Running Multiple Businesses under One Structure: A Deep Dive into Holding Operating and Parent Companies

56 questions on running multiple businesses under one structure, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Against whom does veil-piercing usually succeed?
• Can the IRS challenge an S corporation owner's salary?
• Can you strip too much cash out of an operating company?
• How does a holding company accidentally become an operator?
• How does forming entities and then ignoring them destroy the structure?
• How does pass-through stacking work in an owner-operated structure?
• How does Section 482 transfer pricing apply to intercompany agreements?
• How do personal guarantees undermine an entity structure?
• How do the two walls of a multi-entity structure work together?
• How much wrongdoing does the second prong of veil-piercing require?
• How reluctant are courts to pierce the corporate veil?
• How should intercompany rent be set and documented?
• If I own everything anyway, why can't I move money freely between my companies?
• Is a bank holding company the same as an asset-protection holding company?
• Is a multi-entity structure a substitute for insurance?
• Is an S corporation a separate type of entity?
• Is charging-order protection weaker for single-member LLCs?
• Is the CTA domestic exemption permanent?
• Is the holding company itself ever exposed to liability?
• Should I form all my entities in Delaware, Wyoming, or Nevada?
• What are the alter ego and agency theories of veil-piercing?
• What are the check-the-box entity classification rules?
• What are the risks of using a Series LLC?
• What are the varieties of holding company?
• What business purposes does a multi-entity structure serve besides asset protection?
• What did United States v. Bestfoods hold about parent-company liability?
• What did Walkovszky v. Carlton decide about multi-entity structures?
• What does a professional entity like a PLLC actually protect against?
• What does a properly restructured multi-business group look like?
• What does Delaware require to obtain the inter-series liability shield?
• What factors do courts weigh on the domination prong of veil-piercing?
• What happens when entities blur in the eyes of the world?
• What intercompany agreements does a holding-and-operating structure need?
• What is a holding company?
• What is an intellectual property holding company, and what is the naked-licensing trap?
• What is a Series LLC?
• What is charging-order protection, and how does it differ from the corporate veil?
• What is reverse veil-piercing?
• What is the core principle of multi-entity asset protection?
• What is the current status of Corporate Transparency Act reporting?
• What is the deep-pocket problem in holding-and-operating structures?
• What is the difference between a parent company and a pure holding company?
• What is the difference between a protected series and a registered series?
• What is the LP-with-an-LLC-general-partner structure?
• What is the risk of running several businesses inside one entity?
• What maintenance keeps a multi-entity structure defensible?
• What recent decisions show veil-piercing is still a live risk?
• What should an operating company own in a well-built structure?
• What three jobs do intercompany agreements perform?
• When does a C corporation make sense at the top of a structure?
• When does a consolidated federal income tax return make sense?
• Whose veil-piercing law applies to an entity formed in another state?
• Why does good structure make a business more valuable at exit?
• Why is the disregarded entity the heart of asset-protection structuring?
• Why is the LLC the default entity for multi-entity structures?
• Will forming an LLC after I am already sued protect my assets?