Legal Environment

Discussions
To participate in the following discussions, go to this week’s Discussion link in the left navigation.

1. Constitutional and Legal Underpinnings of Business Law

   Review the Constitution in Appendix A and  choose one of the following sections of the U.S. Constitution or a specified amendment to use as the basis for your initial response:
   Any of Congress’s enumerated powers under Article I, Section 8
   1st Amendment
   4th Amendment
   5th Amendment
   14th Amendment

   Identify the section of the Constitution or its amendment that you have chosen. Discuss how this section of the Constitution or its amendments both limit and protect business in general. Describe an example of how the section of the Constitution or its amendment that you have chosen could be applied to your professional life (past, present, or future). In your example, discuss whether the section of the Constitution you have chosen to address limits business or protects it.

   Guided Response:
   Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ posts in a substantive manner. Some ways to do this include the following, though you may choose a different approach, providing your response is substantive:

   Review the initial posts made by your peers, and note whether the responses relied upon a different section of the Constitution or amendment than your response.

   If your peer chose to focus on a different section of the Constitution or amendment than you did, discuss how that section of the Constitution relates to any example of a business situation from your professional life (past, present, or future).

   If your peer chose to focus on the same section of the Constitution or amendment that you did, then compare and contrast the different applications of that section of the amendment to your respective examples from your own professional lives.

   Suggest analytical differences that could lead to different outcomes. Point out ways in which the Constitution or its amendments might limit or protect business that your peer did not already identify.

1. Capital Gains

   “Zero To 60: What Business Owners Need To Know About Capital Gains,” describes useful ideas that will help you learn more about capital gains and how this tax regime can impact business decisions. After reading this article, determine which of the planning opportunities could be beneficial in a corporate and independent business setting. In detail, convey why or why not? Using the text for this class, describe the pros and cons in business law regarding capital gains. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts.

Guided Response: 

Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ posts in a substantive manner. Some ways to do this include addressing students who may choose different examples of pros and cons, providing your response is substantive. 
Review the posts made by your peers.  

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Assignment
To complete the following assignment, go to this week’s Assignment link in the left navigation.

Legal Underpinnings of Business Law

Imagine that you own each of the following businesses:

Tinker’s Home Security Service (sole proprietorship)
Tinker & Tailor’s Home Security Service (general partnership)
Tinker & Tailor’s Home Security Service (LP)
Tinker & Tailor’s Home Security Service, Inc. (corporation)
Tinker & Tailor’s Home Security Service, LLC (LLC)

1. The businesses are being sued for breach of contract. Create a matrix that lists each business, and compare and contrast your personal liability exposure as an owner as a result of the lawsuit.
2. For each business entity, analyze how you might limit your liability exposure as an owner.
3. Describe a business that you may own some day or that you currently own. (Even if you never plan to own a business, pretend as if you will do so for the purposes of this assignment.) Examine the best business organizational form for the business that you have described, including in your examination personal liability exposure, management, taxation, and ease of formation.

Submit a four- to five-page paper (not including title and reference pages). Your paper must be formatted according to APA style as outlined in the approved APA style guide and you must cite at least three scholarly sources in addition to the textbook.