A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is not a separate tax entity like a corporation; instead, it is what the IRS calls a “pass-through entity,” like a partnership or sole proprietorship.
All of the profits and losses of the LLC “pass through” the business to the LLC owners (called members), who report this information on their personal tax returns. The LLC itself does not pay federal income taxes, but some states do charge the LLC itself a tax. Flex Tax and Consulting Group is going to demonstrate what are those.
Income taxes
The IRS treats your LLC like a sole proprietorship or a partnership, depending on the number of members in your LLC. If you’ve already done business as a sole proprietorship or partnership, you’re ahead of the game because you know many of the rules already. If not, here are the basics:
Single-owner LLCs
The IRS treats one-member LLCs as sole proprietorships for tax purposes. This means that the LLC itself does not pay taxes and does not have to file a return with the IRS.
As the sole owner of your LLC, you must report all profits (or losses) of the LLC on Schedule C and submit it with your 1040 tax return. Even if you leave profits in the company’s bank account at the end of the year—for instance, to cover future expenses or expand the business—you must pay taxes on that money.
Multi-owner LLCs
The IRS treats co-owned LLCs as partnerships for tax purposes. Co-owned LLCs themselves do not pay taxes on business income; instead, the LLC owners each pay taxes on their lawful share of the profits on their personal income tax returns (with Schedule E attached). Each LLC member’s share of profits and losses, called a distributive share, set out in the LLC operating agreement.
Most operating agreements provide that a member’s distributive share is in proportion to his percentage interest in the business. For instance, if Jimmy owns 60% of the LLC, and Luana owns the other 40%, Jimmy will be entitled to 60% of the LLC’s profits and losses, and Luana will entitle to 40%. If you’d like to split up profits and losses in a way that is not proportionate to the members’ percentage interests in the business, it’s called a “special allocation,” and you must carefully follow IRS rules.
LLCs can elect corporate taxation
If your LLC will regularly need to retain a significant amount of profits in the company, you (and your co-owners, if you have any) may be able to save money by electing to have your LLC taxed as a corporation.
Estimating and paying income taxes
Because LLC members are not consider employees of the LLC, but rather self-employed business owners, they are not subject to tax withholding. Instead, each LLC member is responsible for setting aside enough money to pay taxes on his/her share of the profits. The members must estimate the amount of tax they’ll owe for the year and make payments to the IRS (and usually to the appropriate state tax agency) each quarter—in April, June, September and January.
Self-employment taxes
Because, again, LLC members are not employees but self-employed business owners, contributions to the Social Security and Medicare systems (collectively called the “self-employment” tax) are not withheld from their paychecks. Instead, most LLC owners required to pay the self-employment tax directly to the IRS.
Expenses and deductions
As you no doubt already know, you don’t have to pay taxes—income taxes or self-employment taxes—on money that your business spends in pursuit of profit. You can deduct (“write off”) your legitimate business expenses from your business income, which can greatly lower the profits you must report to the IRS. Deductible expenses include start-up costs, automobile, travel and entertainment expenses and advertising and promotion costs.
State taxes and fees
Most states tax LLC profits the same way the IRS does: The LLC owners pay taxes to the state on their personal returns; the LLC itself does not pay a state tax. A few states, however, do charge the LLC a tax based on the amount of income the LLC makes, in addition to the income tax its owners pay. For instance, California levies a tax on LLCs that make over $250,000 per year; the tax ranges from about $1,000 to $9,000.
In addition, some states (including California, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wyoming) impose an annual fee on LLCs, called a ” franchise tax,” an “annual registration fee” or a “renewal fee.” In most states, the fee is about $100, but California exacts a hefty $800 fee per year from LLCs, and Illinois, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania charge $300, $500 and $330, respectively. Before forming an LLC, find out if your state charges a separate LLC-level tax by visiting the website of your state’s Revenue or Tax Department, or by giving them a call.
Can corporate taxation cut your LLC tax bill?
If you regularly need to keep a substantial amount of profits in your LLC (called “retained earnings”), you might benefit from electing corporate taxation. Any LLC can treat like a corporation for tax purposes by filing IRS Form 8832 and checking the corporate tax treatment box on the form.
After making this election, profits kept in the LLC are taxed at the separate income tax rates that apply to corporations; the owners don’t pay personal income taxes on profits left in the company. (Unlike an LLC, a corporation pays its own taxes on all corporate profits left in the business.) Because the corporate income tax rates for the first $75,000 of corporate taxable income are lower than the individual income tax rates that apply to most LLC owners, this can save you and your co-owners money in overall taxes.
Source: https://articles.bplans.com/how-limited-liability-companies-llcs-are-taxed/
