SOCIAL: tax entity for startup

[Ilana Kotin]

We have an LLC (www.lemonbean.com) and we set it up because it  
provided more asset protection than a general partnership (since I  
have a partner, I could not have a sole proprietorship). It was the  
least onerous of the options. I wanted to be sure we set it up  
correctly so we used a lawyer. It was expensive and I have no idea if  
we would have been able to do it correctly ourselves (but also didn't  
want to deal with any of it - probably should have used bizfilings,  
now that I've looked at it). The $800 fee to the state each year seems  
like a lot to me and I'm not sure what it buys us.

We changed to an LLC after starting out as a general partnership. This  
was a hassle because our Fed tax ID number was dependent on our  
business structure, as was our bank account. So it is good to try to  
figure it out before you get all that going.

I like my accountant: Andrew Stern at Stern and Assoc. andrew at ztaxman.com 
, (415) 668-3130. Our business/tax attorney is Buchanan Law Group, http://www.buchananlawgroup.com/

Good luck.

Ilana



On Oct 21, 2009, at 1.34 pm, Kelly hawk wrote:

> We run opencar as an LLC. AFAICT, the main thing we're missing out  
> on is insurance/retirement tax benefits. But we're not much on  
> paperwork in this household, so it's a tradeoff we're living with  
> just fine. Very little paperwork and a flat yearly fee to the state.
>
> On Oct 21, 2009, at 10:27 AM, Geoff Davis wrote:
>
>> I've always used S-corps for my businesses.  They're pretty easy to  
>> maintain and to set up.  I've used bizfilings.com (inexpensive and  
>> easy to use) and a lawyer (more expensive and kind of a pain) - I  
>> recommend bizfilings.com.  I don't know a lot about the differences  
>> between the various types of corporations, but all the people I've  
>> talked to for advice have recommended an S-corp, and all the  
>> reading I've done points to an S-corp for me.  Your business may be  
>> different, though.
>>
>> Geoff
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 10:21 AM, Brian Chaikelson <brianchaikelson at gmail.com 
>> > wrote:
>> Hi -
>>
>> Anyone with experience getting a startup/small business up and  
>> running?  I'm trying to navigate the right tax entity - ie. sole  
>> proprietorship or LLC versus S-corp/C-corp, etc.  No other  
>> employees at this point, so the latter 2 may be overkill.
>>
>> Is setup complicated and if so, recommended tax advisors/ 
>> accountants to guide me through this?
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Brian
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