It is finally time to get ardour.org organized as a limited liability corporation (LLC) rather than a sole proprietorship. Not because we face liability issues, but mostly because of taxes and other mundane matters.
Where I (Paul) live, near Santa Fe, NM, it has not proven easy to find a lawyer who seems appropriate to provide advice on this process (given ardour.org’s particular circumstances). Ideally, I’d like to find someone within New Mexico, but my understanding is that in general most of the relevant legal issues here are either pretty consistent across US states, or a federal matter, so that a good lawyer pretty much anywhere in the US could likely help out.
If you are, or if you know someone who has relevant experience and would be willing to provide advice/guidance/services, please ask them to get in touch with via email (paul@linuxaudiosystems.com). I’m not looking for pro bono service - fully expecting to pay market rates.
Hi Paul,
I don’t live in the US, but it occurs to me that someone should ask you, is NM the BEST state for you to register a LLC or are there other states with better tax / corporate advantages that you might miss out on if you proceed to register in NM?
I would look at some obvious states like Delaware and NY which, from the little bit of knowledge I have on the subject, seem to be attractive corporate locations for whatever reasons; but a native of the US with some legal training could probably give you a much better information. I just wouldn’t want you to simply file in the state you live in for ‘convenience’ only to find, later, that your home state had disadvantages nobody explained to you.
Glad to hear the business side of Ardour is getting proper attention as the product is simply superb. I can’t believe just how much power it provides me as a novice producer / engineer. It blows my mind thinking about how much work must have gone into this project. Thanks for everything you and your team has done.