The ownership of legal entities: how is formed, to whom is transferred

Legal entities, by definition, are created in order to be independent units of market or social relations. Therefore, the right of ownership of legal entities is legally separated from the ownership of individuals. By creating a commercial organization in any legal form (be it a limited liability company or an economic partnership), an individual transfers certain of his property (most often it is money contributions - the authorized capital) to the new organization. Consequently, this property, including financial, cash receipts and funds, intangible assets, falls under the ownership of legal entities (as market participants).

The right of private property of legal persons is called upon to ensure, first of all, the observance of the interests of creditors. This is the reason for the legislative requirements for the presence of a legal entity property. In many countries, an indispensable condition for the formation of a firm is the availability of a certain material security - charter capital or property - and the amount of this material security, as a rule, has only the lower limit. That is, the ownership of legal entities implies that the upper limits are not established (by definition, they can not be), while the minimum level of authorized capital is determined everywhere differently (from 1 pound in the UK to several tens of thousands of euros, say, in Germany) . At the same time, subjects of ownership rights of legal entities are either the legal entity itself, or its branches, divisions, subsidiaries.

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Legislators in order to ensure the fulfillment of obligations of legal entities also determine the immutability of monetary expression of tangible and intangible assets. For example, theoretically, the property rights of legal entities can also extend to "know-how", knowledge, experience, working hours, intellectual property and copyright. However, intangible assets can not be the only property! Such measures are designed to exclude abuses and the formation of dummy organizations, fly-by-night companies, fraudulent firms that assume obligations that they will not be able to fulfill, since they do not have adequate material support.

If a legal entity functions normally in the market, generating a profit that can already be divided between depositors, owners, owners, everything that the organization acquires (including land, real estate, means of transport, equipment, right of claim, bank accounts and Other) or receives from individuals and legal entities - remains in its ownership. The situation is more complicated when the organization becomes insolvent and is forced to undergo a bankruptcy procedure. In this situation, property rights are of particular importance. Legal entities do not concern the automatic transfer of the right to the owners of the firm, which may be individuals. First, the property of the organization is evaluated, then a competitive mass is formed, from which, first of all, debts and liabilities to creditors are repaid. And only from the amount that remains after the payment of all debts (liquidation quota) can be reimbursed in property or money equivalent property of the owner - an individual who previously transferred it to the ownership of a legal entity. If it is a question of a non-profit organization (that was originally created not for the purpose of making a profit), then the private person will not be able to get back contributions or the property transferred to her.