What are the advantages of setting up a corporation?

The greatest advantage to running a business as a corporation is that, as with an LLC, the owners are protected from being personally liable for any losses, debts or obligations of the business itself. So, for example, if your corporation were sued and lost the case, the successful plaintiff would not be able to go after your personal belongings - the most you could lose is whatever you had actually invested in the company. In addition, because a corporation is an entirely separate legal entity from its owners, a corporation generally has an unlimited life beyond the life of its owners, lasting for decades or even centuries.

The other major advantage of a corporation is its ability to sell stocks, allowing investors to become partial owners of the company. It is therefore easier to raise capital with a corporation than with other types of business forms, because you can take your company public and allow anyone to become an investor/shareholder.

Although many corporations are subject to double taxation, which may be a potential downside, the corporate tax scheme also gives companies more flexibility in dealing with the overall impact of taxes.