There's a lot of jargon, acronyms, & confusing terms when it comes to officially running a US business. We make it easy with this simple guide.

Acronyms Seriously Suck

From time to time, Elon Musk will send out an e-mail to the entire company to enforce a new policy or let them know about something that’s bothering him.

One of the more famous e-mails arrived in May, 2010 with the subject line: Acronyms Seriously Suck

At Doola, we agree.

It’s confusing enough to understand everything there is to know before forming and growing your LLC and acronyms only make it more confusing…

So we’re excited to announce:

The Official Doola LLC Dictionary™

This will be a running, updated list of any word, phrase, term, or acronym that you might come across when starting or growing your business.

We’ll keep this updated in real-time and lastly, if there are any terms you’ve come across that you’d like us to define, please let us know!

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• EIN: Employer Identification Number. An employer identification number (EIN) is a nine-digit number assigned by the IRS. It’s used to identify the tax accounts of employers and certain others who have no employees. The IRS uses the number to identify taxpayers who are required to file various business tax returns. EINs are used by employers, sole proprietors, corporations, partnerships, non-profit associations, trusts, estates of decedents, government agencies, certain individuals, and other business entities. For more on EINs check out the IRS’ tax topic post on them here.

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• IRS: Internal Revenue Service. The IRS is a bureau of the U.S. Department of Treasury that helps taxpayers meet their tax responsibilities and enforces tax law. We interact with the IRS when helping companies get their EIN and companies interact with the IRS for any necessary tax filings. For more on the IRS check out their about page here.
• ITIN: Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. The IRS issues an ITIN to people who have a US tax filing (or informational reporting requirement) and are not eligible for an SSN. Check out our blog post here on how to get an ITIN!

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• LLC: Limited Liability Company. A limited liability company (LLC) is a business structure in the United States whereby the owners are not personally liable for the company’s debts or liabilities. Limited liability companies are hybrid entities that combine the characteristics of a corporation with those of a partnership or sole proprietorship (source). Check out our guide here on LLCs vs C Corps!

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• SSN: Social Security Number. The US SSA (Social Security Administration) issues an SSN in order to identify a US Citizen, Permanent Resident, or Temporary Nonimmigrant Worker

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Feature Image by Nathaniel Shuman

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