Major Project Instructions BUSA 2106 Legal & Ethical Environment of Business Dr. Leanne M. DeFoor Overview of the Assignment: This assignment is intended to be a fun (yes, fun) and practical application of the material you are learning in BUSA 2106 this semester. In this assignment, you can choose to work alone or in groups of up to 3 students to complete the documents required to form a new small business entity. The type of company you wish to form is completely up to you- so feel free to be creative! The type of business entity you choose for your new company is also up to you. I will grade you on the appropriateness of your choice of entity, but for most businesses, there will be more than one choice that is equally appropriate. Examples of the types of entities you may choose from include sole proprietorship, partnership, LP, LLP, LLLP, LLC, Corporation (for profit), Subchapter S Corporation, non-profit corporation, and professional corporation. While each of these are possible business forms for the assignment, not all of them are good choices. Research the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of business entities and choose one that is a good choice. If you choose to work in groups, you must assume that all group members will be co-owners in the new company (although the ownership interest of each owner does not have to be equal). What you will turn in: This assignment requires you to research what documents are required to form your chosen business entity and to correctly prepare those documents to submit as a single file attachment in the course dropbox. First, you will prepare a cover letter addressed to me at my UWG address briefly describing your new company (what kind of business it is, what it will do, how big you think it will be, etc.). I have provided you a sample cover letter that you are welcome to modify to use for the assignment. You will then prepare and submit all documents required to form your chosen business entity under Georgia law, from the initial filing and legal notice, up through the documents related to the first organizational meeting. You do not have to turn in actual checks for the various fees associated with some of the documents, but you should turn in a document noting a check in the amount of $__ (enter the correct amount) made out to the appropriate party. In addition, if you are forming a Subchapter S Corporation or a non-profit  corporation, you will need to provide any IRS documents required to obtain the desired tax treatment. NOTE: you do not actually have to pay any money to do the assignment, nor will you actually be filing your documents for the assignment, so please do NOT do any online filings. Use PDF forms for all agency provided documents. Finally, if you are working as a group, you will be required to submit a group member evaluation form evaluating each member in your group (excluding yourself). The form to use for group member evaluations is provided. How you will be graded: You will be graded on the appropriateness of the choice of entity (20 points), whether you identified all documents required to form the company and, if applicable, all documents necessary to obtain the correct tax status (35 points), whether the documents are correctly prepared and include all of the provisions required to achieve valid formation under Georgia law (35 points), and mechanics/typos/following instructions/neatness/etc. (10 points). Points will be deducted for any missing documents, any extra documents that are not appropriate for the entity being formed, deficiencies or errors in the documents, or failure to indicate checks in the correct amount/payee. If you choose to work as part of a group, you will also be required to individually complete and submit a Group Member Evaluation form for the members of your group. Students failing to contribute equally to the assignment will have points deducted from their grade. Students are required to honestly evaluate the other group members when completing the Group Member Evaluation form. EVERY student working as part of a group must upload the group member evaluation separately (completed for each member of the group); however, ONE group member should be responsible for uploading the individual documents required for the assignment. For those working individually, you will only have to upload your documents for the assignment (since you will not have a group member evaluation). If you have questions: Be proactive and ask me before the deadline is imminent. I am happy to look over your documents or answer questions before the deadline, to the extent my schedule allows (however, if 150 students send me their documents 2-3 days before the assignment is due, I will not have time to review them). In other words, the farther in advance you get them to me, the better your chances of getting a thorough review and feedback. If you wait until the last minute, it is unlikely I will have time to go over them.  Available resources and prohibited resources: I encourage you to refer to and use the wealth of helpful information provided on the Georgia Secretary of States Corporations Division website (www.sos.ga.gov/corporations) and the Internal Revenue Service website (www.irs.gov). You may refer to Title 14 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (available at http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/default.asp), your textbook, the Overview of Business Entities video lecture, and the Powerpoints and other materials I give you. You may NOT refer to or utilize any other outside resource, including sample documents (except those posted on the GA Secretary of States website, as noted above), websites (other than the three listed above), books, library resources, attorneys, friends, family, or any other sources of information. You may not access outside websites linked to the Secretary of States website, but you can use anything internal on Secretary of States website. UWG faculty have access to software that compares a students document to other documents available through the web and other copyrighted material, which will detect plagiarized material. I reserve the right to utilize that software and any other available resource or method for detecting plagiarized material, including metadata on your documents. Any student caught utilizing any outside resource, other than those expressly permitted by the professor, will be in violation of the UWG Honor Code. This will result in a grade of F in BUSA 2106, in addition to additional disciplinary action, up to and including disenrollment from UWG. Each student working as a member of a group is responsible for ensuring other group members are not cheating. If a group turns in plagiarized documents or utilizes prohibited resources, ALL members of the group will be subject to discipline. If anyone has questions as to what does or does not constitute plagiarizing or cheating, please ask me before completing the assignment.