Sunday, August 11, 2013

LLC advantange for small business.

If you do not know already an LLC (Limited Liability Company) is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners.  A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a business entity having certain characteristics of both a corporation and a partnership or sole proprietorship. One thing to note is that an LLC falls under the jurisdiction of the state of where it is registered. So it is best to find out the particulars of the state of where your thinking of registering before you register so there is no surprises going forward.
 What I do like about the LLC especially for a small business or one just starting out is that, you do not have to file a separate tax return for the business. But be careful this only pertains to a single member LLC. If you have a business with more than one "owner" or in the case of an LLC, member, then your stuck filing the dreaded business return.
A single member LLC has the distinct advantage of filing a schedule C with their individual 1040 return. This should minimize tax return costs and it also, for the most part, decrease the amount of administrative costs with regards to bookkeeping and record keeping. However I say this reluctantly because people may take this to the extreme and that is not my intention. What I am referring to is that the schedule C does not require a balance sheet disclosure it is more of a profit and loss statement.  Now keep in mind I am specifically mentioning small businesses with little activity. 
In this case, a small "one man show" formed as a LLC has the best of both worlds in my view because it has the protection of limited liability and it does not have to file its own separate tax return. Of course in these cases there are quite a few if, and, or buts. If you have questions about your business formation, I would be glad to help.

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