LLCs have become a popular choice for many business owners today. This is because they offer key benefits over other business structures. Before you register a company. The following are the main advantages of registering a Limited Liability Company.
Limited Liability
For a sole proprietorship and partnership, you and your business are the same people. Your assets are at risk in case of debts and any type of negligence from your business partner. LLCs have the responsibility to pay for their debts without interfering with personal assets such as homes and bank accounts.
There is protection for your assets if an employee, a partner, or the business is sued for negligence or any other offense. LLCs are viewed as separate entities from their owners or members. In case of debts, the owner may lose their capital contribution to the business only.
Defined Profit Distribution
The distribution of profits in LLCs is flexible to their owners. It’s not necessarily required to distribute them equally or according to the ownership percentage. For example, two owners who have equal interests and roles in the LLC may agree that one will be receiving a greater share of profits because he or she contributed more money during the start-up phase.
In incorporations, owners must distribute the profits according to the number and type of shares each owner has. Members can also retain the flexibility to determine how profits are distributed under the terms of the LLCs operating agreement.
Tax Advantage
When it comes to taxes LLCs have the biggest advantage. They don’t have their federal tax classification however they can adopt the tax status of a sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation. LLCs are therefore classified as either partnerships or sole proprietorships by the Internal Revenue Service, depending on whether they have one owner or more than one owner.
They do not have to pay any LLC taxes or corporate taxes since they can take advantage of “pass-through” taxation. Owners only pay personal income tax on any profits. The income and the expenses pass through to the owner’s return tax. Traditional C corporations are taxed twice on distributions to shareholders which is not the case with LLCs.
Flexibility
The management of LLCs doesn’t have a formal structure. The owners have plenty of choices about how they run their company and make decisions. On the other hand, corporations have a fixed management structure that consists of a board of directors who are in charge of company policies and officers who run the day-to-day activities in the company.
Shareholders have to meet every year to elect directors and do other major changes in the company. LLCs provide pass-through taxation without restrictions on the number and type of owners they can have. With other business structures, there are ownership restrictions for example S corporations can’t have more than 100 shareholders.