A corporation is an organizationusually a group of people or a companyauthorized by the state to act as a single entity and recognized as such in law for certain purposes.
Corporations come in many different types but are usually divided by the law of the jurisdiction where they are chartered into two kinds: by whether they can issue stock or not, or by whether they are formed to make a profit or not. Corporations can be divided by the number of owners: corporation aggregate or corporation sole.
Where local law distinguishes corporations by the ability to issue stock, corporations allowed to do so are referred to as “stock corporations”, ownership of the corporation is through stock, and owners of stock are referred to as “stockholders” or “shareholders”. Corporations not allowed to issue stock are referred to as “non-stock” corporations; those who are considered the owners of a non-stock corporation are persons who have obtained membership in the corporation and are referred to as a “member” of the corporation.
Corporations chartered in regions where they are distinguished by whether they are allowed to be for profit or not are referred to as “for profit” and “not-for-profit” corporations, respectively.
There is some overlap between stock/non-stock and for-profit/not-for-profit in that not-for-profit corporations are always non-stock as well. A for-profit corporation is almost always a stock corporation, but some for-profit corporations may choose to be non-stock.
Registered corporations have legal personality and their shares are owned by shareholders whose liability is generally limited to their investment. While not a corporation, this new type of entity became very attractive as an alternative for corporations not needing to issue stock.
