COVID-19 and New Home Businesses: Legal Considerations

by Abcotten in Business Law

Due to COVID-19, many people are finding themselves with a lot more free time, and new entrepreneurs are on the rise. Congrats! As you consider launching your business from your kitchen table or favorite comfortable chair, let’s review a few legal considerations for home businesses.

Selecting a Business Structure

Many home businesses operate as sole proprietors. This means the individual running the business is the one who files a Schedule C, which is a tax form. Depending on the particulars of your business, you may want to consider whether an LLC, partnership, or corporation is the right path for you to take. To determine this, it is best that you talk to an attorney and an accountant to see what business structure works best for your enterprise both now and in the immediate future. This inquiry will need to consider the operations of your business, of course, take into consideration whether your business operates a fleet of vehicles, has employees, and/or is engaged in a trade or commerce where the liability risks are greater.

Additionally, if your business involves more than one owner then a sole proprietorship is probably not the business structure that fits best. For any business structure other than a sole proprietorship, your enterprise will be required to get a federal tax identification number. In many cases, getting a federal tax identification number will allow you to protect your individual privacy by not having to give your social security number to either vendors or customers for their records.

Protect Your Business Name

What you name your business is important. If you plan to trademark your business’ name then utilize the national trademark office’s website. There are a number of companies that do the search for you on a fixed fee basis.

Preparation of Contracts and Agreements

At the outset and along with everything else you will need to do to make your home business successful, you will also need to focus on getting the right contracts and agreements prepared so they are ready for when you open your business. Contractual agreements let everyone know what to expect and how to deal with potential issues.

More on Advanced Health Care Directives

by Abcotten in News

The Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act of Mississippi (MCA §41-41-201, -209) describes the “Advance Health-Care Directive” (AHCD) as the instrument by which a person with mental capacity can designate an agent who will be able to make health-care decisions for the maker. In the event you lose capacity through illness or injury, medical providers may be reluctant to render non-emergency treatment without consent of someone with lawful authority to approve such measures. The AHCD allows you to control and direct personal health-care decisions after the onset of any future incapacity.

Section 1 of the AHCD is the health-care power of attorney, in which one or more persons may be listed in the maker’s order or choice and designated as agents to make medical and health-care treatment decisions for you, the maker. You can select whether the agent may make such decisions without prior determination of your incapacity, or whether one or more doctors must first determine the your incapacity before the agent can make decisions. In Section 2, you can state any personal health-care decisions, for example: keeping or removing life-support treatments or tube-fed food and liquids in the event of terminal illness, and other choices concerning medical treatment based on the maker’s own personal values. In the optional Section 3, you can list the name and contact information about her personal physician. Section 4, added in 2006, allows organ donation instructions in the directive.

In light of the stringent privacy regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) governing the release of personal medical information, it is wise to include specific language in the AHCD that identifies the agent as your “personal representative” who is entitled to request and receive your medical information for HIPAA purposes.

The AHCD is not enough. Healthcare decisions are emotional and deeply personal You should communicate personal values to family members. The law generally requires that a health-care agent, to the extent he has reason to know the decision that the principal would make for himself under the circumstances, must make that decision also. This is called the “substituted judgment” rule, because the judgment of the incapacitated person must be substituted for the independent decision of the agent. If the agent has no basis to know what the principal would choose in the situation, then the agent must act in the best interest of the principal (the “best interest” rule). Therefore, you must discuss your values and choices about medical care and end-of-life treatment to your designated agent before the need to use the directive arises.