Entrepreneurship has been called the new American dream. Hanging a shingle starts with the idea that develops into a business plan, but only with careful financial and legal considerations. New business owners grapple with deciding whether to form a limited liability company taxed as a partnership (LLC) or a corporation making an S election (S corp).* Business owners should understand the similarities and differences between LLCs and S corps before choosing between the two.
Similarities
- Both entities are created by filing the paperwork with the state. Unlike a sole proprietorship or a general partnership, LLCs and corporations are not recognized under state law until the filing has been made. Besides state filings required to form the corporation, a particular filing on Form 2553 is necessary for the state-law corporation to choose S status for federal tax purposes.
- Both entities provide owners with limited liability, meaning the owner’s assets are protected from business creditors’ claims.
- Assuming an LLC does not choose to be taxed as a corporation, LLCs and S corps are pass-through tax entities, allowing business profits and losses to flow through and be reported on the owners’ personal tax returns.
Differences
- Unlike LLCs, which can have an unlimited number and type of owners, S corps are subject to strict ownership rules. S corps can have no more than 100 shareholders, may not have non-U.S. citizens as shareholders, and cannot be owned by corporations, LLCs, partnerships, or many types of trusts.
- As opposed to LLCs, which have flexibility in structuring the economic arrangement among its owners, S corps cannot issue classes of stock with different economic rights. However, an S corp can give voting and non-voting classes of stock.
- S corps are subject to mandatory requirements regarding managing the entity. For example, S corps often must adopt bylaws, issue stock, hold regular meetings, and maintain meeting minutes within its corporate records. LLCs are not subject to these requirements.
- Owners of S corps, unlike LLCs, may cut or eliminate the need to pay self-employment tax. An S corp owner can be treated as an employee and paid a reasonable salary. Employment taxes are withheld from the reasonable compensation, while corporate earnings over that salary may be distributed to the owners as unearned income, free of self-employment tax.
- S corp owners must share profits equally based on their percentage of ownership, while LLC owners have wide latitude to split profits and losses in any manner that is agreed upon.
- LLCs are generally cheaper to form and operate.
- S corps generally provide enhanced asset protection, as the structure creates more separation between the owners and the company.
*For simplicity, this overview is based on the assumption that (i) any reference to “LLC” is to an LLC taxed as a partnership, and (ii) any reference to “S corp” is to a corporation taxed as an S corporation. These entities are confused partly because an LLC can make an S election. You have a state law LLC taxed as an S corporation under federal law. Why would anyone do that? Often, the business owner desires to avoid strict state law corporate compliance coupled with the desire for favorable S corp taxation.
Each business has its own set of circumstances to consider. Don’t go it alone. We are here to discuss how to structure properly, form, and protect your business. Please call us to schedule a consultation today.
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