Understanding how an LLC works [Expert-Advice]



Last updated : Sept 16, 2022
Written by : Luetta Ganas
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Understanding how an LLC works

What are the 3 types of LLC?

  • Single-member LLC for the sole-proprietorship (solo entrepreneur)
  • Multi-member LLC (member-managed LLC or manager-member LLC)
  • Domestic LLC and Foreign LLC.
  • Series LLC.
  • L3C Company (low-profit LLC)
  • Anonymous LLC.
  • Restricted LLC.
  • PLLC and LLC.

What does LLC mean for dummies?

A limited liability company (LLC) is a business structure in the U.S. that protects its owners from personal responsibility for its debts or liabilities. Limited liability companies are hybrid entities that combine the characteristics of a corporation with those of a partnership or sole proprietorship.

What are the 2 main advantages of having an LLC?

  • Limited Personal Liability.
  • Less Paperwork.
  • Tax Advantages of an LLC.
  • Ownership Flexibility.
  • Management Flexibility.
  • Flexible Profit Distributions.

How does an LLC avoid paying taxes?

A general Corporation making a Subchapter “S” Election or an LLC with or without a Subchapter S Election pays no federal tax on its taxable income and no employment taxes on its distributions to stockholders.

Do LLCs pay taxes?

An LLC does not pay income taxes; rather, income is passed to the LLC's members, and they report and pay tax. Even though an LLC does not pay tax itself, it still must report its income to the IRS using an "information" return.

What are the disadvantages of an LLC?

  • Cost: An LLC usually costs more to form and maintain than a sole proprietorship or general partnership. States charge an initial formation fee.
  • Transferable ownership. Ownership in an LLC is often harder to transfer than with a corporation.

What is the owner of an LLC called?

If you own all or part of an LLC, you are known as a “member.” LLCs can have one member or many members. In some LLCs, the business is operated, or “managed” by its members. In other LLCs, there are at least some members who are not actively involved in running the business.

How much does an LLC cost?

You can file the LLC filing documents online, by mail, or in-person when visiting the local SOS office. The filing costs usually vary from $50 to $150 which is a single-time fee. If you plan to form your company in another state, then you might have to provide additional documentation and pay a higher formation fee.

At what point do I need an LLC?

If you have business partners or employees, an LLC protects you from personal liability for your co-owners' or employees' actions. An LLC gives you a structure for operating your business, including making decisions, dividing profits and losses, and dealing with new or departing owners. An LLC offers taxation options.

What do LLCs protect you from?

The main reason people form LLCs is to avoid personal liability for the debts of a business they own or are involved in. By forming an LLC, only the LLC is liable for the debts and liabilities incurred by the business—not the owners or managers.

Why are LLCs so popular?

A corporation requires a great deal of paperwork in filings, minutes of director meetings and other reports. LLCs avoid most of that paperwork. Corporations are also restrictive on who can be owners. There is no limit on the number of members an LLC can have.

Is an LLC a good idea for a small business?

An LLC lets you take advantage of the benefits of both the corporation and partnership business structures. LLCs protect you from personal liability in most instances, your personal assets — like your vehicle, house, and savings accounts — won't be at risk in case your LLC faces bankruptcy or lawsuits.

What are the tax advantages of an LLC?

An LLC can help you avoid double taxation unless you structure the entity as a corporation for tax purposes. Business expenses. LLC members may take tax deductions for legitimate business expenses, including the cost of forming the LLC, on their personal returns.

What are the benefits of opening an LLC?

  • Run Your Own Show. Entrepreneurs are self-starters who prefer to chart their own courses.
  • Limit Your Personal Liability.
  • Avoid Double Taxation and Pass-Through Deduction.
  • Less Administrative Hassles and Paperwork.
  • Flexibility in Sharing Profits.

How much can an LLC write off?

If you have $50,000 or less in startup costs and are in your first year of business, the IRS allows you to deduct $5,000 in startup costs and $5,000 in organization costs from your taxes. If your startup expenses exceed $50,000, the total deduction will be reduced by however much your expenses exceed $50,000.

Is it better to be self employed or LLC?

You can't avoid self-employment taxes entirely, but forming a corporation or an LLC could save you thousands of dollars every year. If you form an LLC, people can only sue you for its assets, while your personal assets stay protected. You can have your LLC taxed as an S Corporation to avoid self-employment taxes.

Is it better to be 1099 or LLC?

The biggest difference between an LLC and an independent contractor is the fact that LLCs are required to register with the state and form business documents like articles of organization. LLCs also offer liability protection that independent contractors would not have otherwise.

How much should I set aside for taxes LLC?

Small businesses pay income, payroll and other taxes. According to NerdWallet, because small business owners pay both income tax and self-employment tax, small businesses should set aside about 30% of their income after deductions to cover federal and state taxes.

Can LLC Get tax Refund?

Do LLCs get tax refunds? Generally, no. However, LLCs can elect to be treated like C corporations for tax purposes by filing Form 8832. If an LLC elects C corporation status and makes quarterly estimated payments higher than its tax liability for the year, the LLC can receive a tax refund.

Is LLC income considered earned income?

LLC (taxed as a C corporation) or a shareholder in a C corporation: The profits of the business aren't considered earned income, but rather are considered a return on investment and are taxed at special corporate income tax rates.


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Understanding how an LLC works


Comment by Craig Nemetz

as of 2021 there are 31.7 million business owners in the united states many business owners are setting up llc's one out of every six taxpayers that comes to my office owns an llc i own six llc's and i've set up over 5 000 llcs for my clients l to the l to the c i love saying llc because it reminds me of ll cool j llc's are the most popular business vehicles that business owners set up why is it that most business owners who have llc's aren't sure if they should be in llc's my name is carlton dennis and in today's video we are going to go over what you need to consider before setting up an llc llc owners make a lot of mistakes i'm sorry and in today's video i need to point out some of the mistakes that you need to be conscientious of before establishing your llc let's dive in mistake number one is not knowing the type of income you're receiving prior to setting up your llc this is really important and reason why is because there are three different income types you could be receiving and it could determine whether or not you need an llc versus an s corp or a c corporation the three different income types that you need to be familiar with are number one ordinary income ordinary income is everyday income that you work for and is typically in the form of w2 wages or 1099 compensation the next form of income is passive income passive income is income you technically do not have to work for typically you're familiar with passive income from investment properties or interest that you earn off of the money that you have in your bank account the third type of income is portfolio income portfolio income is typically income that you receive when you decide to sell capital assets or if you have capital gains tax from the sell of a rental property these three types of income are important for us to know because it can help us decide whether or not it makes sense for us to have an llc so let's talk about it number one passive income if we have passive income what we have to understand is that passive income is not subject to social security tax or medicare tax that ordinary income is subject to so when you think about it it may not make sense for you to worry about whether or not you have to eventually transition your llc to an s corporation if you have rental real estate if your income is passive you don't have to worry about self-employment tax so typically a lot of real estate investors will establish llc's for their real estate holdings so if you ever had the question in your head why do people set up llc's as opposed to c corps or s corporations for their real estate a big deciding factor around this is because real estate investors are not subject to the social security and medicare tax that ordinary income earners are subject to this leads me to ordinary income ordinary income is the income you're familiar with when you're working a job where you are putting in labor anytime you're putting in labor you're going to have to pay into social security and you're going to have to pay into medicare taxes and if you decided to become a business owner that means you pay into self-employment tax it's been talked about in all of my youtube videos if you've seen them now one thing that you have to understand about ordinary income is that ordinary income you will pay 15.3 self-employment tax which is your social security and medicare but then you will also pay your federal taxes and your state taxes so knowing that ordinary income is subject to self-employment tax federal tax and state tax we have to define what type of business owners need to know that their business is actually ordinary income instead of passive business let's talk about that i have clients all the time that'll get on the phone with me and tell me carlton i have a passive business i started amazon automation i'm doing amazon fba i'm selling products on etsy i have my online shop any of these clients that i talk to that have these businesses that are very automated had to work to get to a place where their businesses are automated they sat on the computer they figured out how to put up ads build their website hire the contractors and someone else is doing the fulfillment and dropping off the orders to the house that is a business that requires work and if labor is involved we are subject to social security and medicare taxes federal and state taxes so i just wanted to make sure that when we go into setting up a llc that we also understand which type of businesses are ordinary income businesses and truly understanding what would be considered a passive business last but not least is portfolio income i don't really get too much into the portfolio income unless i'm dealing with my real estate investors which i primarily focus on if you happen to have real estate income and you decide to sell an investment property you're dealing with capital gains it could be short or long-term capital gains depending on how long you held on to that asset but if you're aware of capital gain income you might realize that this is actually categorized as portfolio income to your tax account so understanding these three types of income can let us know whether or not you should have an llc that's going to remain as an llc or if you have an llc that will eventually be switched to an s corporation or another desired entity structure mistake number two with llcs is not establishing your llc prior to knowing that you wish to have a real estate acquisition it comes up pretty often that i get on the phone with a client that told me that they just bought an investment property and now they're trying to decide whether or not it makes sense for them to have an llc and i sometimes wish that they would just have a conversation with me prior to them buying the rental property because then i might have advised them to establish the llc prior to buying the rental property so that they can buy the property in the name of the llc that they establish for themselves this is a way that we can completely avoid having your name ever online at the accounting assessor's office saying that you're on title for owning the property but then we get to a place where you want to have that asset protection because you find out that someone could slip and fall and hurt themselves inside of your property so you eventually want to have an llc for liability protection but the property is already in your name so now we have to decide does it make sense to set up an llc and do a quick claim deed and re-title your property in the name of the llc well this is where we can run into some issues at least i've had clients run into issues one of the issues that they run into is this whole do on sale clause where now there's a stipulation in their mortgage agreement that says that anytime a property is being transferred or sold that the mortgage is now due so this is where we have to be extremely careful and mindful prior to establishing llc's into investing in real estate we have to speak with the tax pro we have to speak with our mortgage company we have to determine if we can purchase a rental property in the name of an llc and if you're setting up


Thanks for your comment Craig Nemetz, have a nice day.
- Luetta Ganas, Staff Member


Comment by HartbergG

hey guys today we're gonna talk about everything you need to know about LLC's from what is it - what are the advantages and how you can use it to your advantage so let's get to it LLC stands for limited liability company an LLC is just one of several business structures other common examples include corporations sole proprietorships and partnerships but today we're just going to talk about an LLC forming an LLC is the simplest way of structuring your business to protect your personal assets in case your business's suit so this is the most important benefit of having an LLC is that it protects your personal assets so let me clarify what this means this means that if you have any personal assets such as having your own personal chicken account or your a home or any kind of assets that you have either you know items or real estate or anything like that by creating LLC it separates your business from you personally so that if your business gets suit then only your LLC is responsible for that lawsuit and you yourself won't be personally liable unlike sole proprietorships and partnerships LLC's can protect your personal assets if your business is sued as we already talked about also for most small businesses an LLC offers the right mix of personal asset protection and simplicity just in basically just it's a simple structure it's the most simple a business structure online corporations LLC's are relatively easy to form and maintain and are not subject to double taxation we won't get into too much about double taxation but all you need to know is that LLC's that you'll be taxed personally on your own personal tax return you they're not subject to double taxation which is how C C corporations are usually texts so let's look at a breakdown of the LLC benefits first is business duration can be perpetual so let us say by creating I'll see if something happens to you then the business continues to live just by something happening to you let's just say God forbid if you happen to pass away then the business can still continues I also can also be owned by another business there's no requirements for annual meetings for an LLC there's less formalities LLC is formed on the state level and LLC owners can report profits and losses on personal tax returns that's not the case for corporations also owners have limited library protection which we talked about which corporations share the same benefit and LLC's can also be kind of like to be taxed as an S corporation which basically will save you in taxes I won't go to to into too much detail but I'm sure I'll have an have a video that explains this as well LLC's can be owned by one or more people who are known as LLC members so if you're if you ever hear about members these are essentially just the people who own an LLC generally an LLC is managed by its members known as member managed LLC however in some cases members will appoint a manager to handle the LLC's daily operations and this is called manager managed LLC so usually an LC there's two types either member manage which basically means that the else is run by the members themselves or if you want exactly somebody else to run the day-to-day operations then it could be designated as a manager managed LLC an LLC with one owner is known as a single member LLC and then LLC with more than one owner is known as a multi-member LLC so you may hear about single member LLC's essentially all it means is it's a single owner who owns LLC that's all it means so what's the point of forming an LLC forming your business as an LLC helps to protect you against lawsuits again we talked about personnel we talked about personal liability protection that analysis LLC also significantly cuts down on paperwork compared to corporations and other illegal entity types as you talked about LLC is very simple to form and it's very easy on easy to deal with the ongoing requirements of LLC LLC prevents your company from being taxed twice essentially corporations have this determined as I manage this is C corporations not S corporations so by having LLC you'll be you won't have to deal with double taxation and I'll see also helps to present your business as more credible usually other vendor vendors and other businesses want to deal with LLC's don't they don't want to deal with some fighter ships so by having LC you be able to do you'll be able to put yourself out there as a registered and business entity in conclusion LLC is the simplest way to create a business entity in order to protect your personal assets from possible lawsuits so yes there are other businesses business types such as an S corporation but if you're trying to take the easy simple way out then LLC is the best business type if you'd like to learn more about LLC's and which business type is right for you click the link below in the description below and if you have any other questions go ahead and comment look forward to answering all your questions thanks


Thanks HartbergG your participation is very much appreciated
- Luetta Ganas


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