effective date of your company’s incorporation.
Where to Find the Date of Incorporation
You can find the date of incorporation on the official stamp made by SEBI on your articles of incorporation. You can usually find it on the first page of the document. The date of incorporation is handwritten, followed by the signature of the SEBI officer handling your papers.
The Securities and Exchange Board also files your information on their database. If your company is a publicly-traded business, your corporation details are available to the public through the SEBI website. If you want to look into the incorporation date of another company, you can also look into their company website.
Why Is It Important to Know the Date of Incorporation?
Once the SEBI returns your copy of articles of incorporation, you can already start operating as a corporate entity.
Upon incorporation, you receive a right to use the corporate veil to mark the separation of the company and the owners. This means that the company receives a fictitious right to think and act on its own, outside of its owners. So when a corporation takes a loan from the bank, it is the company’s debt, and not of the owners. Also, when this debt becomes due and the company cannot pay, the bank cannot run after the owners.
You need to know when your company became legally binding. The date of incorporation is the date when the tax agency starts to tax your business. Further, you also need the date of incorporation to know which of your startup costs are deductible. Start-up costs are deductible only when the company is effectively legal in the eyes of the State.
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