As you might know by now a General Partnership is mainly influenced by the RUPA (Revised Uniform Partnership Act). RUPA takes the form of a contract and provides default rules of operations and establishment.
Starting a partnership should be easy. Yes indeed, it’s the easiest form of business entity. Simply go ahead and agree with your friend to start a business together. No official filing would be required. But if you’d like, RUPA makes available a voluntary Statement of Partnership Authority in the Secretary of State’s Office. Overall though, there is no need of the formal steps required for a corporation, and LLC, LLP, or a LP.
Generally speaking a written partnership agreement is not required unless the partnership is to last longer than a year. However, I strongly suggest that you have a contract in place regardless of the timeframe of your business venture. In my opinion, it is better to have the game’s rules from the beginning and avoid future misunderstanding or wasteful arguments. We all know better than that, don’t we?
The two main characteristics of a General Partnership are unlimited liability and pass-through taxation. Additionally, to determine that a legitimate partnership exists there must be an association, legal capacity, business for profit, and co-ownership interest.
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