As a business consultant I have worked with dozens of small business owners across the country in all different phases of business development. I am always surprised by the number of clients who come to me and have not completed all of the necessary tasks needed to set up a new business. Of course there are two basics that generally all my clients have covered when starting a company. These are filing the Articles of Organization with the state that one wishes to incorporate in and the other is filing for a Federal Employee Identification Number. But beyond that there can be a handfull of other business filings that are often overlooked. For instance, if your are incorporated in one state but your main business operations are in another, often times the business must file as a foreign entity with the state that it is primarily operating in. Another one is business licenses and permits. Even if the business operates exclusively on the internet out of a home office there are often licenses that must be obtained in order to be in good standing at the town, county, or state level. Depending on the market that your business operates in there can be many more licenses to be obtained in order to operate in compliance. Is your business properly insured? I have seen manufacturing business operating without proper product liability insurance in place. Many of these issues will come up when it is time to file your first corporate tax return, but others will not. Also, who wants to be worrying about making sure their business is operating in full compliance when they are already busy wrapping up the year end matters and working with their CPA to file taxes? The SBA website had a great link that goes into detail regarding the necessary steps that need to be taken before, during, and after opening a business for further information on the topic - http://www.sba.gov/content/follow-these-10-steps-starting-business.