Your End of Year Legal Checklist

We're entering the home stretch of 2012. The next two months are hectic for everyone, but particularly for small business owners. While it's easy to become overwhelmed with end of the year sales (not to mention holiday planning and parties), business owners should take some time to make sure their business is “legally fit” for 2013.

After all, what better gift could you give your business than a fresh start for the New Year?

Here's a checklist of legal aspects for small businesses to consider before the calendar hits 2013:

1. Incorporate or Change Your Business Structure

Many small businesses start out as sole proprietorships or partnerships, but then eventually transition to another entity. For example, if your business is not incorporated, you may want to consider incorporating (either as a C Corp, S Corp, or LLC) to shelter you from some financial risk and possibly give you more flexibility when it comes to taxes. Discuss the different legal entities with your CPA, so you can determine the right entity for your situation and the right time to make the change.

You can look into a “delayed filing” option with a document-filing company. This means that you can get all of your paperwork submitted now and it will be held and filed on the first business day of 2013, allowing you to start fresh next year. This will simplify your paperwork and tax filings, as your business will have the same business structure for the whole year.

2. Close an Inactive Business

Did you start a business a few years ago, but it's no longer operating? Even if you're not actively promoting the business and it has no revenue, you still need to file a formal termination of that LLC or Corporation. Otherwise, you will be charged fees associated with the business, you'll still be expected to file an annual report, and you'll still need to submit tax returns to the IRS and state.

If you have an inactive business, you should file an “Articles of Dissolution” or “Certificate of Termination” document with the Secretary of State where your Inc. or LLC was formed. In most cases, you'll need to settle any owed taxes before you can do this. You should also cancel any kind of permit or licenses you hold with the state or county.

Again, make sure to take care of these matters while it's still 2012. There's simply no reason to pay an extra cent in fees toward a business you've essentially retired â€" there's a lot more you can do with that money!

3. Hold An Annual Meeting For Your Corporation or LLC

If you've gone through the work to incorporate your business, make sure you keep it in good standing. Keeping good corporate books is a frequently overlooked corporate activity. The end of the year is a good time to hold your annual meeting for your Corporation or LLC. Along with the meeting, you'll need to generate written minutes/resolutions to be signed by the shareholders (Corporation) or members (LLC).

4.  File “Articles of Amendment” for Any Changes

If you made any changes to your Corporation or LLC ? for example, you changed your business address, authorized more shares, or a board member left ? you'll need to file an official notification with your state of incorporation. In most states, this paperwork is known as “Articles of Amendment.” While this type of paperwork may seem pretty trivial, it's critical to keeping your LLC or Corporation in good standing (and thus protecting your personal assets).

5. Review Your Estimated Tax Payments For 2012

Now that we're nearing the end point for 2012, review what your business has made year to date and assess your estimated tax payments to avoid underpayments or overpayments. You'll want to adjust your final 2012 payment (due Jan 15th) as needed.

6. Tie Up Any Loose Ends

The next two months are a perfect opportunity to tie up any loose ends you've been putting off throughout the year. For example, does your business need a Fictitious Business Name (or DBA)? Did you get a Tax ID number (Employer ID Number)? Are all your necessary licenses and permits in order?

The next few months will be busy, but set aside some time to take care of your business' legal and administrative activities. By addressing certain issues in 2012, you might be able to save money in fees, taxes, and penalties moving forward.

And in other cases, you'll be preparing your business for a fresh start in 2013!

Business Fitness Photo via Shutterstock

Cyber Security Strategy to introduce cyber territorial army drawing on industry talent and skills

The Ministry of Defence is to introduce a ‘Cyber Reserve' force to draw on the wider talent and skills of the nation in the cyber field.

According to Francis Maude, minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, who delivered a statement yesterday with an update a year on from the launch of the Cyber Security Strategy, it was "constantly examining new ways to harness and attract the talents of the cyber security specialists that are needed for critical areas of work".

As well as praising the work of the Cyber Security Challenge, the Get Safe Online campaign and universities in raising cyber security awareness, Maude said that the Ministry of Defence is taking forward the development of the ‘Cyber Reserve' force, although the exact composition is currently in development and a detailed announcement will follow in 2013.

John Colley, managing director EMEA at (ISC)2, said: “The major focus seems to be on influencing the elite and developing intelligence. It is not enough and is out of step with how the management of society's information security risk must evolve.

“Funding new research centres and denoting ‘Centre of Excellence Status' to universities that are already delivering graduate courses in this space does not begin to address the skills shortage that we all acknowledge is adding to the threat. There are already 55 to 60 graduate level courses in the UK and most students don't pursue an education at this level. More is needed at the undergraduate level where awareness of the career opportunities can help reach the numbers required.

“The government has pulled together a comprehensive statement covering a lot of disparate and impressive initiatives, but I am not confident that the basic requirements are being covered or therefore that they are getting to grips with the problem.”

Martin Sutherland, managing director of BAE Systems Detica, said: “When we look back in five years' time we will see that the government's strategy has provided a catalyst for a series of innovative and useful activities, particularly around how industry can respond to and protect itself from cyber incidents â€" most notably the recent Cyber Incident Response Scheme announced by GCHQ. Nonetheless, there is still a long way to go before we can say that we are successfully countering cyber threats.”

Guy Bunker, senior vice president of products at Clearswift, said: “The government is entirely correct in focusing efforts on education, as well as practical prevention. Yes, there are many threats from abroad, but there are just as many in the UK and even within organisations.

“With the Cyber Incident Response Team becoming fully operational next year and efforts being made to change behaviour online so that it is intrinsically safe, businesses and consumers are being afforded every opportunity to tackle cyber crime. As the government has said, this is not an issue for government alone - we must all take responsibility for our actions online, otherwise we risk losing our lead as a major internet-based economy.”

Single sign-on capability for application access released by Centrify

Centrify has launched a web-based portal for single sign-on capabilities for cloud services and applications.

The solution extends capabilities within Microsoft's Active Directory to allow enhanced identity services across data centres, cloud and mobile, and allows "one single login for users and one identity infrastructure for IT", according to the company.

Currently in beta, Centrify said that the Identity-as-a-Service (IdaaS) offering, named Centrify DirectControl for SaaS, allows users to utilise their existing Active Directory credentials to use single sign-on to their SaaS apps from a web browser running on any system, laptop or mobile device, irrespective of whether the endpoint is on the corporate network or not.

Speaking to SC Magazine, Centrify CEO Tom Kemp said: “The world is getting more heterogeneous. From end-users having too many user names and passwords to them having too many devices, we are offering a solution to allow people to have on-premise Active Directory access across the data centre, mobile and applications with unified identity services. From an IT perspective, it gives them the 'big easy' button.

“Today, IT is in a unique situation where they do not control the device and IT can only address their own devices, backend or applications, but they can control identity. There is a disappearing perimeter and identity is at the core of things.”

According to the company, Centrify DirectControl for SaaS centralises corporate identity information in Active Directory, under control of the IT staff, and it is never replicated or duplicated in the cloud. It also removes passwords and gives centralised visibility and control of all SaaS applications, while mobile users on iOS or Android can use a 'zero sign-on' function through the secure certificate delivered to their mobile devices enrolled with the Centrify Cloud Service.

Corey Williams, senior director of product management at Centrify, said: “What is different about this is that it is very Active Directory-centric with innovative levels for single sign-on in non-Microsoft environments.

“We've architected our solution from the ground up to accommodate these scenarios, and with Centrify you can utilise your existing identity infrastructure to go beyond single sign-on with access control, privilege management, policy enforcement and compliance.”

First year of the Cyber Security Strategy praises work of MoD and GCHQ and calls for national Cert

The first year under the Cyber Security Strategy has been described as a success by the minister behind it, as he reported on some of its notable achievements.

Marking a year since the launch of the UK government's Cyber Security Strategy, Francis Maude, minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, said in a statement that attacks on government departments "continue to increase" and that good progress was being made on the objectives of the strategy and with the £650 million funding.

Maude said he was pleased to be able to report on some notable achievements, and pointed to the work of GCHQ in addressing cyber threats and its establishment of a Joint Cyber Unit with the Ministry of Defence, as well as the development of the Security Service with enhanced cyber structures, focusing on investigating cyber threats from hostile foreign intelligence agencies and terrorists, and working with UK victims.

Maude also praised joint operations between the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU). “Joint operations between the two units have now been initiated as a first step towards their coming together in 2013 to form the National Cyber Crime Unit of the new National Crime Agency. This will deliver the next step in transforming law enforcement capability to tackle cyber and cyber-enabled crimes,” he said.

Also in this area, funding from the National Cyber Security Programme has enabled Action Fraud to be the UK's national reporting centre for fraud and financial internet crime, operating on a 24/7 basis, while HMRC has established a new Cyber Crime Team to enhance its capability to tackle tax fraud by organised criminals.

Maude praised educational steps in schools and the work of the Cyber Security Challenge, as well as work with the private sector and educational facilities and the Get Safe Online campaign.

He said: “Looking forward, we are clear that there is still much work to do. We will continue the work that is underway, while regularly assessing it against priorities, and taking into account new and emerging threats.

“Our intention is to move towards the establishment of a UK National Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert). This will build on and complement our existing Cert structures, improve national coordination of cyber incidents and act as a focus point for international sharing of technical information on cyber security.”

This follows criticism of communication between Certs and law enforcement in the UK. Maude suggested that a CPNI and CESG-backed Cyber Incident Response scheme will move to become fully operational next year, where organisations can turn to for assistance when they have suffered a cyber security incident.

“The scheme will enable the UK's emerging cyber response industry to grow, bringing further benefit to the UK in terms of skills and business opportunities,” he said.

He also said that the government is to issue mainstreaming cyber security messages across the breadth of its communication with citizens, with HMRC automatically alerting customers using out of date browsers and directing them to advice on the threat this might pose to their online security.

Maude concluded by saying that one year after the publication of the strategy, "a great deal has already been accomplished in our aim of protecting UK interests in cyber space and making the UK one of the safest places to do business online".

“This is not an issue for the government alone. Industry has the potential to lose the most by not rising to these challenges so together we must work to address cyber threats that could undermine our economic growth and prosperity,” he said.

“The past year has created an increasing momentum across the UK at varying levels and across all sectors in addressing a wide range of cyber security threats. We look forward to maintaining this pace, continually assessing our progress as we go forward.”

The UK Cyber Security Strategy is set out to address four objectives:

• To tackle cyber crime and to be one of the most secure places in the world to do business in cyber space

• To be more resilient to cyber attacks and better able to protect the country's interests in cyber space

• To have helped shape an open, stable and vibrant cyber space that the UK public can use safely and that supports open societies

• To have the cross-cutting knowledge, skills and capabilities the UK needs to underpin these other objectives.

Aruba Networks launches wireless connection management platform

Aruba Networks has announced the launch of a wireless local area network (LAN) platform to filter both traffic and wireless applications that connect to the corporate network.

According to the company, the Aruba 7200 series contains integrated application intelligence and controls to optimise application delivery and using its AppRF software with deep packet inspection for Layer 7 insight to identify application traffic, it gives enterprises integrated visibility into and control over both traditional server-based applications and cloud-based and web-based mobile applications.

It also delivers 40Gbps stateful firewall and encryption capabilities and can support up to 32,000 devices, Aruba said.

Chris Kozup, senior director, EMEA marketing at Aruba Networks, told SC Magazine that now everything can connect to the network, technologies need to be offered to address that with priority given to mission critical areas.

He said: “Today's IT departments are faced with the challenge of providing better access to deal with the onslaught of mobile applications â€" all while working within the confines of a typically tight budget.

“Aruba is helping these customers address their requirements with a wireless LAN platform that not only delivers improved ‘speeds and feeds', but offers true insight into and control of application performance. With this you can block or segment applications and any control that an organisation wants, they can do what they want.

“The function of a controller is not new, what is new is the ability to do detection about running and understanding the application itself. The mobile device management space are now realising that it is not about the device, it is about the applications and platform, and we do believe that the enterprise has a role to play with performance of the application, so if something is not needed it can be prevented.”

Starbucks, Other Multinationals Face UK Tax Backlash

Starbucks and other multinationals including Google and Amazon have incurred the wrath of lawmakers and the media in the UK and some other European nations for allegedly not paying their fair share of taxes for profits made in those countries. While Starbucks and other firms say they've obeyed the law, their predicament illustrates the issues faced by companies large and small when expanding internationally. As Starbucks seems to be rethinking its tax position in the face of continued bad publicity abroad, it's a good reminder for all businesses to be mindful of public feedback and how it can impact a brand.

Poor Impressions

Tax troubles jolt coffee seller. The specific issue for Starbucks centers on a report that claims that the coffee seller has paid only 8.6 million pounds in taxes in Britain since 1998 and no corporate or income tax over the past three years. Over the same period, the report suggests the coffee retailer sold over 3.1 billion pounds worth of coffee. Starbucks claims it followed UK law. Expanding into international markets means conforming to complex sets of regulations, and failing to comply can damage your brand or worse. Reuters

Starbucks bows to public pressure. Running afoul of laws and even customs in international markets can cause big problems for your brand. As Starbucks appears to be discovering in the U.K., businesses ignore these local rules at their own risk and can raise the ire of authorities and even their customers by refusing to comply. Doing business means being a part of a community, and businesses that expand internationally may be part of multiple communities at once. Being perceived as ignoring the rules and norms of that community can have negative results. Scotsman.com

Big Dreams

Startups prepare for global conquest. Companies interested in going international should plan for such expansion from day one. Don't wait for the moment when expansion seems right to start thinking about it. If you are starting a business and believe there is any chance that business will expand internationally, you will want to take a few steps right from the start to pave the way, says startup guru Martin Zwilling. Here are some very important considerations for those who are starting a business they believe could be destined for world fame. Startup Professionals Musings

Things to know before you grow. Whether you planned to expand into international markets from the day you started your company or not, some businesses in their very early stages realize expansion into new markets is important for their growth. You no longer need to be a multinational conglomerate to enter international markets, that's true. But careful planning is the best way to make sure your expansion is a success. In this guest post, Blaine Pike, UK community manager for OmniJoin Web conferencing explains the important steps to consider. The Savvy Copywriter

How to take your exit. No matter how successful your international business grows, the time may come to sell it. Understanding what's at stake with an international business, whether large or small, can take special knowledge. Here's an interview with Ian Shearer, Director of Mergers and Acquisitions at Atlanta International, an Ireland-based mergers and acquisitions company focused on technology businesses. Companies like Atlanta International are helpful for international companies when the time comes to move on. Tweak Your Biz

Better Customer Relations

Tips for focus on feedback. A critical method of avoiding problems as your business expands, either around the world or up the street, is to get customer feedback every inch of the way. Here Daniel Kehrer suggests six customer feedback essentials every business owner should consider to make sure they're taking the pulse of their community accurately. Without customers you would have no business,  so identifying sentiments about your product or service earlier rather than later is critical. Here are some ways to do it right. BizBest

Collect your customers' thoughts.  Being open to customer feedback is one thing, but waiting for a complaint or scrap of praise to come your way may not be the best approach. Identifying what you've done right and wrong can help you make changes to your business and be more responsive to customer needs. So if you want to know how to pick your customers' brains to learn more about their thoughts and needs, Mike Abasov has some great suggestions on how to go about it. Have fun! Marketing Before Funding