Tax Tools and Guides
Forms of Business
Sole Proprietorship
A sole proprietorship is the simplest form of business to start and maintain. It is an unincorporated business that is owned by one individual and has no existence apart from the owner. The owner includes the income and expenses of the business on their own tax return and pay self-employment tax on the profit. The liabilities are taken personally by the owner along with risks for all assets owned, whether its personally or business owned.
Partnership
The term partnership refers to a business relationship between two or more individuals, including spousal teams. Each partner contributes money, property, labor, or skill, and shares in the profits and losses. A partnership is not a taxable entity which means each partner includes his or her share of the partnership's income or loss on his or her tax return.
Partners are not considered employees and will not get a W-2 form. Instead they should receive a Schedule
K-1 for distributions or guaranteed payments from the partnership. Guaranteed payments and shared profits, usually, are subject to self-employment tax.
C Corporation
C corporations take the same deductions as sole proprietorships to compute their taxable income when they form their corporations by transferring money, property, or both. In addition to taxing shareholders and shareholders' earnings, a C corporation can also take special deductions. A C corporation's profit is taxed both to shareholders and to the corporation. However, shareholders cannot deduct the corporation's losses. Shareholders receive wages as payment for services rendered to the corporation.
S Corporation
By choosing to be taxed as a S corporation, a qualified domestic C company can avoid paying taxes twice—once to the shareholders and again to the business. By submitting a particular form to the IRS, a corporation chooses to be regarded as a S corporation. Federal income tax is often not applied to S corporations. Its shareholders report both their part of non separate declared income or loss as well as their portion of the corporation's separately stated income, deduction, loss, and credit on their tax returns. Payments made to shareholders in exchange for services provided to the business are treated as wages for tax purposes.
LLC
LLCs with two or more members are treated as partnerships for federal tax purposes. LLCs with one member are treated as sole proprietorships for federal tax purposes. LLCs may also elect to be taxed as C corporations. S corporation status is available to entities that elect to be taxed as corporations, such as LLCs. Therefore, LLCs operating as sole proprietorships, corporations, or partnerships have different tax forms and estimated tax payment requirements. There may be differences between state and federal tax treatment.