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HOW NOT TO CLOSE A CORPORATION IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
By Michael B. Brodkorb | April 21, 2008
If I’ve learned one thing over the past few days, it’s how to properly close a business in the state of California. A simple Google search using the terms “close business entity in California” turns up detailed directions from the Franchise Tax Board on how to properly close your business.
Thanks to my post last Wednesday exposing that Al Franken’s corporation has been “forfeited†in California since August 1, 2007, I’m sure Team Franken now understands that a sloppy letter addressed “To Whom It May Concern†is not the proper way to shut down a corporation.
If I can figure out how to properly close a corporation in California in less than a minute, why can’t Franken’s accountant?
###
This post also appears on Blogs for Norm!, an online community and blog covering the 2008 U.S. Senate campaign in Minnesota. The primary goal of Blogs for Norm! is to organize bloggers who support U.S. Senator Norm Coleman.
Topics: Uncategorized | 62 Comments »
62 Responses to “HOW NOT TO CLOSE A CORPORATION IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA”
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April 21st, 2008 at 2:47 pm
And the page you found so easily on Google was created April 13, 2007.
I don’t know what kind of computers you expect Al Franken’s accountants to use, but I am pretty sure ones that look five years into the future for websites that may be created is a bit much to expect, even from a democrat.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:54 pm
If I can figure out how to properly close a corporation in California in less than a minute, why can’t Franken’s accountant?
April 21st, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I told you why. Because you found a website that was made only a year ago. Seems to me they must have had a lot of complaints about how difficult it is if they finally had to make a website to tell people how to do it.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Frank: I was unaware that the internet and phones weren’t invented until the day after Franken’s accountant sent their letter to California.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I’m just saying, you are talking about how easy it is to find information five years later than the person you are accusing was looking for the same information.
The internet is much different today than it was five years ago. Using your logic, I was an idiot for betting heavily on Barbaro in the 2006 Preakness because, afterall, he broke his leg in the race. If I were betting now, I would certainly bet on Bernadini, but the track just laughs at me when I try to make that bet.
I’m just suggesting that you have the honesty to admit that stuff on the internet now may not have been there ever since Al Gore invented it.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Franken never sought to dissolve his business in California. He and his accountant continued to file the paperwork to keep it active with the secretary of state.
I’ll be interested to know when that sloppy, unsiged letter on plain paper was actually written, and whether it was ever actually filed.
On thing is certain, however… Franken repeatedly filed to retain AFI’s active status in California.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Democrats are notorious tax cheats. They also are bad tippers, and give very little to charity.
Do as they say, not as they do.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Angry Al’s first act in Congress:
To whom it may concern,
I muv that we impeech the President, George W Busch. Shure, he’s now out of ofice but I strongly beleeve he has comited wor cryms.
Signed,
Senator Al
April 21st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
So you all agree. Michael was reaching when he suggested that an accountant should have been able to find a site created one year ago on the internet five years ago.
Thanks for your support.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:39 pm
It really doesn’t matter what was on the Internet in 2002. Al Franken never moved to dissolve his corporation. Conversely, he continued to keep it active with filings to the Secretary of State.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Michael suggested that Al’s accountant could have used Google to learn how to close a corporation in the state of California.
Google was in business five years ago.
April 21st, 2008 at 5:11 pm
USA Senators do not move impeachment of the President.
April 21st, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Yeah. And? This is Angry Al. He doesn’t seem to know about any details. Mistake? Staff did it.
April 21st, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Come on Chet.
This site is “dedicated to a TRUTHFUL discussion on the activities, statements, and tactics of Minnesota Democrats.”
April 21st, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Yes. If you can show me what a Google search for “close business entity in California” looked like in 2002, your argument may have a leg to stand on.
But to suggest that the findings were the same then as they are now is disingenuous at best.
April 21st, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Thanks Michael for continuing to publish on this scandal. The libs keep squealing like pigs, so you are onto the truth. Maybe they should try not paying taxes for years and see if they can plead ignorance (they are libs, so it would be a truthful statement).
April 21st, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I love how you republicants are willing to admit when you are wrong. You expect democrats to have the resolve to do something you refuse to do.
April 21st, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Try the Way Back machine.
I did a quick search on the Internet Way Back machine – which allows you to see web sites as they existed back in history.
So I checked the site as it looked in 2000.
A simple Yahoo search (Back then Yahoo ruled the earth) or a simple search on California site would find this page.
http://web.archive.org/web/20000613001037/www.ftb.ca.gov/geninfo/b&c/faq/724.htm
So the point is still valid.
It takes two clicks to get to this information.
Want to try again on the excuse.
April 21st, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Maybe Al ain’t so smart after all.
April 21st, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I don’t make excuses for Franken. If one takes a look at Dr. Shepard’s material he doesn’t make excuses for Coleman either, and seems to be willing to run against him in the GOP Primary.
April 21st, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Sam — awesome!
Frank, it still doesn’t matter. Al Franken never intended to dissolve his corporation in California. He continued to file the necessary forms with the Secretary of State… which is the the only agency with whom a corporation can initiate or dissolve its business interests in California.
His accountant continued to file with the SOS office… as for this issue, Al is clearly SOL.
Frankin is just another tax cheating, liberal dirt bag.
April 21st, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Michael stated that it was an accountant that made the mistake, not Al, nice try, but no glue.
BTW is this Al Franken non story #507 or #612 that’s been posted on Minnesota’s Dumbest Elephants?
Wolf Wolf
That’ll do Sheeple that’ll do
April 21st, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I think what we’re all implying is that Al Franken is a dishonest, tax cheating liar.
But, then again, he IS a Democrat.
April 21st, 2008 at 8:30 pm
It’s no big deal – like most losers, he just ain’t what he says he is. Big surprise!!!
April 21st, 2008 at 8:31 pm
So, to be clear, Sam.
When you exchange one fortune 500 company for another in the course of your argument, that is perfectly acceptable, especially when you are accusing someone of using one piece of paper over another piece of paper.
Good to know how consistent y’all are.
April 21st, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Frank, are you as dumb as your arguments are circular?
April 21st, 2008 at 8:42 pm
By the way Frank, you dummy, he didn’t exchange “Fortune 500 companies” he exchanged “search engines.” Do you know the difference?
Neither do users of Google or Yahoo!…
Its just about the same difference as between Gold Medal and Pillsbury flour.
I guess you’re another moron who illustrates the point that when a liberal has lost the argument, he changes the subject.
(Note, I agree that would be a bit silly to point to a 2007 document in a conversation about a 2002 issue. … but two facts remain: 1) the information was available; and 2) It matters not, because Franken never acted to dissolve his corporation in California… rather, he continued to file to sustain it.)
April 21st, 2008 at 8:50 pm
In fact, here’s the publication from the California Franchise Tax board, which was available online in 2001…
http://web.archive.org/web/20030317225423/www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/01_forms/01_1038.pdf
Michael’s point is… upheld. The information was widely available at the time. Any idiot, except Franken or his accountant (if she ever was), could have found it, easily.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Hey Chestnutty-
Have you seen this year’s Fortune 500 list? Christ, the way y’all try to protect their leaders from ever being taxed, you would think you would know them all by heart.
For the record, Google is 150, while Yahoo is 353. If I were you, I would probably put a link to the Indianapolis 500 here, but I won’t. I’ll give you a link to the site I referenced in my post: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2008/index.html
As to the citation you provided, that talked about getting a tax clearance, which, on its own, would not dissolve the company. But I am sure you knew that, and were just testing to see if I read your gibberish. Truth be told, it is getting harder and harder to take you seriously.
Your lies are outrageous, and your level of debate, sophomoric. But, I guess if you were smarter than the primordial ooze from whence you came, you would probably have abandoned the party of warmongering deficit spenders long ago.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Serious Frank? You’re the moron changing the subject. Sam never referenced any Fortune 500 companies. He referenced their search engines. You don’t know the difference, then why bother partaking in discussion? You’re a complete dolt. You’d be more productive chasing a dogs tail.
And yes, I read the publication. It is the Franchise Tax Board’s instructions, and it includes instructions for properly dissolving a corporation in California. It was available in 2001.
You may have read it, but you’re completely incapable of understanding it.
Stupid is as liberals do. And you do a lot… very stupidly.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Speaking of stupid arguments, yours is completely moot. Franken never undertook any actions to dissolve his corporation. Rather, he filed to retain its legal status for operation past 2002.
The unsigned, sloppy, and probably fraudulent document allegedly from Monifa Benison, is irrelevant.
Al Franken is a liar and a tax dodger. Frank Alan is not much more than an imbecile.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Here Frank, since you are a liberal and obviously lazy… too lazy to read below the fold, the following is the operative text from FSB Publication 1038, published in 2001, and available on the Web.. (and discoverable using search engines from either Google or Yahoo!… or probably any other):
“This publication explains the minimum requirements for dissolving a domestic corporation or surrendering the right to transact business in California for a foreign corporation.”
Here’s more:
“Corporations in the process of dissolving or surrendering must file tax returns and pay at least the minimum franchise tax, if applicable, until the corporation is dissolved or surrendered.”
And hey, for the extremely stupid and lazy (that’s you and other Democrats Frank), there are even complete instructions on how to get all the required forms from the FSP or the SOS’s office ONLINE, via phone, or by mail. (See page 2, top right column).
Seriously Frank, it’s easy to choose to be a conservative when looking at how foolish, ignorant, lazy and stupid you liberals are.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:13 pm
It’s not really about whether a person can find a document online, it’s about professional competence. Don’t we have to assume that Al Franken as CEO and CFO of AFI would hire competent accountants? I mean, competent in that they wouldn’t have to search the Web for such rudimentary instructions as starting or closing a business… this isn’t accounting rocket science folks…
So, here’s what Monifa Benison has to say about her practice:
“For the past five years, The AM Associates have been providing professional Tax and Accounting services to a who’s who list of people in the entertainment industry. The AM Associates service all industries, but they specialize in the entertainment field. “Like it or not, you have to pay your taxes, and understanding taxation requires more than intelligence†states Monifa Benison, Partner, The AM Associates†We are not your everyday accountants, we are qualified Tax Accountants, who can guide you through the challenging Tax Laws with ease.”
http://pr-gb.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=42584&Itemid=28
So who’s perpetrating the snow job? Benison? Franken? Or both?
April 21st, 2008 at 10:16 pm
First?
Seriously though, what’s sad is that if Al wins in November, he will work to ad more layers of repressive gov’t, even though he has shown that he can’t keep up with teh current bureauracy.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Duck and Chestnut, don’t be silly. Liberals aren’t expected to navigate gov’t regulations. That’s only for Republican businesses.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:35 pm
This from the party that gives us Michael Brodkorb who thinks the internet has always been here, Sam, who thinks the minor difference between Yahoo and Google is less than the difference between sending in a pre-made form and a self-made form, and Chestnutty, who simply likes to pick fights on the internet as it is one place where he can pretend people care what he thinks.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:41 pm
If you say so Frank. Every point you tried to raise has been completely obliterated. Your petulant, argumentative and ignorant ass has been effectively kicked to the curb… where it probably sits all day anyway, collecting welfare because you think the world owes you something.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:53 pm
And again Frank Alan shows the “Do as I say not as I do” attitude of the of the libs party.
I wonder if he’s going to try to blame the net or Google for senator Wellfare’s not paying for the mandatory minnesota insurance for his people? (of course it’s always just an accounting error if it’s a lib)
If these libtards like Franken and Wellfare are going to eagerly mandate these types of business laws you’d think they’d be eager to pay, but the liberal tude is always that laws are for other people.
I can just imagine the The diffrence in farn Alans posts if a pubie did this?
April 21st, 2008 at 11:12 pm
The real irony in this ongoing saga of the compliance failures of AlFrankEnstein Enterprises is that if he were elected, he would vote endlessly with his Democratic brethren for higher taxes, more business regulation, and even more bureaucratic paperwork. Pity this poor egotistical millionaire comedian, wishing only to be in public office in order to pile on more rules for those compliant businesses though woefully ignorant himself of the current mountain of paperwork, and then to be so poorly served by his sloppy, over-priced Hollywood accountants. Hand me a kleenex. This is a tearjerker tragicomedy. Send in the clowns.
April 21st, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Hand you a “tissue.” The other word beginning with the letter “K” is a brand name.
You may be the clown. Your last sentence is also the “title” of a song.
The Bretheren is the title of a book.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:34 am
How is pointing out that Michael made an entire post over how easy it is to use a one year old website to fix a five year old problem a case of, “Do as I say, not as I do”?
I simply was reminding people how perfect hindsight is, and even when confronted with the fact that the entire premise of the post is BS, Michael has proudly stood behind it.
I would have more respect for him if he ever admitted to making a mistake.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:38 am
Oh for fuck sake Frank, are you really that stupid naturally, or do you practice?
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:03 am
There seems to be two different Chestnuts. The syntax seems to vary.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:06 am
Frank -
Did you read above (Post 18, 28)
The premise was not BS.
A look at the web back in 2000, 2001 etc… shows that the same information that Michael referenced today was available then.
A simple search of the California web site or a yahoo search would find the information.
Try again.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:58 am
I’m still wondering if this is like “Tax Attorney” Michele Bachmann being unauthorized to practice law in her own state? Why does she continue to call herself a “tax attorney?” Where is she authorized to practice law? Sounds like a story there, Michael.
http://www.mncourts.gov/mars/AttorneyDetail.aspx?id=0179863
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:52 am
GOP, nice try, but you just show how bad this is for the democrats!
No one here wants to defend Angry Al, rather just change the subject and try to hide what Angry Al has been up to. 
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:24 am
I agree with Frank.
Y’all can’t play fast and loose with the rules (citing websites that didn’t exist in 2002) on your way to making a case against someone else playing fast and loose with the rules.
The more you dig in on this position, the more I understand what Franken did. You had a chance to make a good point here, but your dishonesty sunk you.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:57 am
Nick, now that you have weighed in, my guess is Michael will be shutting down this blog as you have clearly stated how his dishonesty ruined the blog.
Now that we have established that Franken also lied, can we get him to shut down his campaign?
Where is puddles?? Has someone finally banned him or maybe someone caught up with him and broke his fingers?
Then again, he is still here just using el pres, yoni and frank alen. 
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:04 am
I always say, the emoticons make all arguments that much stronger.
ROTFL,
FA
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:17 am
Those are to help with your stress and general unhappiness being you are a liberal.
Liberals are by nature very unhappy people who do little besides to look at what they think is wrong with the world.
I feel bad for your type and I try to do my part by adding the smile faces.
See, is it not nice to know a Republican is thinking of you and trying to make your life just a little brighter.
Granted, you in return call us names, raise our taxes and give us sub-standard government services, but I guess you do what you can to help the world. 
So Frank, I assume you are a younger man as we all know, if you are in your 20’s and not a liberal, you have no heart, if you are in your 30’s and not a conservative, you have no brains.
I hope I helped you some Frank, though you appear to have been brain washed to thinking like a lefty, so we can only hold out so much hope.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 am
Big Kahuna: “Liberals by nature are unhappy people.”
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:38 am
Big Kahuna,
Good grief! [Even grief is good]
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:47 am
Sorry el pres, they are there for you too.
I wish it were as easy as adding smile faces to ease the anger and hate you must feel day after day. I mean you are brainwashed by your leftist friends and what they put in your head can only make you angry and stressed.
The facts have been established that no one can hate and move to violence or vandalism like a liberal can. It tends to be only one side that suffers things like missing political lawn signs, vandalism to signs and billboards, actualy political candidates actually taking the signs down and stealing them!!
Clearly the party of hate and violence is the left wing of the democRat party.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
One of the things that I like about America is that I do not have to believe everything that I read.
Here is a commercial-type greeting to Big KAHUNA. Unlike the previous time, I inserted some commas this time.
The word HULA is even included.
PUPU A O EWA,
I KA NUKU E LAWE MAI,
AHE AINA MAI NO,
ALA HULA PUULOA HE ALA HELE NO KAAHUPA HAU
Does Big Kahuna pirate his name from the [our] 50th state and know almost nothing about it?
One of the things that I like about America is that I do not have to believe everything that I read.
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Hehehe, nope, has nothing to do with Hawaii.
I was born in Alaska and it has to do with that.
More a family joke and when I played on a sports team, the nickname became permanant.
I know, who would have thought the natives in Alaska could use some of the same language as the islanders of Hawaii?
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
BK, where in AK were you born?
I graduated HS in AK. Lived in North Pole for a while.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm
THERE ARE A FEW STORIES ABOUT THE CANNERIES THAT I COULD PROBABLY TELL.
It could be that Big Kahuna writes about COMMUNISTS because the land that he was born in once belonged to RUSSIA.
It was once a territory of the United States. Territories are now referred to as Insular Areas.
So Big Kahuna was born in the 49th territory/state, and took his name from the 49th or 50th territory/state?
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Master we were close then.
We lived on a military base just outside Fairbanks, born at a hospital in Fairbanks. If I recall, North Pole was just east of us 20 miles maybe? We left in 1973 when my father was stationed here in MN. I have not been back for a long time now, it is truely beautiful country there. I know I will never forget the fishing there! Where else can a kid catch a 20+ pound pike with a cane pole? 
El pres, not sure where you are going with this? We were a military family, did not have a lot of contact with the locals there. Never really had anyone concerned where my nickname came from.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
el pres, that was the best piece of real estate we ever bought!
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
You lived on Ft. Wainwright? I lived on Eielson AFB, just on the other side of North Pole. Graduated from Ben Eielson HS in ‘78.
Small World.
I was back up there in 2000 for a vacation.
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:18 pm
The indigenous people of the states of Hawaii, Alaska, and INSULAR AREAS of the United States [Guam, etc.] may speak first languages that are non-English.
I don’t hate the USA, I think that I have a good understanding of the Total Package of the majority of lands of the USA.
Secondary students living in the Angle Inlet School District in Minnesota, USA take the school bus through a FOREIGN COUNTRY [Canada] every day to attend high school in Minnesota.
Not many people in the USA realize that.
Will these school children need a passport or a passport card? Who do you assume pays for that?
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:12 am
“Where is puddles??”
Golf vacation.
But, now I’m back. And since someone brought up The Way Back Machine, let’s consider this:
***
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The White House Wednesday defended President Bush’s handling of a stock sale 12 years ago, arguing the reason Bush failed to disclose the sale promptly under federal law was because of a “mix-up” involving the corporation’s attorneys, a different explanation from what Bush himself said in the early 1990s.
During his first race for Texas governor, the first time the stock issue surfaced, Bush said he filed the appropriate report with the Securities & Exchange Commission about the sale of stock in Harken Energy Company, but contended the SEC had misplaced that report. Bush served on the company’s board of directors at the time of the stock sale.
***
Hey – sure looks like another case of republiCons claimin’ it was fine to pass the buck when one o’ their own done did it, BUT: when a democrat does it, they’re LIARS.
Let’s recap: Boy Blunder explains it was a SNAFU among his paid professionals, GOPers bootlick; Al Franken says same thing, GOPers call Al every nasty name they can think of.
And yet GOPers wonder why reasonable people think “GOP” behind the “I’ll take ‘HYPOCRITES’ for $200, Alex”….