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Written by : Fredrick Breyer |
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if you have a single member llc and are wondering how to file your income taxes in this video i am going to explain to you exactly what you need to know to make sure you file your income taxes correctly many of you have started businesses and when you do a lot of you start up a single member llc you've gone on to your secretary of state website or you've hired some company to form an llc for you and now it's tax time and you're wondering what is it that you need to do in order to make sure you're in tax compliance with your single member llc the first thing i want to make sure of is that i explain to you what a single member llc is because often times what i've seen in practice if people think they're in a single member llc and they are not so a single member llc is when one person has formed an llc and you are the sole member you're the only person that is going to benefit from owning this llc you have not received any other income from anybody else that is going to help fund your business none of your buddies or partners have given you money and they have an equity interest in your business it's just solely you by yourself running your business i think that's so important because what i have been seeing is a lot of people that have single member llcs have received monies and startup money seed money from friends helping them and they truly do have a multi-member llc so now that we're real clear that you have a single member llc what we like to call an sm single member llc now i want to tell you what it looks like to file your income taxes as a single member llc you are not going to have a separate tax form you're actually going to include the tax form inside your individual income tax return that's correct your individual income tax return the 1040 form that you're going to file you're going to include a schedule c or a schedule e and i will come back to that inside of your individual income tax return that is because as a single member llc you automatically default to a sole proprietor business for income tax purposes no you're not a sole proprietor yes you still are an llc you still are a limited liability company you still have that asset protection but for income tax purposes you default to a schedule c inside of your 1040 income tax return when you have to file that schedule c i want to make sure you understand exactly what you need to file that schedule c accurately because this is going to be very important the first thing that you're going to need is to make sure that you account for all of your income now many times when people are first starting these llc's you still may not have a business bank account open you might be receiving monies through your personal account it is going to be really important that you track down all your income from all sources and i want to make sure that you go back through your personal bank account and look for any monies that came into your personal bank account that were affiliated with your single member llc you want to also go through any other accounts like venmo cash app paypal any third-party accounts that you have that are linked to your business you want to make sure that if you have a single member llc that if you haven't done so already that you set up that bank account under the name of your single member llc if you have that bank account open you want to make sure you account for all the income that has gone into that bank account that's really really important to gather all the income so that we can start with the right number the third thing that i want to make sure of is that you understand how to keep track of all of your expenses because even though you're a single member loc you're still deemed a business and businesses all have the same requirement to keep adequate books and records so if you don't have your accounting already set up you're going to need to account for all of your expenses and i do mean all of your expenses from all sources all the sources your personal bank account your credit card statement any apps that you're using to pay for any type of service you want to make sure you account for all of those expenses and when you do account for all of those expenses it's going to be very important that you categorize those expenses properly when you look at a schedule c form and i'm going to advise that you actually look at it before getting your taxes prepared you're going to notice on that form that there are certain categories certain boxes that irs is looking for you to complete i want to make sure that you complete all of the check boxes that's going to be very important you need to make certain that you put the proper information in the proper spot so for example they have advertising on that schedule c for a reason they have car expenses listed on that schedule c for a reason you want to make sure that you put your expenses in the right categories that's going to be important and if you really want to level up you want to make sure that you have what's called a profit and loss form put together that is going to show your gross income and all of your expenses and that's what's going to be needed in order to complete that form inside of your personal income tax return that schedule c form now remember i told you you would file a schedule c or you would follow schedule e if you are using your single member loc to hold real estate you would then file a schedule e that's the residential rental property schedule it's important that you list the name of your loc on your schedule e because you are doing business as a real estate investor it's also important to note that if you are in a state that requires a separate filing for state income tax return like the state of california requires you to file a form 568. in addition to the 1040 that you're going to file the federal return with that schedule c you also need to file whatever form your state needs california has the 568 texas has the franchise forms you want to make sure that you file all those appropriate forms so that you're in compliance all the way across the board it's really important that you do that in addition to making sure that you file the proper way with your business as a single member llc i want to go through some things that i want you to look out for things that i know people get and trouble with all the time many times what i see is that people that have single member llcs will say to me you know what carla i didn't make any money in my llc i've had my llc for two years i never made any money so i never filed i want you to realize that when you create an llc it's like a baby being born you got to take care of it from day one that means that you have to file a tax return from day one even if you don't have any income to report even if you don't have any expenses to report you still have a filing requirement because when you went out and formed that llc now the secretary of state knows that you have a business and you want to keep that business in compliance by making sure that you properly file the second thing i want to make sure to keep you from getting into a slinky is that you need to make
Thanks for your comment Lacy Hislope, have a nice day.
- Fredrick Breyer, Staff Member
one of the most popular types of business entities in the united states is the single member limited liability company this type of llc only has one owner and a single member llc is usually a business registered in the state where the company does business the phrase single member is a admission that the llc only has one owner and that owner is referred to as a member now a single member llc has so many benefits that are also shared with the normal llc so in this video i'm going to break down some of those advantages and disadvantages of a single member llc in 2021 while also discussing the typical operating agreement how taxes work and compare that against sole proprietorship now let's go ahead and dive in by quickly looking at what a llc is so loc stands for limited liability company which is simply a type of business entity you can create when you choose to go into business example of other entities would be a sole proprietorship limited partnerships general partnerships s corporations and of course c corporations all of these business entities have their own unique advantages and disadvantages and llcs are pretty popular and most known for their advantage of separating business assets from personal assets thus protecting your personal assets from any business related liabilities and for comparison an llc with multiple owners are typically known as a partnership llc and of course as we mentioned an llc with one owner is known as a single member llc and sometimes referred to as an smlc now let's move on and talk about how a single member llc is formed so if you want to start a business and believe that a limited liability company is the best entity type for you then you'll want to go to your state's business division and gain information about the specific process that you need to follow usually this just involves going to your secretary of state website following the articles of organization or in some states called certification of organization and then pay a filing fee which usually ranges somewhere between 100 to 200 if you're doing it yourself along with registering your business in your state you may want to consider filing an operating agreement for comparison the articles of organization tell the state the new single member llc exists puts it into the public eye and then shows people how to contact the business should they need to whereas the operating agreement lays out the most important rules for how the single member llc will be run generally the operating agreement is not required to form a single member llc although it is highly recommended that's because a single member llc operating agreement offers some many great benefits like these so number one it provides rules that will supersede the default provisions of your state's llc act so if you don't agree with some of the things that your state has in law then you can use this to serve as your own operating agreement number two it serves as an additional document that you can show the potential lenders regarding the organization of your business so if someone wants to invest into your business then you can show them your operating agreement which gives them some insight to your plans and number three this is particular for manager managed single member llcs which basically means you are operating the business which is that you can specifically specify who will take over management of the business in the event that the owner becomes incapacitated or dies number four the operating agreement provides an additional affirmation of the separation between your business and from you personally number five provides a point of reference for how you originally intended to operate the business now it's important to note that some banks that you want to work with will expect you to have an operating agreement all right now let's move on and talk about some of those advantages of a single member llc but really quick before i do if this is your first time here welcome to our channel i'm sean with life accounting the accounting company that saves people from high taxes and low profits if you're enjoying the video so far please hit the like button below so that youtube will show this video to more people like you who want to learn about single member llc's and if you're not subscribed yet you're missing out because we drop new valuable videos just about every week okay now let's move on to the benefits of a single member llc now some people really confuse sole proprietorship with a single member llc because they're kind of similar but the single member llc usually wins that's because a single member loc is a separate business entity from its owner it is no longer attached to or identifies with the owner for tax or liability purposes one big benefit of a single member loc is that the llc is recognized as a legitimate business due to the popularity in the requirement of the llc being included in the business name also when a single member llc is formed within a state part of the approval process is the business name registration which then protects any other business in the state from using your business name so those are some of the major pros of a single member llc but of course a single member loc is not for everyone and there are definitely some cons now i won't cover that here because crystal did an exceptional video comparing locs to s-corporations which i'll link up above and sherman also has a pretty great video on all the benefits of a llc so if you want to learn more about that then i'll link this one as well however one special thing to note regarding single member llcs is that they are the most common type of disregarded entity which basically means the irs can ignore it for business tax purposes and instead collect taxes through the business owner's personal income tax filing okay so let's dig into that a little bit more and take a look at how a single member llc is taxed now because single member llcs can be classified as a disregarded entity the responsibility for paying income taxes are passed through to the owner this way of tax and profits is known as pass-through taxation which then refers to llcs as pass-through entities the primary business taxes that you're gonna pay are gonna be federal income taxes and self-employment taxes now to report and pay federal income taxes as a single member llc business you will need to complete a schedule c which is a profit or lost business form which is attached to your personal federal tax returns that you file with the irs now that schedule c will report all your business transactions such as your income your expenses your assets and your profits that's why it's critical as a business owner that you're keeping track of all your transactions throughout the year in preparation for tax season here's a quick example that will make single member llc taxes very clear let's say that mary is someone who owns a single-member loc part-time and owns a homemade bakery business last year she earned a total of forty thousand dollars from the business and had expenses totaling ten thousand dollars for supplies equipment and other items we'll sa
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- Fredrick Breyer
About the author
I've studied statistics at Morris College in Sumter and I am an expert in asian history. I usually feel cheerful. My previous job was engineering professor I held this position for 19 years, I love talking about performance and gambling. Huge fan of Rita Ora I practice horse racing and collect pin-back buttons.
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