What is a "legal person"? State legal entities

What is a legal person, and what preferences and responsibilities does it have? Who is it called? What gradations are there? And how do they differ from individuals? All these questions, as well as many others, will be answered within the framework of the article.

What is meant by a legal entity?

Article 48 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides a definition that such an term is an organization that has ownership, operational management or economic management of detached property. By its obligations, she also responds to them. Also, this organization may, on its behalf, buy non-property rights, act as a plaintiff and a defendant in court and incur obligations.

Main features

Organizations that function as a legal entity have the following properties:

1. The existence of a separate property. It should be subject to the right of ownership, economic management or operational management. The property is accounted for in the independent balance sheet.
2. Differentiation of property of founders and legal entities. In the event of liability, the founders will not lose their personal property (except as provided by law). And legal entities are not responsible for the obligations of their founders.
3. The possibility of independent participation in civil law relations. Such activities are conducted on behalf of the organization itself. It can acquire and sell non-proprietary rights, as well as perform duties that are permitted by the law in force.
4. They have a certificate of state registration as a legal entity.
5. The organization can protect its interests by legal means, acting as a plaintiff and a defendant in court.

The characteristics by which legal entities are classified

For this we use:

1. Objectives of the activity. Here you can indicate the receipt of profit or other final results not prohibited by law.
2. The organizational and legal form in which a legal entity operates. The entrepreneur himself can act in his role, but in most cases they still call organizations of people.
3. The nature of the relationship between the founder and the legal entity itself.

Purpose of activity

Here, individuals are legally divided into non-commercial organizations. The first include those whose goal is not to make a profit, but to achieve something. As an example, we can cite funds to combat orphanhood, support sick people, and so on. Commercial organizations are those that are engaged in entrepreneurial activities, the main purpose of which is to make a profit. The Civil Code of the Russian Federation does not make much difference between these forms. So, they both can make a profit. But in the case of a commercial form, it goes into the hands of the founders and participants, whereas the second type of organization should spend it for statutory purposes. Opportunities and rights of a legal entity depend on what it is created for.

Organizational and legal form

This is the name of a set of specific characteristics by which entities are objectively distinguished in a system of common characteristics. Commercial organizations can be created exclusively in this form:

1. Economic partnerships or societies.
2. Production cooperatives.
3. Municipal and state unitary enterprises.

Non-profit organizations function in the following forms:

1. Consumer cooperative.
2. Public association.
3. Institutions financed by the owner.
4. Charitable funds.
5. Other forms permitted by law.

Nature of relations

By this parameter, the division into two types is made:

1. Founders have ownership of the contributions they have made. At the same time, this right is not available to a legal entity.
2. This type is absolutely the opposite of the following. Founders lose ownership, and legal entities receive them. In addition, in this type there are two types of relationships:
   1. The founder receives certain obligations in return for the contribution.
   2. The Creator does not pretend to anything.

Who is subject to such conditions? For the first case, it is possible to cite as an example municipal and state legal entities, as well as institutions, the financing of which lies entirely with their creator. The second type is the rest.

The difference between a legal entity and an individual

Their main differences can be accommodated in six points:

1. Nature of origin. An individual (that is, a person) is born regardless of the laws of society. The only thing that affects him is nature. A legal entity can only be established in accordance with the procedure established by law, and its appearance without state registration is not possible.
2. The property carrier. A person in society represents himself. But with a legal entity is not so simple. Some people believe that the bearer of its properties are the founders. Others - that the director. According to the third - this is some kind of abstract concept, which is used by the state for ease of management.
3. Number of participants. An individual is always in the singular. After all, a person represents only himself. Under a legal entity, a collective is most often implied. Also, the presence of this organization indicates that there is a certain structure. Although it should be said that there are individual legal entities. This means that it belongs to one person.
4. Purpose of creation. Legal entities arise for profit or solving a certain problem. While the purpose of creating a man each treats in its own way.
5. A responsibility. When creating a legal entity, its participants limit their risks. Responsibility of the person comes on obligations with all property and even personal things.
6. Legal and legal capacity. The legal entity receives them at the time of its registration. Whereas a person at birth has only legal capacity. At the age of 14 he already has a partial, and in 18 full capacity.

Taxation

Speaking about the fact that such a person is legal, it is difficult to circumvent the issue of taxes. The situation with non-profit organizations is the easiest. Since they do not have entrepreneurial incomes, a number of taxes are not collected from them. But with the wages of workers it is still necessary to deduct the interest in the budget. But taxes of commercial entities are more diverse. In general, everything depends on what the organization does. So, if we have a trading company that imports goods from abroad, it will pay customs duties. Agribusinesses allocate money to the state for the use of land. Metal rolling companies pay rent for the extraction, processing and sale of minerals. And this list can be continued for a very long time.

Interaction with legislation

Let's talk a little about the rights of a legal entity. They are indicated in the package of constituent documents. In addition to rights, there is prescribed status and responsibilities. Of course, everything happens within the law. It also defines the division into public and private organizations. This all affects the contents of the package of founding documents. Registration of legal entities in the Russian Federation is conducted in the tax service. For an approximate assessment of the scope of this sector, simply call the number of actors - 3.7 million. That's the number of legal entities operating in the country!

Organizational structure and activities

Continuing to say that such a person is legal, let's pay attention to its important components. An important role is played by the head office (or office). It must be located at the address specified at the registration. The main unit can act as the center of the whole organization or simply a small office, where official papers will come. Everything in this case is decided by the founders or directors (if they have been delegated the appropriate authority). Then, geographically isolated branches are allocated, which are assigned the status of a branch. Subsidiary units may also be established to carry out the necessary activities. That's what an organization of a legal entity is in practice.

Now let's pay attention to their activities. It can be directed either at making a profit, or at achieving certain goals. The activity of a legal entity in the first case is carried out for the production of a certain product or the provision of services in order to obtain a material benefit that will enable it to achieve its objectives. And important here are the communication processes. Non-commercial activities of a legal entity are conducted to solve certain problems. So, the fund to fight diseases can help low-income people, so they have access to the necessary medicines. The Organization for the Protection of Animals is in favor of humanity in relation to our lesser brothers. There are a lot of examples in this case. And we will consider one of them right now.

Example

Let's consider the state legal entities. What it is? Why are they created? To solve a number of problems of state importance and create similar entities. They are engaged in management in those areas where the country has a number of strategic interests. Let's look at this in the example of the Russian Federation. What is important? From the point of maintaining the working capacity of the state organism, the support of the food sector is necessary, for defense - military enterprises, and for the receipt of highly liquid currency - the oil and gas industry. If you exclude food from the government, foreign countries can easily take the internal situation out of balance by creating unitary crisis phenomena. Speaking of military enterprises, it should be noted that when they are transferred to private hands, there are high chances of increasing the number of illegal weapons, which is potentially very dangerous for the current system. About the oil and gas industry and there is nothing to say - this is such an important source of receiving state revenue, which even there is nothing to say.

Conclusion

So we dismantled that such a person is legal, why it is necessary and how it happens. If you are interested in this issue, you can make the assumption that you want to prove yourself as an active citizen of society. Well, in this case we wish good luck, and we hope that the information provided here that such a person is legal will help along this difficult path.